The advantages one employer found to leaving their on campus recruitment behind

I recently participated in an online discussion with university relations leaders for Fortune 1,000 companies and federal government agencies, college career service office professionals, and others with a passion for the world of college and university recruiting.

One talent acquisition leader asked which U.S. schools they should visit to recruit Polish and Arab engineering students. His company would send those students to their home countries to work at the company’s facilities there. Below is my response.

One of the world’s biggest banks has targeted foreign nationals attending U.S. schools for years. Like the talent acquisition leader who asked the question, they also want those candidates for jobs in their home countries.

This bank doesn’t send recruiters to campuses to try to engage with what is typically a small number of candidates. The number of candidates who will listen to your marketing message on your timeline is an even smaller group, and the number who will interview is smaller still. Instead, this bank markets directly to the students using targeted emails, display ads, and mobile banner ads.

Related: Surprising truth about reducing cost-per-hire

Their “virtual” recruiting efforts allow them to be more responsive to the needs of their hiring managers as they can go from requisition to interviews in just a couple of weeks. Their cost-per-hire is about 90 percent lower as they spend far less on staff time and travel costs. Perhaps surprisingly, they find that productivity is up because they’re hiring more “scrappers” (second and third tier candidates who have fewer choices). And, those candidates tend to be more diverse than the candidates they were previously recruiting entirely from on-campus efforts.

Related: Recruiting non-traditional students