Measuring Job Fair Success: Key Metrics for Employers to Evaluate ROI

Participating in job fairs can be a useful baseline activity within a company’s recruitment strategy. These events provide an opportunity to meet potential candidates face-to-face and engage with job seekers in the community. With 69% of employers reporting they have a difficult time finding high-quality candidates, job fairs can open a pipeline to new leads. But, how do you know whether a job fair investment is worth the effort? You’ll need to identify key metrics to gauge their effectiveness of your goals. Just like traditional recruitment metrics, job fair metrics can help employers evaluate their return on investment (ROI), and they provide useful benchmarks for improvement as you participate in more events.

Candidate Metrics

There are several ways to gauge the ROI on candidate quality. High-quality candidates are the lifeblood of successful recruiting. To calculate whether the individuals you meet at job fairs possess the skills, qualifications, and cultural fit necessary for your organization, consider tracking these metrics:

• Hiring Rate – The percentage of candidates you met at job fairs who were eventually hired.
• Retention Rate – How long candidates recruited from job fairs stay with the organization compared to those from other sources.
• Performance Metrics – Compare on-the-job performance of candidates hired from job fairs compared to others.

Cost Per Hire

The cost of attending a career fair goes beyond a booth fee. The true cost of participation is the cost per hire. So, how do you calculate this? Start by adding up the total costs associated with job fair participation. To calculate total expenses, include:

• Any booth rental costs.
• Promotional materials and signage (if used for multiple events, amortize the cost accordingly).
• Staff time.
• Travel reimbursements and meals, if applicable.

Add up every expense and use this number to calculate the cost per hire for job fair candidates. Here’s how it’s done:

• Cost per Hire – Divide the total expenses by the number of candidates hired from the job fair. This is the basic way to measure how much each hire “costs.”

If your company attends multiple career fairs, add up the total of all expenses and divide it by the number of total hires from all events. Or calculate the cost per hire for each individual event to see if you get better results from one type of event over another.

Making a full list of expenses and calculating the cost per hire will help you prioritize expenses and decide if you need to adjust your job fair strategy, so you get the most out of your recruitment budget.

Time-to-Hire

Does job fair participation cut the amount of time it takes to hire and onboard a candidate? The time-to-hire metric will tell you. “Time-to-hire” refers to the duration from initial candidate interaction with a company to the candidate's acceptance of an offer. Reducing time-to-hire is critical for securing top talent before they accept another job, and for getting employees onboarded and on the floor.

Track how long it takes from the date of the job fair to the candidate’s start date to determine this benchmark, then compare it to how long it takes to hire someone who applies online or through another intake method. Use this metric to gauge the efficiency of your job fair recruitment process.

Diversity Metrics

Are you getting a better mix of candidates through job fairs? To the best of your ability, measure whether you’re reaching underrepresented groups among job fair attendees. This includes factors like education background and work history as well as demographic metrics. Skills-based job descriptions are opening the door for many underrepresented groups, so take a look at whether your job fair recruitment tactics are bringing in a wide range of candidates.

Booth Engagement

Finally, track booth engagement metrics. If your booth has low engagement, it’s a sign you may need to jazz it up or rethink your approach. Engagement metrics evaluate the level of interaction and interest, including:

• Booth Traffic – The number of job fair attendees who visited your booth.
• Resumes Collected – The volume of resumes and contact information obtained.
• Follow-up Contacts – How many candidates expressed interest after the event.

These are just a few ways to track job fair metrics, and your company may think of more! Measuring results like these can help pinpoint whether job fairs bring value to the company, and you can identify ways to make the experience better.

Workforce Solutions frequently hosts jobs fairs and hiring events across Houston. To get involved, visit the events calendar to find upcoming job fairs and contact jobs@wrksolutions.com or 713-688-6890 to sign up!