Customer Stories 
Summary
Ensuring a positive candidate experience at every stage of the sourcing and recruiting process is what makes the difference between attracting or missing out on top talent. In a competitive market where candidates have the upper hand, Viasat is making sure that they stand out from the crowd from the time they first come into contact with candidates at careers fairs and campus events, to the moment they walk out the door of their very last interview or receive an offer letter. Their candidate care stretches across not just the online application phase, but also the interviewing and in-person interaction as well.
About Viasat
With over 5,500 employees globally, Viasat is a growing, global company focused on developing the ultimate global communications network to power high-quality, secure, affordable, fast connections that impact people’s lives no matter where they are. Always on the lookout for the best and brightest talent to fulfill its vision of an interconnected globe, Viasat places great importance on its university and intern program, which has grown on average by 20% year-on-year over the past four years. With significant competition for high-potential candidates, Viasat is leveraging integrated CRM, ATS and campus recruiting technology to ensure a seamless candidate experience that helps them connect with top talent in a scalable way.
“Having a CRM, Events Solution and ATS all within Avature has increased visibility of candidates and enabled us to better manage candidate experience at every touch point."
Carolyn Bertsch, University Relations & Recruiting – Technical Sourcer & Analyst at Viasat
Challenges
Prior to implementing Avature solutions, Viasat relied on manual processes at events that resulted in a less than optimum experience for candidates who had to queue to speak to recruiters. This limited lead generation and Viasat’s ability to connect with students in a meaningful way. For recruiters under pressure to follow-up with the strongest candidates they’d met onsite in a timely manner, old processes required them to complete many time-consuming but low-value tasks after a busy day. It was also hard to collate feedback from different interviewers in order to evaluate candidates, which slowed them down at identifying top talent and moving them along the recruiting process.
Solutions
Making a Strong First Impression
Regularly attending events with over 200 attendees, Viasat soon realized that they needed a portal where students could self-check-in if they had pre-registered for an event, or register themselves. The new approach needed to reduce queue times and free up recruiters’ time for more strategic tasks because relying on excels or printed lists was not a practical solution.
Viasat found that Avature’s flexible software allowed them to come up with a solution that improved the event experience for all stakeholders. Viasat’s campus recruiter portal drastically improves how they manage events by empowering recruiters to check in students efficiently, register attendees on the fly, as well as leave feedback during the event.
Optimizing Feedback and Scheduling
One of the key ways that Viasat leverages Avature’s technology is through their centralized feedback portal. Throughout the interview process, as students come into contact with different employees, all feedback is collated in one place. This dramatically improves the evaluation process, speeding up Viasat’s ability to identify the strongest candidates and offer them relevant opportunities. In a competitive talent market, speed is of the essence in order to captivate tomorrow’s talent, but centralized feedback also enables Viasat to offer a much better candidate experience.
If the interviewer believes that a student should attend a further onsite interview, they can schedule the interview in real time thanks to Avature’s Calendar feature. Populated with available time slots that the student can pick from, once they confirm a suitable time it will disappear immediately from the calendar to avoid double bookings. Simultaneously the student will receive an automatic confirmation email, a streamlined and slick experience that impresses students. On the fly scheduling frees Viasat’s recruiters from a time-consuming task so they don’t have to complete tedious manual work at the end of a busy day and, instead, can focus on strategic activities.
“We love the SMS texting feature of Avature. Honestly it’s been a no brainer for us to leverage. It’s super simple to send out a quick text message."
Carolyn Bertsch, University Relations & Recruiting – Technical Sourcer & Analyst at Viasat
Driving Engagement with SMS
With a clear understanding of their target audience, Viasat has embraced Avature’s SMS campaign functionality to keep high-potential candidates engaged in the days running up to their interviews by inviting them to onsite networking events. Candidates are always on their phones and SMS campaigns are an effective way to keep Viasat at the forefront of their minds.
Keeping Processes Candidate Friendly
Rather than inviting top talent to apply for positions via the careers site, Viasat ensures a more personalized experience by emailing students a link to a specific role that matches their interests and location. In one simple click, they can access the job description and choose to apply. Thanks to using Avature as their integrated CRM, Campus Recruiting and ATS provider, a student’s personal details appear pre-populated in the application form. As a result, they don’t have to re-enter information already provided.
Flexing for the Future
Viasat is pushing the boundaries when it comes to attracting and engaging tomorrow’s talent. Focusing on every touch point they are moving students along the hiring process in a seamless way, communicating with them on relevant channels. By creating a tailored experience for students, as well as their own campus recruiters, Viasat is able to fully leverage their presence at events, maximize lead generation opportunities and ultimately hire the high potential talent they need to continue to fulfill their ambition.