M.C. Dean transformed its college recruiting efforts in response to the coronavirus by moving everything online and creating a virtual experience. The company created a new, private site on LinkedIn, which launched on March 20, 2020.
Videos and photos from events over the past year were curated to represent all aspects of the company and its culture. A total of 112 potential college recruits joined the site, started following M.C. Dean’s stories, and asked questions of our employees and leadership involved in the process.
In addition to using LinkedIn, M.C. Dean’s leadership hosted an engaging webinar using Zoom on March 26, 2020. This webinar provided students an opportunity to hear live introductions from each business unit and participate in an in-depth, digital question and answer session.
“With the onset of COVID-19, we had to move quickly to develop a new recruiting plan,” explained Bob Link, vice president of automation systems and executive champion for college recruiting programs. “Using LinkedIn and Zoom worked seamlessly, and we were quite pleased by the level of engagement from the students.”
Compared to previous years, the recruiting effort so far appears to be equally if not more effective. The students expressed gratitude to M.C. Dean for taking the time to continue with normal life experiences during this tough period.
“We are still committed to attracting top talent, including early professionals, to support our growing operations,” said Link. “We will be using Zoom and Microsoft Teams for interviews, so we don’t miss out on valuable face time as part of our recruiting efforts.”
Participating colleges are Clemson University, George Mason University, Georgia Institute of Technology, North Carolina State University, Penn State University, Radford University, The Ohio State University, University of Maryland, University of Virginia, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and West Virginia University. Students earning degrees in power, electrical, industrial, and mechanical engineering as well as computer science and data analytics are all being considered for open positions and internships.
