The modern world of competition requires organizations to utilize the most effective employer branding or recruitment tools to source talent. Hackathon is one of the most effective tools or sources that help organizations, especially in the banking and tech sectors, optimize their employer branding and attract more talented people to their teams.
Whether it is an online hackathon or an in-person hackathon, the primary purpose of this event is to find the ideal solution to a specific problem. It provides a competitive yet thrilling experience for both the participants and the recruiters.
The industry is getting more and more competitive every day. This is why every organization wants to have the best skillset, talent, and ideal tools at their disposal.
Advantages of Hackathons in Employer Branding
If you are looking for hackathon ideas and want to know more about their advantages for your business, here are some benefits of hackathons in recruitment or employer branding.
1. Opportunity for the Creation of Valuable Environments
Hackathons are the events that create the most valuable environments for organizations and candidates. It helps establish more creative and innovative solutions for the businesses that support them to accept their local reality and improvise their business plans accordingly.
Hackathon events are a source of great competition, enabling you to derive the desired results within a time constraint. In these events, the candidate works to provide the best possible outcome in the most stressful environments and goes through different phases, including doubt and tension. Such an environment gives the recruiters an insight into the working capabilities and attitudes of the candidates.
2. Reveals Hardworking and Talented Candidates
A hacathon is not just about interacting, competing, and winning the prize. It is far more complex than that, especially for the event organization. They look for talented, hardworking candidates to create innovative solutions to problems.
Therefore, the stressful environments in the hackathons enable the candidates to be competitive enough and try to be the best ones in the room. All the candidates participating in these events are passionate about what they do and ready to put in all the hard work. Therefore, organizations learn about various vibrant, talented, and hardworking candidates through virtual hackathons and physical events.
3. Beneficial for Both Parties
Hackathons are a win-win situation for both the hackathon organizers and the participants. These events enable the recruiters to meet the most powerful and talented community in their respective fields, while the participants get a chance at getting the ideal employment opportunities.
Both the employers and the participants of hackathons reap the long-term benefits of these events. The organizations get long-term employees who are hardworking, skilled, and passionate. At the same time, the candidates get the promise of long-term employment. So, if you want to host such an event but don’t know how to prepare for a hackathon, you can get help from a reliable platform.
4. Outcome-Based Exercise
Hackathons are solely outcome-based exercises. They are not only conducted to hire new talent but are also organized internally within a company to boost the confidence of already-existing employees. Moreover, it also helps us engage employees to create the best possible solution for a particular business problem.
It is perfect for employer branding because it is wholly outcome-based. You don’t have to rely on interviews and transcripts to judge a person’s abilities Decisions made through theoretical evidence can never be as effective as outcome-based exercises.
5. Creates a Community
Hackathons are a great way to create reliable communities of people with specific talents. It helps you develop brand advocates and gives the perfect interaction opportunities to recruiters and candidates. The recruiter can even establish a community of professionals who will put their skills to good use in the future.
These communities also act as simple yet affordable marketing channels that work in the organizations’ favor. If your company cannot afford or conduct a physical hackathon, you can take help from a virtual hackathon platform and execute a successful event.
Different Types of Hackathons
Organizations conduct different types of hackathons through reliable hackathons platforms. Every organization chooses the ideal one that suits their company’s requirements best. Here are some of the different kinds of hackathons.
- Internal hackathons
- External hackathons
- Online or virtual hackathons
- Application-specific hackathons
- Industry-specific hackathons
- Altruistic hackathons
- Corporate hackathons
- Language hackathons
- Demographics-specific hackathons
Rules for Hackathon Organization
If you are investing your time in hackathon planning these days so that you can enhance your employer branding, here are some rules that you must follow;
- It would help if you determined the goals of the hackathon so that you have a clear idea of what you are looking for and how you can achieve the event’s main objectives.
- Select the candidates or participants for the event according to your requirements. According to the hackathon’s requirements, you must know what type of participants you need at the event.
- Choose the ideal venue. Also, consider whether you want a physical or virtual event. Make sure that you consider all the options and choose the ideal one for a smoother event.
- Set up all the rules for the hackathon beforehand for a smooth event. It will help develop a reliable relationship between the candidates and ensure just decisions.
- Create a positive environment so the candidates can be their best creative selves.
- Appreciate the winning teams and hand them the promised prizes.
Final Words
Hackathons are the most innovative way of promoting employer branding, and organizations have started to understand their importance. It is the perfect form of motivation for the existing employees and the ideal way of sourcing new talent and innovative solutions to old problems.
Various hackathon platforms enable organizations to host successful events and benefit from them. You can choose the type of hackathon you want to conduct, and the type of candidates you want for the event, and everything else will fall into place in no time. Ensure you have fixed objectives to take full advantage of these hackathons for employer branding.
