To Fill 1,200 Jobs in Richardson, State Farm Turns to Technology for a Virtual Job Fair

Annie Garrison chatted with potential job seekers at a job fair Thursday, answering questions about open positions, benefits and pay in State Farm’s banking department. The human resources recruiter at the insurance company’s Richardson hub is no stranger to such events. But rather than speaking with participants in an auditorium or convention center, she logged on to a chat room hosted by State Farm. Garrison’s co-workers at her “booth” were stationed in Bloomington, Illinois, and most of the jobs she spoke about are actually located in Tempe, Arizona. Her co-worker one desk over was on a different chat, typing about underwriting jobs all over the country. The company launched its first virtual job fair in hopes of attracting potential employees from across the country. The event was part of a larger recruitment effort to hire thousands of employees across the country. State Farm is looking to add 1,200 jobs this year at its Richardson hub alone. Other jobs are primarily being added at the Illinois headquarters, and hubs in Tempe and Atlanta.In Richardson, most of the available jobs are in customer service, claims and enterprise technology. Many of the claims and customer service jobs are entry level, paying $15.50 to $17.25 an hour. More than 2,900 people registered for the fair. Job seekers were able to click in from any location, anytime in a 13-hour window to chat with recruiters across multiple departments. They also could click directly into job applications. “For me, being a millenial, this is what I love,” said Andrea McKoy, who was part of the State Farm team that helped organize the virtual job fair. “I do love communicating with people and talking to people, but using our technology makes it so much easier,” she said. “Normally, we’re (at a traditional job fair) for two or three hours and you may talk to 120 people.”   Continue reading...