TIP TUESDAY! Give Your Application Centre an Annual Health Check

WHAT IS THE TIP?

💡When was the last time you properly reviewed your Application Centre? Your Application Centre is where candidates search for opportunities, find out more about your organisation and start their application, so it's important that it's giving them the best possible experience. But once it's set up, it can be easy to leave it ticking along while links change, policies are updated, branding evolves and information becomes outdated.

We recommend giving your Application Centre a full audit at least once a year. Follow these 10 simple steps to check what's working well, spot anything that needs a refresh and identify opportunities to make the candidate journey even better.

1. Can candidates find your Application Centre?

💡Your audit starts before you even reach Oleeo. Head to your organisation's main website and see how easy it is for a candidate to get from there to your live opportunities.

Check:

• Is your careers or jobs page easy to find from your homepage?
• How many clicks does it take to reach your live vacancies? Every click needs to clearly move candidates closer to the job page.
• Is the route obvious, without needing to hunt through menus?
• Can candidates find your job board through a Google search?
• Once in the Application Centre, can they easily navigate back to your main careers site?

🔧  Put it to the test: Ask someone unfamiliar with your careers site to find one of your vacancies. Don't tell them where to go - see how easily they get there.

2. Does it still look and feel like you?

💡Application Centres can stay in place for years, while the organisation around them changes. Have a look at yours with fresh eyes and make sure it still feels like a natural extension of your careers site.

Check:

• Do the branding, colours, logos and fonts match your current website?
• Is your welcome message still relevant, friendly and useful?
• Are fonts, headings and formatting consistent?
• If you have different portals, is it obvious whether you're on the internal, external or another specialist site, eg events or talent pool site?
• Is the content relevant to the particular portal you're viewing?

3. Are your policies and declarations up to date?

💡This is an easy area to configure and then forget about. Use your annual audit as a reminder to make sure candidates are still being given the right information.

Check:

• Is your Privacy Policy current and easy to find?
• Is your Cookie Policy current and easy to find?
• Are candidates being presented with the appropriate cookie options?
• Is information about how candidate data is used and retained still correct?
• Are your candidate declarations still accurate?
• Has your use of AI within recruitment changed and, if so, does any candidate-facing information need reviewing?
• Does the copyright marking need to be refreshed with the current date?

4. Is it accessible and easy to navigate?

💡Something can technically work without being particularly nice to use! Move around the Application Centre as a candidate and look for anything that could make the journey unnecessarily difficult.

Check:

• Are Login and Register buttons easy to see?
• Is text easy to read and is there sufficient contrast between text and backgrounds?
• Are buttons and links obvious?
• Is your accessibility statement easy to find?
• Is language clear and free from internal acronyms candidates may not understand?
• If you offer multiple languages, is it easy to change language - and change back again?
• Can candidates easily identify an application they've already started but haven't submitted?
• Can candidates navigate the Application Centre using a screen reader or other accessibility tools where required?

5. Can candidates find the right opportunities?

💡Take a look at your job search. The filters and information available should make it easier for candidates to find the right role, rather than requiring them to understand how your organisation works internally.

Check:

• Are your search parameters still useful and relevant?
• Have old locations, departments or categories built up over time?
• Are the filter names understandable to an external candidate?
• Can filters easily be cleared and reset?
• Does your list or tile view show the most useful information?
• Are details such as salary and location visible where appropriate?
• Are your opportunity titles consistent and easy to understand?

🔧  Put it to the test: Pick a scenario - for example, "I'm looking for a Finance role in London" - and see how quickly you can get from the full job list to the opportunities that are actually relevant.

6. Are your job adverts doing their job?

💡Finding the right vacancy is only half the battle. Once a candidate opens it, can they quickly understand the role and decide whether they want to apply?

Check:

• Is the job description easy to read and digest?
• Is the language candidate-friendly and free from unnecessary jargon?
• Is key information such as salary and location clearly presented?
• Is Equal Opportunities information easy to find?
• Is it obvious how to apply?

7. Can candidates easily get help?

💡If a candidate gets stuck, they shouldn't have to hunt around for an email address or contact a recruiter simply because they can't reset their password.

