The North Dakota State University (NDSU) Career and Advising Center team developed its Employer Town Halls in June of 2022, during a period when it was making changes to the engagement opportunities it offered to employers.

“At that time, we wanted a way to reach everyone in a format where they could ask questions and really get to know key people on our team,” explains Alli Goossens, the Career and Advising Center’s assistant director of employer engagement.

Each academic year, the center hosts two 20- to 30-minute Employer Town Halls via Zoom that preview the fall and spring recruiting seasons. During the event, the Career and Advising Center team:

• Alerts employers to any changes to the center’s offerings;
• Provides details for upcoming career fairs;
• Highlights new programming; and 
• Reviews important updates from the university as a whole. 

“It’s a great way to disseminate information in a different format than just an email,” Goossens notes. 

“These preview sessions are incredibly helpful for employers who have never recruited with us before, and for the seasoned recruiters who know our campus well, we try to keep the information fresh and add in special topics our employers are curious about, such as Handshake usage from our students, recruiting tactics for reaching Gen Z, career outcomes data, and more.”

This year, the NDSU Career and Advising Center plans to build out its “Employer Town Hall—Special Session” events. Goossens explains that these are slightly different than the recruiting-specific Town Halls. During the special sessions, staff will break down a particular topic by inviting experts into the session, which, she says, “has a huge impact and is very minimal prep for the expert and the Career and Advising Center team.” 

“Last year,” she says, “we hosted a special session on hiring international students. We brought the director of our International Student and Study Abroad Office into the session and let them talk about what they do every day. We plan to build out a full-year curriculum with special sessions for our employer partners.”

The NDSU Career and Advising Center employer engagement/events team—which includes Goossens and the center’s events manager—coordinates these sessions. The center director puts together and presents the university updates portion of the session. The team uses employer feedback surveys from career fairs or looks at common topics that come up when meeting with employers to decide what additional information to cover.

For example, one year, several employers at NDSU’s largest career fair noted an increase in first-year student attendance. 

“Based on our student feedback survey, we were able to share that 44% of students attended out of curiosity,” Goossens says.

“This insight helped recruiters better understand the audience and many appreciated that first-year students were encouraged to participate.”

The NDSU Career and Advising Center has realized several benefits through the Employer Town Hall initiative. For example, a wider variety of companies want to engage beyond just attending a career fair. 

“After attending the town hall, they realize all of the additional ways they can engage on campus, and they move from being a career fair registrant to a highly engaged partner,” Goossens says. 

The center promotes the Employer Town Halls by sending emails—first, a “save the date” email, followed by an email that provides a calendar link directly to the Zoom meeting options—to its employer base. 

“We also send individual emails to our highly invested partners and our emerging partners,” Goossens continues. 

“Any time I meet with someone new, I add them to my quick contact list and they get an individual email inviting them to attend.”

In 2022, each Town Hall session drew more than 100 Zoom attendees. While attendance has declined slightly since then, the NDSU Career and Advising Center continues to engage a substantial audience. 

“In some years, we’ve distributed a feedback survey to better assess the value of the sessions,” Goossens says. 

“These provided helpful insight, but the most helpful question asked employers to identify topics they’d like covered in future sessions. From this feedback, we’ve been able to tailor our content their interests.”

The feedback from employers—which has been extremely positive—includes appreciation for information presented by staff as opposed to through an email, updates about the college and employer recruiting events, insight on the best ways for employers to connect with NDSU students, and more. One respondent summed it up by saying, “[I] wish more schools did this.”

Goossens encourages career centers that are considering holding similar events for their employers to start doing so. 

“Career services professionals are already delivering this content daily on an individual basis,” Goossens explains. 

“Turn your emails into a slide deck, create a Zoom meeting, and invite your people. It doesn’t have to be a formal, super polished meeting. We keep ours to 20 minutes or 30 minutes max if the questions are flowing, and then follow up with those who need more time together.”

The result is recruiting professionals who are better informed about the university and who have stronger connections with the career center.