How do you keep the complicated simple?

Keeping it simple

Simplicity is often the most complicated thing to achieve – especially when it comes to the design and development of a website. And even more so, when that website is to recruit over 6,000 people nationwide, each year, some employed, some self-employed, into a range of customer facing, operational and back office roles.

Keeping things simple was vital if visitors were to easily access relevant content and intuitively navigate the site.

Crucially, the ‘gig economy’ has seen businesses embroiled in tribunals over employment rights. So Yodel also needed to ensure that their careers site clearly communicated the offer for employed and self-employed drivers, enabling drivers to clearly choose which role was right for them.

Mobile first and an easy user journey

Analysis of the old site revealed that confusing and circuitous user journeys, mixed messages and too much detail led to a lot of drop-offs. Refinement and simplification of these routes was vital in order to make it as easy as possible for candidates to apply.

Analysis also revealed the majority of traffic to the site, 63% in fact, was from mobile devices.

So the design, layout and usability of the new site needed to reflect this.

Helping match the right candidate to the right role

Chatbot technology was implemented on the driver pages to help people understand the difference between employed and self-employed driver roles. The Bot can also search and share results for roles in a candidate’s post code, while another version of the Chatbot acts as a screening tool at application stage.

This tech not only helps candidates to make more informed choices, it also saves the resourcing team plenty of time.

Life in a crowded, competitive market

With the likes of Hermes, DPD and Amazon all competing to attract drivers, we wanted our Yodel people to shine and show – through their individual personalities and stories – why more people, like them, should work there.

So, bespoke photography and videography created a personal touch that is on-brand and uniquely Yodel. Championing their people and their promise, it gives candidates a reason to work here that goes beyond their hourly rate of pay. Have a look here and here.

Scope and development

Admittedly, attracting to the driver population is where the majority of the focus lies. However, not everyone at Yodel is a driver. So every area of the business and role within it, had to be equally represented and recruited to as well.

This meant mapping-out and analysing all the different user journeys and routes to application on the old site and adapting the design and content to reflect our various users’ wants and needs.

People love to chat(bot)

In the first 7 days there were 1,032 screenings via Chatbot with a fantastic 97% positive user experience in ratings.

It’s being used at all times of the day, too, highlighting the fact that candidates want the flexibility to be screened at a time that suits them.

And, if you work on the basis of each Chatbot screening taking an average of 15 minutes, then, in the first 7 days alone Yodel have saved just over 32 working days in applicant screening time!

And there were smiles all around

Only launched on 13th September 2018, the site has already achieved great results.

• 396,542 users
• 646,576 sessions
• 3,465,507 page views
• 5.36  pages per sessions

In addition, the bounce rate is down 3.5% year on year, a clear indication that content is now more relevant and engaging.

The number of times visitors have clicked the Search Jobs & Apply button is also up 37.71% year on year, suggesting the impact a clear and consistent mobile-first design has had on the user experience.

Importantly, since launch there have been 45,366 completed applications – so it’s delivering great results for Yodel.