SITE STRATEGY & DESIGN
IKEA Career Site
Background
While working at Monster.com, we were approached by IKEA to build their Employer Branding site. Being such an iconic brand, IKEA was very concerned about promoting their work culture and values.
They have a very solid employer brand and offer many great advantages to their employees so it was our job to communicate not only the many available job openings but also to be able to show potential employees the advantages and the inclusive culture that IKEA has been deliberately cultivating to attract and retain talent.
The Process
Throughout the project we had an ongoing and open conversation going with the stakeholders at IKEA and several employees who were happy to give input and feedback in an iterative way.
The Project Manager, Content Designer and I interviewed stakeholders, and identified that their commitment to inclusivity and environmental responsibility were top priorities to attract people who would share their values and beliefs. They were also looking to reach a diverse pool of candidates and wanted to showcase their commitment to diversity and inclusion.
With this understanding our team set out to help IKEA attract not only a high level of applicants but also to connect with applicants that believe in IKEA’s mission and values and would want to stay and grow with the company throughout their career.
The Content Design
I sat down with our Employer Branding Specialist and Content designer to take our stakeholder goals and convert those goals into actionable items. One of the primary goals of the site was to increase quality applications, so we added a quick search on the home page front and centre and added many quick links throughout the site to drive people to apply in a way that felt natural and organic.
We had heard from current employees that they would have liked more transparency into the interview process so we included an Interviewing page to answer questions and to give a step by step expectations of the entire process, showing that IKEA is actively seeking to support potential employees throughout the process.
Once we got to the actual application page, we worked with IKEA’s internal HR program to design a job search that would offer enough filter options to refine without overwhelming and a CV drop with the easiest process possible to allow IKEA to capture as many qualified applicants as they could.
Components & Patterns
We created a series of components and patterns for dev so that they could build the reoccurring pieces while we defined the details of the page, as an agile team this helped keep dev moving forward while we iterated on the final designs with the client. This was especially helpful as we needed to re-design many of the components and with this design system in place, dev was able to quickly update components and patterns in the library and the parts of the site where they appeared were instantly updated as well.
Final Design
I designed over 10 dynamic pages of the site in multiple breakpoints to create the most inclusive experience possible. I worked with the Accessibility team to make sure we complied with WCAG standards and guidelines. Accessibility is always a high priority but especially in the case of IKEA who was committed to inclusive hiring practices we wanted to make sure that the site wold be accessible to any potential candidate.
Visually we followed the employer branding guidelines that IKEA had developed internally. The guidelines were updated mid-design so we had to pivot the visuals rather quickly at the end of the project. I was able to turn around the new visuals in less than a week to keep the project on track with our timeline.
Having to change the visuals at the last minute confirmed what I had long suspected… if you’re telling the story properly through content and flow, the visuals will support that story rather than being the star of the show. Even with a company with a visual brand as strong as IKEA, storytelling was the key to the project’s success.
