Uptree

As restrictions start to ease across the UK, many of us are beginning to plan a return to in person working in some form, whether it be next week, next month or next year.

In the world of early careers, there is a lot to think about when it comes to planning the next academic year. After a year of being online, we now need to consider what the future of events will look like. Along with employee and volunteer wellbeing, student opinion is vital when we are planning work experience or insight events. After all, they are the ones at the forefront of our why.

At Uptree, we wanted to find out what students really wanted as we move towards this new way of working and a return to some form of in-person engagement.

We caught up with our talented Uptree student ambassadors to ask them:

Once restrictions ease and face-to-face events can happen again, will you still want to attend and engage with online events?

Building relationships in person

To cut to the important stuff, during our focus group it was abundantly clear that students wanted to go back to in-person events. One of the key reasons they gave for this is that in person events are more personalised, meaning they gave the ambassadors a real chance to meet people and build their network.

Although this is still possible online, they noted it can be hard to build lasting, memorable relationships which was essential for them if they wanted to make a good impression on a company. One ambassador even said:

'in-person events forced me to speak more and communicate with others'

... which is a great way for students to build confidence and soft skills after a year at home.

In person events helped our ambassadors make long-lasting connections and networks with people from the organisations.

Your company culture

The second important reason many of the ambassadors noted that they’d like to see a return to in-person events, was that it felt hard for them to get a real feel for the company culture, working environment and employee wellbeing from an online event alone.

One ambassador commented:

‘ If I want to see what the office is like and what the culture is like, I would prefer to attend an event in person - you can’t get a proper feel for the culture of a company over a screen .'

This could be particularly important if you are trying to boost your employer brand and leave a lasting impression on students at events such as Uptree work experience days.

Taking the first step to your company

The ambassadors also highlighted some key times when online events would still be valuable and important to them.

Many of them pointed out that if an event was purely informational, such as an introduction to a company or an event that had no audience involvement, having it online was much more beneficial.

They noted they would be more likely to attend an online event if the agenda was clearly laid about beforehand, as it would save them time and money on travel, whilst allowing them to still find out about the company and industry.

As a first step to finding out about your company, online events can be a great way to introduce your brand to students.

One ambassador noted, ' online events would guide my initial decisions and I’d use them as a way to decide which face to face events to attend. I think the two support each other. Online events also means you are not limited by travel distances and cost etc...'.

Online events can help students to take the first step in finding out about your company.

Leading on from this comment, a positive outcome of the pandemic is the fact it has highlighted the benefits of online events for being inclusive in different ways to in-person events.

Students don’t have to pay travel costs or worry about travelling the distance to the company. Covering travel costs, providing lunch or making sure students get a full day in your offices could be something to take into account when planning your next in-person event.

One Uptree ambassador said: ' It’s always a plus if travel costs are reimbursed - I’m more likely to attend that way' with another saying, ' If travel can’t be reimbursed, the event would need to be 4+ hours for me to travel there - I would be unlikely to attend an in person event if it was less than 4 hours long .'

The hybrid model

The hunger is certainly there for a hybrid model and at Uptree it's something we intend to work with our partners on, remaining flexible to their needs, whilst taking in our student feedback and leading by our value of 'young people first’.

Through our focus groups we can see the huge benefits of our events and hopefully, over the coming months, employers can begin to offer online and in person events; reaping the benefits of both models mentioned by our ambassadors.

If you are interested in putting on an event for our network, get in touch for an initial conversation: info@uptree.co