When Elon University’s campus closed in March, everything became virtual and remote work was the norm for both students and staff. Over the summer, Tom Brinkley, Executive Director of the Student Professional Development Center, and Kristin Walker, Associate Director, Employer Experience and Technology at Elon University, planned for a continuation of virtual engagement through the fall semester. Elon University will be reopening their campus on August 14th, with both in-person and hybrid classes beginning on August 19th. The plan is to have an accelerated semester with in-person classes ending prior to Thanksgiving with all exams to be given virtually after Thanksgiving break. “Even though the general idea at the moment is that the students will be back on campus and that there will be a hybrid for academic activities, all career services will be virtual through the use of Symplicity CSM,” Walker said, “The fact that we can virtually host counseling appointments, workshops, virtual career fairs and other recruiting activities with CSM makes the most sense for us to continue to conduct those activities online in the fall.”
As a result of COVID-19, the CSM platform has become essential to Elon University’s fall plans for career services. “We’re going into our third year of being a Symplicity client and we were already maximizing our use of CSM prior to our campus shutting down,” Brinkley said, “Since the spring semester ended, career services staff spent a lot of time mapping out how we wanted to virtualize our events in the fall using CSM. The new virtual career fair offering is going to be a huge part of those plans.” Elon University’s plans for virtual recruiting will consist of hosting a different virtual career fair each week over the course of six weeks. Each virtual career fair will feature representatives from different industries, such as sales one week, communications another week, and STEM the following week. Walker added, “This will be the bulk of our internship and full-time recruiting. I’m looking forward to hosting so many virtual career fairs this fall, especially because of the new video capability! We will also be using virtual career fair for other types of recruiting such as student employment and graduate schools, as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion networking events.”
For Elon University, planning for a virtual fall was made easier with the help of Symplicity support. “We were already fully maximizing the CSM platform before COVID-19 hit but I have really appreciated the training webinars that the Symplicity support staff has put on. It was clear that the support team anticipated the needs and questions of all career services staff since these webinars discussed how to best utilize features within the system and tailor their use for a completely virtual environment,” Walker stated, “What’s really great is that these aren’t new features—they’re all within CSM. The support team and the training webinars ensure that clients are utilizing the features they already have in the best way for this new normal that we’re in.” With access to training webinars and helpful resources, Elon University feels confident about hosting virtual career fairs and other virtual events with Symplicity CSM.
For more information about virtual career fairs, email info@symplicity.com or schedule a conversation.