Ranked as one of the top business schools in France, emlyon Business School prides itself in its focus on entrepreneurship development and its diverse international student body. They are committed to building active and wide-ranging employer partnerships with the aim to narrow the gap between their students’ academic experience and the job market needs.
The career services team at emlyon has two main goals to achieve when it comes to hosting recruiting events:
- Connect their students to employer brands
- Facilitate the recruitment process and help students find job opportunities
As such, every year, they organize different recruiting events, ranging from industry-focused vocational days to large-scale career fairs with up to 200 employers to reach their career center's objectives.
emlyon’s challenge
When the pandemic hit in early 2020, it was clear to the emlyon career services team that a search for a virtual recruiting event solution was urgently needed for the recruiting events that were planned for the rest of the year. Their main objective of the search was to find a fully integrated online platform that was flexible enough to host a range of career events with varying program formats online.
Why emlyon chose Talentspace
After comparing multiple products, Talentspace became emlyon’s final choice because it used a more innovative approach compared to the platforms other top business schools in France were using. Talentspace’s interactive design and innovative live booth feature would allow emlyon to really differentiate their recruiting event experience and make an impression on attendees - students and employers alike.
Another aspect that emlyon appreciated about Talentspace was that the team had both experiences in hosting recruiting events, as well as technological know-how, with a young and dynamic team coming from some of the world's most innovative companies. They also really appreciated the possibility to work with a dedicated customer success/project manager.
Onboarding and setup on Talentspace
Once the platform was chosen, emlyon, together with their Talentspace Customer Success Manager, designed different event types that would cater to employers' different needs. Then, the team organized training sessions and shared short video tutorials with employers, to get them familiar with the platform. Whenever questions arose, emlyon and their employers could reach out to Talentspace and their dedicated Customer Success Manager.
The emlyon team is now setting up events on Talentspace on a regular basis. As a heavy user of Talentspace, emlyon hosts about one to two events on Talentspace every week, reaping the full benefits of having frequent recruiting events catered for the specific needs of different student groups.
emlyon’s experience with the Talentspace platform
Interactivity
According to Erica Di Meo, Employer Relations Officer at emlyon, the platform offers engaging formats for students and employers alike:
“Our students and employers are globally satisfied with the events and the level of interactivity. Talentspace fits our needs to host successful online events including major events like our Careers Forum. We think the live booth format is something very different from what other platforms have.”
Agility and customer-centricity
Erica also commented that the platform is continuously evolving and new features and improvements are continuously being launched. She feels that customer feedback is really heard and acted upon immediately. In one instance, emlyon had requested tailored event data from Talentspace, and within a few weeks, she was able to access very interesting data from the analytics dashboard. emlyon now views the data every day and uses it to inform employers on specific event engagement metrics.
1-1 chat scheduling
For emlyon, another significant benefit of using Talentspace was that individual interviews are now much easier to arrange. emlyon’s Career Center Manager Arthur Walrus comments:
“1-1 chats bring great value for students because they feel they can have a special moment with the employers. But in a physical event, it is tedious and complex to organize all the one-on-one interviews for employers and students, so it is not something that always happens.”
With Talentspace, the coordination of private video conversations is now fully automated.
The future of emlyon career events
When asked what they thought about online career events after the pandemic, both Erica and Arthur were adamant that the online format will never go away for two significant reasons:
1. Improved accessibility: emlyon has regional campuses worldwide and a large pool of international students that previously did not have the benefit of accessing these recruiting events, which were organized on the main campus. The digital platform opened up the possibility for these students to get the same networking opportunities and job prospects as the students in Lyon. Additionally, more employers can be engaged, as they don't have to physically travel to campus, but can join from anywhere in the world.
2. Increased event value for students: Recruiting events used to happen a few times per year, as it involved high costs and effort on-behalf of employers to travel to campus every time. More senior executives or employees that weren’t part of the HR team were also less likely to show up. When emlyon shifted their events online, a significant change in the event attendees was definitely felt. It was no longer rare that a CEO would drop in for a session and directly interact with the students, which is something that could really make a difference in recruiting.
When we discovered Talentspace, we realised that we had not only discovered a disruptive technical solution but also, an ambitious team, with a vision and a story to tell. We are very proud to be the first top business school in France to use the platform and, we did so, with success, for all of the 20/21 employers' events. I am personally convinced that the Talentspace team will achieve its vision of building the best online event product of the market.
- Alina ServillatHead of Employer Relations emlyon business school
At Talentspace, we are very proud to see that emlyon has been so successful at adapting to the new normal. emlyon success proves that running targeted recruiting events, frequently throughout the year, can enable stronger employer engagement, as well as better career opportunities for students and graduates. If you would like to learn how we can help you organize engaging career events, contact us via the form below.