Hays Recruitment

The Brief: Deliver increased business efficiency and a market-leading online experience.

Hays Recruitment is a leading worldwide recruitment organisation. In 2005, it undertook a customer experience initiative to ensure exemplary levels of service. Key to this initiative was the creation of a new website and Hays contracted Flow, and our long-time design partner Splendid, for the project.

The web site needed to address specific user and business needs. Jobseekers needed to find appealing and appropriate jobs with ease. Hays consultants needed to quickly select and put forward the most appropriate candidates for a given role.

So the website's objectives were to:

• Provide an exemplary online job-seeking experience
• Improve the Hays online brand presence
• Increase the quality of applications for each advertised role
• Lower the number of irrelevant applications

What We Did: Redesign the Hays.com experience using user research, iterative user-centred design and evaluation.

Flow conducted lab-based experience benchmarking research with end-users and contextual observation of Hays recruitment consultants. These activities let us identify needs that were not being met in the current online recruitment experience. We knew that addressing these needs would give Hays an edge over its competitors.

Four key findings were fundamental to the redesign:

• Better quality of information in job advertisements enabled applicants to better assess their suitability for a job before applying, thus reducing irrelevant applications.
• Location of jobs was a key factor for jobseekers in determining whether or not to apply for a job.
• Providing a contact person for any given job raised the level of trust jobseekers had in the application process.
• Users struggled to find similar jobs that were spread across different categories.

Flow and Splendid collaborated on a new site concept and detailed design specification.

• We redefined the site structure to enable users to browse jobs by category instead of by Hays departments.
• We made use of Microsoft's Live Maps technology (an industry first) to locate job ads on a map.
• We defined clear guidelines for writing effective job advertisements.
• A key feature not yet implemented was a similar jobs index which will allow users to find relevant jobs in other categories.

Iterative usability testing and regular interaction with Hays stakeholders helped us refine the ideas and ensure the site was easy to use and aligned with business and user goals.

After 5 months, Flow and Splendid delivered an interaction and visual design specification to the Hays development team. This guided implementation of the site and other supporting internal systems over the course of the next 12 months. The new site went live in January of 2007.

The Results: Up to 25% more relevant applications per vacancy.

The team successfully designed a new, market-leading website by employing user centred design. The site delivers an appealing, usable experience that makes it easier for job-seekers to find jobs that really match their skills and requirements before applying.

After 6 months, the new website was generating:

• A 16-25% increase in registrations with Hays -- from relevant candidates calling consultants.
• A 12% decrease in irrelevant applicants for each listed position, allowing Hays consultants to deliver better results with less effort.
• Overwhelmingly positive feedback about the ease of use and aesthetic appeal of the new site.

Overall site traffic was also up 12.8%.

"It has been a pleasure working with the team and I would highly recommend the services of Flow Interactive to any company seeking a cutting edge website solution."
- Gary Hughes, Group Marketing Director