Case study. How did we create one of the best career websites in Poland (according to HRM Institute)?

^{ORGANISATION CULTURE}

We joined the Convista group under Axxiomme Health along with 3 other consulting firms. Due to this change the group decided to rebrand to maintain coherence. We were given brand guidelines regarding: the logo, fonts, colours and topography. Here, we must underline the group culture, which can be seen at even the top management level. We were given complete freedom in local operation. The management is aware of how different each market is and that specialists in given countries have expertise, which should be utilized accordingly in decision making. The Group provides the measures, but it is the local team that decides what is worthwhile and effective for their market. It is a win-win situation on our side. We got access to the tools, but it is up to us to determine if and how to use them.

^{AGENCY COOPERATION}

The EB team in Convista is small ­– it consists of two people splitting their attention half-and-half into EB and recruitment. It was the two of us –Agata and Wiola – behind all the actions mentioned below, all while remaining active in recruitment (and we all know recruitment is a priority😉). We have knowledge, heaps of creativity and commitment, but we lack programming ability. That is why in that area we asked the agency for help, asking industry friends for recommendations. We got 6 offers: 5 of them exceeded the budget and 1 was within the budget! We gathered opinions about that agency, and most were positive. Our budget allowed for hiring one programmer and a PM coordinating the scope of work.

^{CONCEPTUAL WORK}

Our work began with creating a concept based on employment interviews, Candidate Experience survey results, and an analysis of the previous site and market trends. We had workshops with in SAP Cloud, SAP ABAP, Mobile, Java and Frontend teams. With the help of 🔗Mural (highly recommend it!), the participants were able to fill in the areas we had designated, add new ones, and tell us if they felt something made no sense so we would make changes.

Thanks to the accumulated data we were able to set goals and create content:

• Let’s only put up content we and the programmers consider important: projects, technologies, development opportunities, team seniors, the leader, knowledge, and statistics. No spam! 
• Let’s focus 100% of our efforts on the candidate – the sales content will be handled by the company in Germany. 
• We do crazy stuff here (e.g. our Instagram is handled by a Recruiter, Java Programmer and an ABAP Programmer – free of the company’s involvement). Let’s let it show in the language, photos, and illustrations. 
• Let's do it together – cross-team project! Let’s use our combined knowledge, ideas, the willingness of the programmers and HR. Let’s make them ambassadors of the site. 
• And let it be known; let's increase the number of acquired applications, extend the time spent on the website, and reduce recruitment costs.

^PHOTOSHOOT

Photos in place of the usual stock silhouettes are an important and integral part of our website. We wanted to assume the “Show, Don’t Tell” approach to showcasing the climate of our company. We hired a professional photographer. How did the photos come out so good? We have scoured the depths of Pinterest and created mood boards. The teams picked which roles they wanted to play, and it turned into quite a fun game. There were, of course, some who wanted traditional photos instead, and they got them. 

^{PROJECT TASKS}

There were 6351264783129 less interesting tasks such as: negotiating contract terms, copyright issues, GDPR and personal data protection requirements, picking out technology, setting up data analytics, enabling Cookiebot, etc. We wrote down all of these tasks in the brilliant Excel program, adding the owners. We would meet once every 2weeks and catch up on the progress. Thanks to that we are now well-versed in these issues (although we really did not want to be 😛). Issues such as: how to convince the Inspector for the Protection of Personal Data to use Webflow technology. It is recommended by the agency, the cheapest and easiest to use even for a newbie. The problem is, it has servers in the USA, not Europe, and it is a problem because GDPR is an EU law, NOT binding in the USA. This is but one of many examples. It was truly something! 😀

^TESTS

We messaged the entire company, telling them the website is up! You can verify the contents and check whether or not you like the photos. We were surprised that 80 IT workers played the role of dedicated testers. How many corrections were there? About 9383735343 😀. We and the agency would go on to make corrections for the following 2-3 weeks.

^{PROJECT RESULTS}

What do we consider to be the most valuable things about the website?

• 🔗PROJECTS. The TOP 1 reason behind our candidates joining us. We have already written about most of our projects, and we are continuously writing about more, with each having its own tab on our site. It is all the information collected in one place: the business description, the technological description, the technologies, tools, work organization, the team, what you will learn, and even app screenshots. People go WoW when they see it! 😀
• 🔗JOB OFFERS. Fully personalized, as little text as possible, as much image as possible. You get everything: brackets (that is the standard!), you meet the manager through a VIDEO (we make one for each recruit!), information about why it is worth your while, personalized for the project and role every time, the tasks, requirements, team, division of labor, a link to the project, career path, benefits, recruitment process and direct contact information to the HR and manager. Seem like a lot of work? It is. For us, however, a new hire is just as valuable as a customer!
• 🔗INTERNSHIP INTERIM. We have conducted 7 internship programmes, we have had over 100 interns learn with us, 50% of whom joined our team full-time. We had to make it our top priority! We have created a dedicated tab: watch a video to find out if learning with us is worth it, we have numbers to prove the possibility of becoming a programmer with Convista Poland. We divided the programme into technologies, a Q&A – because we know what questions people have, a step-by-step of what is to come, a video about how to prepare for the interview (since it is often the applicants' first time). We have everything!
• 🔗IT BLOG. Knowledge, knowledge, and more knowledge – that is what programmers seek online. Who would be the best teacher? Friends in the industry. We know it is often difficult to find the time for writing articles. Our people often share their knowledge through Tech Talks, and a summary article is then written about it – it was an idea from one of our managers.
• 🔗CAREER. What the recruitment process is like and why there is nothing to be afraid of. A step-by-step of the process, candidate appraisal and a few comments to show everything is going to be okay, benefits. Everything is here.
• 🔗TEAMS. You can go tab by tab, or you can click on a team of interest and find all the information you need: the technologies, programming language, projects, distinguishing features, the staff, development options, our online ambassadors and leader. The contents were compiled by programmers, as they know best what is important. We even add the link in our LinkedIn messages, directing the recipient to the information in a nutshell. 

^SUMMARY

Our website is currently ONE BIG career tab.

• Our project has been awarded by the HRM Institute at an EB Summit conference - we are one of the 4 best career websites in Poland!
• We completed the project within the set budget. Agency costs amounted to PLN 32,000, costs rose by PLN 1,000 (caused by the many corrections 😉).
• It was TWO PEOPLE leading through the challenges, not an agency or huge HR team. We split our work fifty-fifty ­– recruitment and EB.
• The presented results are results of cooperation with HR, technical workers and a programmer from an agency BUT it was us who created the contents – HR.
• The site is complete with data people said they would like to have access to when looking for a job – that is the most important feedback. 

‍“The descriptions of the project and the team are the most detailed descriptions I have ever gotten in a first message, and I appreciate it a lot. Other recruiters should follow this description’s example.” Candidate

“I browsed the website, and it rocks! Good job!!!” Mobile Architect

“Wiola, thank you and the dedicated team working on the site. In my opinion the results are GREAT – thanks a lot." CEO