Check:

• Are your FAQs or Help Centre easy to find?
• Is the information in them still accurate?
• Are all contact details and email addresses current?
• Is there clear guidance if someone can't log in or reset their password?
• Are password requirements explained?
• Is it clear who candidates should contact for recruitment queries versus technical issues?

🔧 Put it to the test: Imagine you've forgotten your password and need to finish an application tonight. Can you work out what to do without contacting the recruitment team?

8. Are you keeping candidates engaged?

💡Not finding the right opportunity today doesn't necessarily mean someone isn't a great future candidate. Check what you're offering people who want to hear from you again.

Check:

• Is it easy to create a job alert?
• Is it equally easy to unsubscribe?
• Do job alert emails contain enough information about the suggested opportunity?
• Is it easy to find and register for a Talent Pool?
• Is Talent Pool registration quick and proportionate to what you actually need at this stage?
• If using the Oleeo Engage Module, or you have embedded videos / imagery in your job adverts, is the content still relevant and branded correctly?

9. Do all your links and features actually work?

💡This one is simple - click everything! Broken or redundant functionality is easy to miss when you're not regularly using the Application Centre yourself.

Check:

• Do header and footer links work?
• Do Privacy, Cookie, Accessibility and other information links go to the right place?
• Do social media links still go to active accounts?
• Do external links open as expected?
• If Google, LinkedIn or other login options are displayed, do they actually work?
• Are there any old links, buttons or features that no longer need to be there?

If something no longer serves a purpose, this is a good opportunity to tidy it up rather than leaving it there because it's always been there.

10. Does the candidate journey make sense after they apply?

💡Your Application Centre doesn't stop being useful once a candidate has submitted their application. It's where they'll return to check their progress, complete next steps and understand what's happening with their application. Make sure the information they see throughout the process is clear, useful and relevant to where they are in their journey.

Check:

• Are your candidate-facing status names clear and meaningful? For example, does a candidate really need to see "New Application" several stages into the process?
• Do your status messages explain what's happening, what the candidate can expect next and whether they need to take any action?
• Are you making use of tailored status messages where different roles, processes or locations require different information? 
• Are buttons and actions clearly named so candidates understand what will happen when they select them?
• Is it obvious when the candidate has something outstanding to complete?
• Once an action has been completed, does the Application Centre make that clear so candidates aren't left wondering whether it worked?
• Are candidates being given useful information at the right point in the process, rather than having to contact the recruitment team for an update?

⭐ BONUS TIP: Become your own candidate!

💡You've audited it - now apply for one of your own jobs!

Start from your organisation's homepage, find your careers site, search for a vacancy, read the advert, register and work through the application. If possible, continue the test beyond submission so you can see the statuses, messages and actions a candidate sees as they progress. 

Better still, ask someone who doesn't regularly use your Application Centre to do it. If they get confused, can't find something or ask "what does this mean?", you've probably just found your next improvement.

😊 When did you last audit your Application Centre? Let us know what you found - particularly those little things that had somehow been sitting there unnoticed for years!

BENEFITS

• Keeps your Application Centre accurate and up to date
• Identifies broken links, outdated content and unnecessary candidate friction
• Helps candidates find and understand your opportunities more easily
• Improves accessibility and usability
• Reduces avoidable candidate queries reaching your recruitment team
• Helps create a consistent journey between your careers site and Application Centre
• Gives you a simple annual process for reviewing and improving candidate experience

CONSIDERATIONS 

• Aim to complete a full Application Centre audit at least once a year, as well as after significant changes to your branding, careers site or recruitment process.
• Don't just ask your usual Oleeo administrators to review it. Fresh eyes are incredibly useful when testing something you've become familiar with.
• Privacy, cookies, accessibility, AI and other regulatory information should be reviewed with the appropriate teams within your organisation where required.

COSTS

Auditing your Application Centre can be completed internally. Configuration costs may apply if your review identifies changes that require Oleeo support and you don't have the appropriate self-configuration access.

NEXT STEPS

Work through the 10 steps above and keep a list of anything you want to update, remove or improve.

If your audit uncovers areas you'd like some help with, speak to your Customer Success Manager about how you could make more of your Application Centre.