UX Design for Employer Branding
A case study
In December 2023 I worked, as a freelance UX consultant, on a project with my client Universum, a Swedish multinational company that provides employer branding services.
I was involved in analyzing how Credem, an Italian bank, attracts new talents through the career pages of its website, and proposing an optimization.
In addition to the UX, I was also responsible for providing photography guidelines and a mood board in order to inspire the shooting of the photos to insert in the renewed website.
This was challenging and fun, because I never did it before, I entered into a project that was already underway, and it has been an occasion to use ChatGPT-4's DALL-E to create images as close as possible to the ones needed, instead of using forced stock photos.
As an innovative bank, Credem aimed to appear youthful, dynamic, bold, and as an ideal place to grow professionally and relationally in the eyes of young talents. In short, it did not want to look like the classic bank, severe and gray.
Mood Board
From what I could tell, it was not just about looking, but also about being; in fact, the site had a series of videos that very effectively communicated these characteristics by documenting them.
And they even registered the word "Wellbanking" to describe the concept of being well in banking to do well banking.
The problem was that this content was lost in a very confusing site that failed to clearly and concisely communicate a large amount of information, nor did it effectively convey the value derived from working in the Company and thus attracting talents.
Wireframes
Consider that they have a lot of content, not just a page with a list of open positions; so we showcased it along 6/7 pages and gave them a "career homepage" to move out the disturbing (for the specific user) content.
Creating a dedicated context was important in making sure the user felt the Company's consideration for them, and also to lighten their cognitive load.
We redefined and facilitated the funnel from awareness to application. Fewer textual elements in favor of clear CTAs and evocative images simplify the experience, making it more engaging and direct to purpose.
We intervened in various circumstances on the copy. By making sure to distinguish sections that could be confused with each other; by giving a unique name to an important CTA that was called in 4 different ways; by replacing terms that recalled a bureaucratic, institutional portal language with others that were more explanatory and direct; by better explaining the company values.
We have taken care to give clear evidence to the user of where they are within the site throughout the navigation.
We designed the new structure following the logic that people scan the interfaces in search of what interests them or catches their attention.
Takeaways
In UX design, you never design just for the UX.
Unfortunately or fortunately, there are different business needs that come from different parts of the same company, which may be marketing, HR, development...
And may be in opposition to each other.
I think a good UX designer has to be able to reconcile certain needs, find compromises and not only think about the good of the user (which is very important) but also the good of the company, without which the user would not even have the service.
Designing for employer branding purposes requires a good amount of marketing, of the refined kind, because you have to sell, but you have to do it by making users believe that you are not selling.
You are so fascinating that they will have to find a way to sell themselves to you.
Is it ethical?
It obviously depends on wheter what you are offering is true, and in this case it was. Credem is notably one of the best places to work in Italy and it has also been awarded for that.
It is also quite challenging when, like in this case, you have a lot of important content and information to deal with.
