Beginning in 2022, the Skanska USA HR department began a project to improve the applicant tracking system and recruitment process for new hires. Phase one of the project focused entirely on the backend of the new systems and processes that were put into place to improve how HR personnel could post new job listings, track potential candidates and improve the overall applying process for interested candidates.
Phase two of this project began in early 2023 and focused on designing and implementing a new careers portal that would be the face of Skanska recruiting and use the backend technology of phase one. The purpose of the careers portal would be for potential candidates to learn more about Skanska, see what types of jobs were offered, and begin to envision what a career at Skanska entails both professionally and personally. I was tasked with managing and art directing this project by working directly with our vendor iCIMS and our internal team to design and implement this new career portal in 4 months.
Management of this project included:
- Organizing meetings and communications with additional team members, subject matter experts and leadership on project timeline and managing approvals of content for the site
- Collaborating with the content writer and subject matter experts on information gathering for specific areas of the site that required their expertise and managing rounds of feedback until content was approved and finalized
- Participating in weekly meetings with additional team members and iCIMS team on site status and to-dos
- Coordinating the delivery of final design and written content of the site to iCIMS
- Once site was launched, coordinating and managing maintenance of the site content moving forward
Art direction and design of this project included:
- Providing brand direction to iCIMS developers for site elements and overall design and layout to be in compliance with Skanska branding
- Creating an interactive mockup to help iCIMS developers capture the desired look and functionality of the site more accurately and easily
- Creating and sizing graphic assets such as logos, photos and icons and delivering them to iCIMS developers
- Reviewing the site in staging environments in order to provide approval on site design and test that the site was working correctly on all screens
- Providing brand direction for other elements of the new talent system connected with the career portal that included things like auto-generated emails and a digital assistant
The site has a total of 8 pages:
- The homepage: The landing page that details general information about Skanska and introduces candidates to search and the job families.
- Job family pages: There are five job families: Operations, Operational Support, Commercial Development, Professional Services and Early Career and Intern. These are the five major categories to organize Skanska jobs that were decided on during the initial stages of planning out the career site alongside Skanska’s subject matter expert in this area. Each job family page has a listing of sub-families which are sub-categories of jobs that fit under the main job family. Two of the job family pages (Commercial Development and Early Career and Intern) do not have sub-families.
- Life at Skanska: This page is meant to introduce candidates to what life at Skanska is all about. It details the company’s values, community, and what benefits and development training opportunities are available as a Skanska employee.
- Jobs contacts: This page lists contacts in Skanska specific to jobs and recruitment.
- The site is fully responsive.
The new career portal launched at the end of April 2023 and has been a valuable tool for promoting Skanska and attracting new talent.
