The East Tennessee Human Resource Agency, in partnership with the East Tennessee Local Workforce Development Board and the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, announce the launch of Premier Virtual, an innovative and easy-to-use remote hiring platform that mirrors very closely the experience of an in-person job fair.
With Premier Virtual, the Agency will host virtual job fairs connecting job seekers and employers across ETHRA’s sixteen-county service delivery area. Gary Holiway, ETHRA Executive Director, states, “Premier Virtual means our customers can participate in job fairs without having to travel or risking exposure to COVID-19.”
The East Tennessee Local Workforce Development Board oversees the operation of 12 American Job Centers and an additional 26 points of public access for job seekers and employers. Since March 2020, all Centers have experienced reduced capacity for in-person service because of COVID-19, yet through adoption of technology, the Centers have continued to serve job seeker and employer customers. Martha Axford, Board Chair, observes, “In pre-launch testing of Premier Virtual, our Board and career services staff have been able to host virtual job fairs attracting 365 job seekers and 111 employers. We will host monthly virtual job fairs linking un- and underemployed job seekers with area employers for the foreseeable future, even after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.”
Premier Virtual offers a simple to navigate, user-friendly interface. Job seekers upload a resume upon registration for a job fair event. Local workforce development professionals assist employers in customizing a virtual booth with their company logo, biography, job vacancies, job details, website URL, videos, and social media links. Once the Premier Virtual job fair begins, employers and job seekers may either text chat in the interactive hiring room or use the internal video chat to conduct real time interviews. Employers comment that Premier Virtual allows them to recruit pre-screened, qualified candidates in a socially distanced environment within a couple of hours without having to leave their offices.
Future expansion of Premier Virtual includes hosting specialized job fairs for high school students, education fairs for the area’s education and training providers, and industry-specific job fairs.
About Premier Virtual: In just over a year after incorporation, Premier Virtual has powered over 1,100 virtual hiring events where more than 13,000 employers connected with over 130,000 job seekers. CEO Steve Edwards and his team serve customers nationwide from the company’s Boynton Beach, Florida campus.