Creating an inclusive recruitment portal

Web Design
Project Overview
Seasoned Pro: A job search & application portal to help companies adopt a more accessible & inclusive hiring process. A collaboration with Deloitte Digital as part of a teamwork focused masters degree industry brief.
My Contributions
My focus was on user research & User testing.
Design brief

“How might we design an inclusive recruitment process.”

We decided to focus on improving the recruitment process for senior job seekers and career changers.
Following the findings from our desk research we focused on age related barriers in the job application process as It's predicted that senior employees will become increasingly important as there will be less young workers to fill roles left by the retiring generation. We also found that there are other potential benefits of hiring older employees.
Issues & reasons to fix
60%‍of older employees have experienced workplace age discrimination.
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+3
‍ Older employees tend to be more patient, collaborative and have a lack of “need to prove myself”.
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3X
‍ People over the age of 40 are 3X more likely to create successful companies.
Refined Project objective

We believe there is an opportunity to create an application portal blueprint for companies hiring senior employees who want to hire experienced staff but struggle to create accessible and inclusive application processes.

Age related loss of confidence is making it hard for senior career changers to complete job applications.
By talking to and observing customers we found many issues that were causing senior job-seekers to feel discouraged & drop out of the job application process.
“some of the companies, they’re not very clear, and some of the information they ask for is repetitive. Sometimes it’s hard to understand  highlighted words.” - Participant 1
“I felt so discouraged from it that I completely dropped out.” - Participant 2
“In the end I stopped applying for jobs” - Participant 4
Searching for opportunities using a Service Blueprint based on current trends and processes.
We created a current state service blueprint and carried out a gap analysis to find gaps & opportunities in current recruitment service models.
  • Improve the process of attracting  senior applicants.
  • Improve job posting processes to provide transparent vacancy information in an inclusive manner.
  • Simplify application portals to empower applicants and reduce dropout rates.
User Research Insights
The research revealed several key insights, including a need for a more integrated bilingual experience and better understanding of bilingual development & progress.
Conflict of digital vs. experience ‍Companies value digital skills more than experiences often. They also require digital artefacts participants were not ready to give
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Low confidence from negative experiences ‍Participants had low confidence and would give up quickly on applications and processes due to the amount of negative experiences they’ve had.
Portal / application clarity & jargon ‍parents struggle to find time & opportunities to immerse their child into their minority language. Many choose to travel far from home to make opportunities available.
Pressure of training / re-skilling ‍Participants feel pressure to re-learn and upskill constantly, since companies do not believe in their ability to be trained.
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Accessibility

 ‍Participants felt like the portals and steps along the way were not accessible. For example, small fonts, unclear buttons and processes, cognitive overload.
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Portal Design Problem Statement

Application portals are often designed for typical users, and when aging job seekers use them, they face unfamiliarity, inaccessibility and lack of clarity, which causes them to be reluctant to use emerging application tools and lose confidence in their job search.

Storyboard: The best practises blueprint
Companies employing our inclusive best practices blueprint will provide a better experience attracting more applicants.
Assists job seekers through the job search & application process in 4 simple steps.
Build a resume‍
  • Missing information highlighter
  • Industry specific CV section examples
  • AI support* (AI built around trusted sources that are built on HR & industry specific terminology etc.)
Browse jobs‍
  • Search by industry - key words from the job seekers resume finds industries where transferable skills & experience would increase their success.
  • Jargon translator - Provides an explanation of jargon and key words that are not familiar to the job seeker but may be familiar with the concepts under a different name.
Application‍
  • Review the CV
  • Attach any supporting documents needed (E.g. Portfolio)
  • Press submit & Seasoned Pro will keep you updated.
User testing & insights handover
After carrying out user testing with 5 participants, I communicated the design changes needed for our User interface designer to implement.
Key Iterations
Many of the key iterations made were simple but the portal more accessible and inclusive.
Lesson learned
The research revealed several key insights, including a need for a more integrated bilingual experience and better understanding of bilingual development & progress.
Less is more.
‍ ‍Just because we could do something doesn’t mean we should. Working lean makes it easy get outcomes quicker by not being slowed down by outputs that make no real difference to a project.
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Individual strengths empower the team. ‍Playing to individual strengths as a team played a key role in the projects success. The team was able to work fast, create quality outcomes & remain motivated.
Support & Communication.
‍‍As a team we made a conscious effort to communicate issues arising & supporting other team members to accomplish tasks. This helped the team to overcome challenges that could have led to the project failing.
Be flexile & adaptable
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We needed to adapt our communication style for the client. The moment we adapted to our clients needs proved to be pivotal in building a strong client-consultant relationship, leading to a better outcome.‍
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Team members are knowledge goldmines
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I learned a lot about project management & communication skills from team members with a lot more experience than I had at the time‍
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