How Might We Improve Job Seekers' Digital Experiences Navigating the Careers Site and Drive Trust for a Fortune 500 Financial Services Company?
Client: Code & Theory (Agency) :: Fortune 100 Company (Client)
The Challenge
A Fortune 100 Company, in partnership with Code & Theory, needed to revamp its digital talent acquisition presence by understanding current perceptions, behaviors, and preferences surrounding the modern job-seeking process. The client specifically wanted to assess the usability and effectiveness of their existing Careers Site to inform its strategic design and incorporation into a newly unified platform. Job seekers often approach corporate websites with inherent skepticism, viewing them merely as marketing tools rather than authentic representations of company culture. The client needed to identify what exact friction points were eroding brand affinity and driving candidates to third-party employment sites; they required a clear understanding of candidate needs to correct these usability issues and successfully attract top-tier talent in a competitive market.
The Outcome
The research delivered crucial insights, primarily establishing that a job seeker's time is their most valuable resource. Any digital friction, such as difficult application processes or hard-to-find information, directly damages their perception of the company and erodes overall affinity. We identified key pain points that inadvertently signaled a devaluation of employees (most notably the glaring absence of salary ranges in job descriptions). Furthermore, participants expressed significant frustration with limited filtering options and unintuitive search functionalities that hindered their ability to find relevant roles.
These findings provided the client with a clear, user-centric mandate for the new site to prioritize transparency, streamline search architecture, and provide authentic cultural insights.
The Approach
To deeply understand the candidate journey, noodle conducted a series of 60-minute in-depth interviews (IDIs) with a diverse mix of target audiences. These qualitative discussions were designed to explore the participants' overarching job-seeking behaviors and their specific perceptions of financial institutions as potential employers. During the sessions, we had users interact with and evaluate the current Careers site content to pinpoint exact usability flaws and missing information. This immersive method allowed us to observe their navigation paths and note where they experienced frustration or confusion. Ultimately, this approach enabled us to capture authentic, unfiltered feedback regarding what prospective employees truly value when researching an employer online.
