Porsche is a household name in Germany in more ways than one. The automobile manufacturer is known worldwide for their sports cars, as well as new moves into all-electric vehicles and their ongoing sustainability efforts. Porsche was voted Germany’s best employer in a Glassdoor analysis, based on their “excellent general ­conditions, the strong corporate culture and co-determination, and the extensive options for reconciling a career and family life”.

Part of that strong corporate culture is a constant influx of new talent and bright young ambition. Porsche is well known for its excellent internship schemes, which operate across almost all corporate divisions with a task-oriented approach. But finding the newest talent isn’t always easy, and especially not during COVID-19 when traditional recruitment approaches such as recruiting days, career fairs, talks at universities were not possible anymore. Porsche turned to Talentspace to move their physical career event to the virtual sphere.

The Challenge

At Talentspace, we’ve been delighted to work with Porsche at a variety of events, from in person career fairs such as the Berlin Talent Summit to our recent virtual Online Talent Summit (OTS).

Originally, the Porsche Recruiting Day was scheduled to be in an offline space, where the company could meet with our large and enthusiastic talent network. But coronavirus put a stop to that. However, after participating in the OTS, Porsche were ready to embrace the potential of online events. They decided to use the Talentspace platform to host their Porsche Online Recruitment Day (PORD).

A partnership with Talentspace meant that Porsche could retain control over the important content and recruiting processes within their event, while benefiting from Talentspace’s platform specifically designed for online recruiting events and engaged team experience hosting them.

After providing and onboarding Porsche with the Talentspace platform, we went to work. Talentspace assisted Porsche with tech support both leading up to and on the day of the event, as well as other adjacent services, including talent management, troubleshooting, and communication with applicants.

The Result

PORD was a successful and exciting recruitment day, with two keynote speeches and 13 sessions. Participant interaction was huge: there were 434 individual session sign-ups and 147 1-1 Chats scheduled, giving lots of opportunities for candidates to connect with the Porsche team and vice versa.

“I actually got an internship right after my 1-1 session,” one participant said. “It was a great conversation and we bonded right away.”

"The feedback from the various business units as well as the participating students shows that the new virtual format and platform has been well received. We were able to efficiently attract new interns through the virtual event. We plan to continue using the platform for future virtual events at Porsche SE."

- Svenja Wagner, Personnel Marketing Officer at Porsche

In addition, PORD participants were hugely interested in the available positions, with 277 expressions of interest in various open roles at Porsche. From the 125 participants that attended the Porsche Online Recruiting Day, 14 were offered an internship with the company - making the PORD the most successful Porsche recruiting event to date.

In conclusion, this event showed that virtual career fairs can establish the same personal connections as physical events if there are different elements such as workshops, presentations, and personal 1-1 chats. Additionally, participants could join the event independent of their location, which is beneficial for companies who hire at large scale. If you would like to know more about virtual or hybrid career events, contact us in the form below.