A Study of Human Resource Website Design & Usability – Part 1.

Thanks to the economy many people are heading to HR websites in droves looking for that new opportunity but what they sometimes find is frustrating and confusing from a user experience perspective.

Human beings are social and creative creatures and when these individuals trade their time for money we all call that work. Most of us have had to or will need to look for work at some point in our lives. Finding the right job can be a difficult process and many company websites do not make it any easier. Many HR Departments have given up and focused on Monster or Career Builder as their solution. As a prospective employee your frustration level will be high searching through multiple Human Resources websites only to be consistently challenged by the interfaces you umm… face.

It’s obvious that if there is one area that is usually overlooked in the grand scheme of things it is the Jobs, Careers or Employment pages of a businesses website. The usability factor of the forms alone can be enough to scare off would-be recruits. From my personal experience you must use Windows XP and IE6 as your web delivery device or head for the bread line. Some searches simply won’t work in anything but. The HR sections of a large company website are typically built by programmers all by themselves since they usually aren’t “sexy” enough for the web designers to pay close attention to. I labored through a handful of unforgiving and unattractive (but some really nice ones too) HR pages to bring you this study of a few random, but popular, Human Resources pages.

The New York Times

Plain as Newsprint

Really?

The New York Times is considered “the paper of record” and I assumed they would have considered their career page. Alas, that is not the case. The NYTimes, founded in 1851, seems convinced that using the most ugly and difficult interface ever is the best way to attract future Pulitzer Prize winners to their staff. True, this is an off the shelf solution used by many other companies that could also care less about their image to potential employees. Even the page title is labeled “Applicant Home”. Yuck. To be honest, I just expected better.

Wells Fargo

Clean but Many Many Choices to be made.

Wells Fargo is the 4th largest bank in the U.S. and their careers page shows it! If I had to give a prize to this web page it would be respectable fourth place. The focus on India on the careers page is a little off putting but if you have been looking for a reason to move to Hyderabad and work for one of the world’s last largest bank then your search is over!

Adobe Systems Incorporated

Moody but Good

In the Fortune 100? Sign me Up!

Mysterious and lovely, just like their software updates. Nice navigation with a touch of Flash content to remind you where you’ll be working. I never understood the reason to slam the entire site left but to each his own. Extreme negative space may be the new hotness. Adobe constantly redesigns their site to improve the navigation and make content easier to access. And why shouldn’t they? It’s not like they have to pay for the software right?

Target Corporation

Shiny Happy People

Hmmmm… What does she know that we don’t?

Target has always had one of the strongest brands in this country and their career page reflects their commitment to creating a great atmosphere for their employees. But Target also has long suffered from the design disease “Website That’s Fractured” (or WTF?) leaving the poor user to try and remember where they are within the site. I understand it’s probably rare that a visitor would shop the main site and then look for a job all in one go but I’m sure it’s not unheard of. The navigation and its location changes often as you surf through the entire Target site. I can’t fault the great minimalistic design and professional layout but it would be easier if the navigation had more consistency as a whole.

Best Buy

Nice and Easy

Two thumbs up! Best Buy has a great career site now but the glaring problem used to be is that it opened in a new window from their main site. I’m glad the retail giant figured out that forcing open a new window goes against Web Usability 101 and tends to confuse.

I like the shiny happy people on the site and the easy navigation. I know what to do and where to go when I land here. Best Buy has made strides in employee communication and retention thanks in part to Blue Shirt Nation, a dedicated social site to all of Best Buy’s 140,000 employees. The recession has taken it’s toll on the electronics store but their HR Department still trys to put on a happy face. I like that.

Starbucks Coffee

Low Energy, High Carb and Easy to Read Design

The Fortune 100 Best badge says it all doesn’t it? Nice and easy layout with some great call-to-action content. The Starbucks job search engine is also fine piece of work. You can easily search and find current jobs quicker than you can say “Raspberry Mocha Chip Frappuccino”! I also like the slogan “Our success depends on your success” right up front and the photojournalist style pictures throughout the site. No stock photography here. A great site design and informative content. Fill’er up!

General Motors

Great Call to Action

Wonderful Attention to Detail. Video is a Great Tool for HR.

The Problem Starts Here.

Sheer beauty! GM has put some serious planning and horsepower behind their Human Resources site design. Not only is it easy to access from anywhere on GM’s company site, but also it’s structured in a way that easy to find content and learn about the company. The true problem is that this is all a cover to the older database search. The back-end is still fairly easy to use so I can’t fault them completely for that.  This is a wonderful site design with some real thought put into User Experience and call to action.

Google Inc.

Simple and to the Point. Typical Google.

Fountains!

What does the HR site for the company voted the best place to work for? Like this obviously! What else can you say about it? It’s a Google search for careers within Google. ‘Nuff said.
In summary Human Resources, Job Listings, Career Centers, etc. need to take a closer look at whom they are trying to attract. Designing for the user of your site should be your number one goal and especially in the HR section of your website. College graduates are using your website to grade your company before they ever submit a resume.

Take notice! Don’t even get me started on the usability and design horrors within mega-job sites such as Monster, Career Builder or Yahoo! HotJobs. These black holes are where humans are viewed as digital capital to be consumed by spammers and ill-informed headhunters with the occasional job offer. Those are for another posting…

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