Search Tech are recruitment specialists for both clients and candidates, focusing on the sectors of Waste, Power, Sustainability and Safety. They also offer executive recruitment services.
SearchTech approached KIJO with a thorough brief. This was to simplify their user journey, as their original one was convoluted and difficult to digest. It was unclear which information was for clients or candidates. The only indicators were navigational dropdowns with a list of the services which required the user to click on each link to visit a separate page detailing what each service entailed. Information was also generally difficult to access as it was contained on a different page for each service. This meant that users were getting frustrated with how difficult it was to find the information they needed, so would often bounce from the page.
SearchTech wanted to stand out from the crowd by avoiding the usual tropes found on a recruitment website. They also wanted to generate more conversions which, down the line, would help them expand as a business. In addition, the team wanted to save time and money by connecting their website with their recruitment customer relationship management system (CRM) Firefish.
Improvement in first-click user test
Google Lighthouse Performance Scores
Before we set out on streamlining the user journey, we needed to understand what wasn’t working with the current one. This would also help us learn how to grow the conversion rates too, as clear user journeys and conversions usually go hand in hand.
So, we conducted user testing. This is where we presented the existing website to a non-bias group and asked them whether they were interested in hiring a candidate through SearchTech. We also asked them that if they ‘were a business interested in using SearchTech to hire for their company, where would you click?’ 50% said they were interested and 50% of users clicked through correctly to the client pages. This meant that there was clearly ample room for improvement.
From here, we set to work conducting user journey mapping to improve the website’s clarity. These needed to be clear for three users; a client, a candidate, and a consultant. We mapped a journey for each of these goal users. The client and the consultant journey mostly married. This meant we could confidently split the site into two distinctive user journeys. Coupled with our user testing, all of this investigation informed our decision to include individual, goal-based landing pages. These landing pages were ‘Hire’ and ‘Apply’. These words instantly resonate with the target users by connecting them to their goals, thus enhancing clarity.
These two core journeys for these three target users are regularly enforced throughout the website for optimal intelligibility. They are the first two links in the navigation, and they are present in the hero banner displayed in two large cards providing more prominence. Then, as you scroll down the home page, you’re met with a dual call to action (CTA) at the base of the page, pushing users toward the relevant category. If they still haven’t made an action at that point, it’s once again reinforced in the footer of the page with larger cards than the rest of the navigation links present there. Defined user journeys like this not only help with the site’s general ease-of-use, but allow the user to feel confident in the brand. If their site understands its users goals, it instils further faith that this is a team that knows what they’re doing and, in turn, encourages the user to enquire.
To nail down conversions, we knew that promoting engagement through design and regular, tailored CTAs was going to be key. We introduced some custom entrance and hover animations on text to give the website some movement, and entice the user to engage with the content.
We also opted for a unique design style that was visually appealing. This was black and white retro imagery that had rough edges on the images and boxes, symbolic of old photographs. This design was inspired by the brand’s tone; they are a traditional business working in traditional work sectors, with a no nonsense attitude. These images were “old-fashioned”, but have been laced into a distinctive, modern design. We were able to achieve the rough edge effect using some neat cascading style sheets (CSS) and development techniques.
The overall design feels true to their brand values, but results in a unique design you don’t typically see on other competitor sites. The uniqueness of the site is enticing in itself, which in turn encourages users to convert by keeping them on the page and interacting with it for longer. This means they’re more likely to digest the content and take action too.
The CTAs across the site send the user to the specific landing pages; ‘Hire’ and ‘Apply’. These pages include displaying a breakdown of each client or candidate service with a small description of each. They give the user the information they require in a more digestible format and without the need to click each one which the existing site did. If the user still requires more information, there are now further landing pages that explain the service in even more detail. By doing this, we’re limiting the excuse for the user not to convert.
We also included the process of hiring or applying with SearchTech, and tailored the CTAS for each persona. These included viewing the job board, uploading your profile and CV, and making an inquiry. Repeated, clear and tailored CTAs like this encourage the user to progress to the point of action. All of the CTAs have subtle animations where the buttons change colour; again another element that encourages the user to click and convert.
In their existing system, SearchTech were having to upload jobs across multiple platforms. This was causing duplication and efficiency issues. They wanted to be able to streamline this process.
By connecting the Firefish CRM to the WordPress environment, this would allow the seamless uploading of jobs from the CRM to the website. However, it was a CRM we had never used before and there were no existing integration methods for this CRM in WordPress. So, to make sure we could deliver perfectly for the client, we organised a workshop with Firefish directly. This meant we could understand the integration completely and in more detail. It also helped us work out the options for how we go about integrating it too.
We built the job board first, and we did this using custom post types in WordPress. We then created a custom WordPress plugin which would connect with the CRM and check for new job roles or updates to existing jobs. It would then import these jobs as custom post types. It would also add custom taxonomies for the specific meta data of the jobs such as salary, location and type. We then needed to schedule the updating and creating of jobs. So, we used WP-Cron; the built-in task scheduler in WordPress. This is set to run once a day, which means the feed will scan any new updates in the customer relationship management system (CRM) and post them to the website. This removes the need for this to be done manually which simplifies the clients workload too. We then connected WP-Cron to the custom post type. The content updates are operated by searching for a job reference number across the two platforms and making any changes from the CRM. This specific CRM now streamlines the team’s tasks, making their work much easier to complete and this time saved can now be used more efficiently.
SearchTech’s goals for their website were straightforward; to simplify their website’s user journey, boost conversions and implement a specific CMS.
Following the design stage, we conducted the same user test as before to review the fresh user journeys we’d implemented. The results were that 100% of users completed the first click test from the question: ‘if you were a business interested in using SearchTech to hire for their company, where would you click?’. This was up from 50%, meaning an 100% improvement had taken place through our designs alone.
In addition, the client was thrilled with their new website which is always a strong indicator that we’ve achieved the goals the project set. Sally Woods, Director of Energy & Renewables for SearchTech said: “Great work. KIJO sorted out everything we wanted to do. Thanks for your collaboration!”
“KIJO have made the task of setting up a new website a really clear, efficient and hassle-free process. The team has been super friendly, accommodating, knowledgeable and engaging.”
Director of Energy & Renewables
