Helping NHS Health Careers launch the go-to platform for healthcare recruitment.

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About the client

About the client

NHS Health Careers is a digital platform related to Health Education England. Its objective is to aid healthcare recruitment by offering a one-stop-shop on job roles and training. Instead of listing current vacancies, the platform’s purpose is to advise those looking for a career in the healthcare sector.

Challenge

A complete transformation of NHS Health Careers – part of a larger restructuring project – meant that multiple separate websites now needed to be combined into a single platform. This new platform needed to service a wide audience with a range of requirements, from GCSE students to doctors looking to change hospitals, and everyone in between.

This platform would need to be sustainable, scalable and flexible, as well as capable of handling a diversity of user journeys and career information that would continue to expand over time.

A design approach that was centred on users, and backed by research, was required to ensure that the needs of multiple and varied groups would be met by the new platform

Approach

The discovery phase involved in-depth research on users and technical aspects, along with a full audit of content across all the sites to be consolidated, allowing us to build a content strategy for the future.

The research enabled us to identify and profile the key user groups. These personas were then used by our team to plot the varied needs of that diverse audience, informing the development of content and key features, which would include:

· A calendar of events, application deadlines and careers fairs

· Tailored information on every healthcare role

· Advice specific to user’s education and current roles

To help users quickly identify the most relevant information and support their decision-making process, we developed a career planning tool - a multistage form and role classification system, matching users with roles that suited their skills and interests. This was combined with a new login area – encouraging younger users to return and assess their interests as their training and education progressed.

Outcomes

Our specialists worked closely with NHS Health Careers to create a site that is direct, clear, and informative, helping users progress their careers or move into roles in healthcare.

We have developed a suite of tools to help users build a greater understanding of their aptitude, goals, and what they could gain from a career in the sector. With a list of over 1,000 courses and sophisticated filtering and search functionality, the course finder was one of the standout features, alongside a homepage offering personalisation based on user qualifications and interests.

Our collaboration with NHS Health Careers is ongoing, as we continue to improve and iterate on the site. Feature optimisation, strategy, and design continues to be guided by data and user research. We conducted workshops exploring how their audience perceives the NHS Health Careers brand, recruiting stakeholders from younger audience segments, focusing on how we can guide students with interests in healthcare careers.

Our emphasis remains on how users experience the site, revising and refreshing the website’s menus, navigation, and career listings. The ever-changing job market means that ongoing improvements and content planning are vital to ensure that the site continues to meet users’ expectations and requirements.