A little background

We’ve a rich history of supporting public sector organisations recruit great people. But we rarely get the chance to help one develop their careers website. Which is a real shame. Why? Because the opportunities and support that a police force can offer it’s employees are huge. But they are just so bad at communicating this. And their careers websites often offer a poor candidate experience.

Which is why were delighted to be approached by the Derbyshire Constabulary recruitment team who were determined to change this. To better tell their employer story, to articulate the unique opportunities that are available with the force and change the way that people see the force as an employer. We started the journey with a single statement. Stop thinking like a public sector organisation and start thinking like an employer of choice. The result was the Derbyshire Constabulary careers website.

Our approach

Our project objectives were clear: design, develop and deliver a website that:

  • Brings the force’s recruitment proposition to life;
  • Articulates the wide variety of jobs available within the force;
  • Gets the right people straight to the right jobs;
  • Reflects the culture of the force;
  • Raises the profile of key information;
  • Continues to evolve with the needs of the force;
  • Integrates seamlessly with their ATS, Oleeo;
  • Is accessible across all devices;
  • Is ready to be indexed by ‘Google for Jobs’.

To deliver a website that will engage a wide audience of job seekers – from police officer to PPC Manager; Project Manager to PCSO; Police Volunteers to Technologists. A site where all content is available within a single click. One that uses social media as a way of articulating their culture and is distinctly and unmistakably Derbyshire Constabulary.

The website 

URL: careers.derbyshire.police.uk
Content management system: Concrete5
Applicant tracking system: Oleeo

Knowing that (on average) 80% of visitors come to a careers website to search for jobs, the website is designed to ensure that the right people find the right jobs. As well as a clear keyword search function, the website offers visitors clear signposts towards their 22 key recruitment areas. Each of these key recruitment areas – from Call Handling to Criminal Justice, Legal Services to Local Policing, Finance to Information Services – have their own dedicated section of the website. Covering the importance of that area to the success of the force, the teams that operate within it, testimonials from members of the team and any current vacancies.

It is clear that the force’s people are their very best advocates, so they are placed at the centre of every aspect of the website. They feature on every page, blog or job and in every piece of video. They help deliver key content and offer a real insight into their culture. Finally, we know that 49% of visits to the force’s careers website are likely to be on a mobile device, so we worked closely with their ATS supplier, Oleeo, to offer visitors the opportunity to apply via their smartphone.

Integrating with Oleeo

Derbyshire Constabulary have long standing relationship with Oleeo, with their applicant tracking system deeply embedded into the organisation. It is a system that is shared with Leicestershire Police, and as a result the candidate experience can be a little clunky. To address this we took a jobs data feed from Oleeo system and pulled the job details themselves into the website. This integration means that we can now control the formatting of the job details, pull relevant jobs into relevant sections of the website and ensure that the jobs can be better indexed by Google, Indeed and the other search engines. Candidates are then handed back to Oleeo at the application stage. A very elegant piece of work.

That Little Agency - Emplyer Branding - Careers Website - Derbyshire Constabulary - Oleoo Integration Image
That Little Agency - Employer Branding - Careers Website - Derbyshire Constabulary - Smartphone Image 910 x 510
That Little Agency - Employer Branding - Careers Website - Derbyshire Constabulary - Laptop Image 910 x 510

Indexing by Google for Jobs

Another positive outcome of the integration work we did with Oleeo, is that now the URLs of the jobs carried both the Derbyshire Constabulary name and a reference to jobs. This meant that we could submit the jobs to Google for indexing. Using their webmaster tools, now called Search Console, we submitted the full website map including jobs directly to Google and within 72 hours we could see that the jobs were being indexed. We have already seen a significant increase in traffic to the jobs through Google.

That Little Agency - Emplyer Branding - Careers Website - Derbyshire Constabulary - Google For Jobs Integration Image

The impact so far 

To see the impact of the new Derbyshire Constabulary careers website, we have compared the performance of the new website against that of the previous incarnation. All data has been taken from Google Analytics, the Oleeo application tracking system and directly from the force’s resourcing team.

122
increase in visitors to the website
148
increase in average time spent on website
29
increase in completed applications

If you’d like to know more about this piece of work, simply email mark@thatlittleagency.co.uk