Staples Canada recently introduced a new career site new career site. The site is impressive, entertaining and welcoming. It showcases stories from different Staples’ employees as well as different career paths an applicant could take. We sat down with Therisa D’Amato, Regional Human Resources Director of Staples’ , the lead on the ground-breaking project to discuss its development.
D’Amato began the project by researching how Staples’ could better use Social Media in recruitment. After a colleague and she did additional research, they decided they needed to revisit their career site: Staplesville. Staplesville was created three years ago as result of research on Gen Y candidates. They were looking for a new way to attract quality candidates for their hourly and retail positions. The site has a game-like experience where you explore the world of Staplesville and discover the culture and career paths you can take as a Staples’ employee. It also included a clever YouTube video:
Staples’ hired Angus Reid to do some market research and conduct some focus groups in order to study it further. The response was clear: Staplesville was hitting its mark…a little too well. Though the content applied to most candidates, the navigation and presentation turned anyone outside of Gen Y off. They needed to find a way to appeal to all generations, not only the digital natives. Additional studies and research uncovered that Staples’ was seen as “just retail” and many were not aware of the multitude of opportunities for corporate and management positions.
At that time, D’Amato and her team decided a new career site had to be born. They needed a site that would have the spirit of Staplesville with a wider appeal for corporate applicants, management applicants and applicants outside of Gen Y.
D’Amato and her team collected all the employee stories and developed the content to ensure it was authentic to Staples’. The career paths were polished and the site was launched. The end result looks finished and friendly, it highlights the people of Staples’ and welcomes applicants.
If you’re interested in creating a site like Staples’, Therisa offered this advice, “Stay rooted in the research.” Staplesville will live on due to its success with Gen Y-ers; but now every candidate whether they’re Boomer, Gen X, or Gen Y will be welcomed into Staples’ employee culture.