The Launch
Launching the new site was certainly a challenge, and not everything went
according to plan. We discovered a few technical glitches during the first few
days, but these were relatively easy fixes and were quickly corrected.
"We moved 360,000 job seeker accounts and more than 18,000 jobs for the launch,"
explains Dan DeMaioNewton, product analyst, for Monster Government Solutions.
"We also migrated more than 10,000 recruiter accounts with no major issues."
More Traffic. Positive Results.
The launch of the new site has provided new insight into the demographics and
behavior of the USAJOBS job seeker.
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How frequently do you visit the site?
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| Are you now or have you ever been a civilian employee of the
United States Government?
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But What Do Job Seekers Think of the Site?
Change in general is usually greeted with resistance, but OPM implemented a
plan before launch to notify USAJOBS visitors of the redesign. An email
marketing campaign that reached almost 293,000 job seekers and more than 1,500
recruiters helped get the word out, inviting visitors to the new site. Job
seeker satisfaction measurements dropped soon after the launch, which is normal
for any redesign of an existing site - most people don't like change of any
kind. But visitor satisfaction numbers soon rose to the levels measured prior
to the new site launch and have since surpassed the satisfaction levels that
the old site experienced.
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| USAJOBS Customer Satisfaction
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| On the agency side we observed a similar pattern. Our call
center call volumes were high during the first week as agencies adjusted to the
new site. The call volume hit a plateau over the next four weeks and then
dropped significantly as agency staffing specialists became more comfortable
with the new site navigation and design.
Prior to the site launch and after the site went live, we provided training to
staffing specialists across the nation by using a combination of auditorium
training sessions and Internet simulcasts using web-based training tools. To
date, over 1,300 agency staffing specialists have been trained in person or
online, and judging from the drop in the number of support calls from
government agencies, that training is working.
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| Daily Calls From Agencies |
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| Future Enhancements to Better Serve Government Recruiters and
Job Seekers |
The success of USAJOBS doesn't mean OPM and Monster are ready to rest on their
laurels. Now that the new site has been officially launched, we're ready to
start fine-tuning the site as well as releasing a number of significant new
enhancements.
Tune-up Releases
Since the new site launched, OPM has been gathering and prioritizing feedback
from both agencies and job seekers. While many of the more urgent requests were
immediately implemented on the site, we released a site upgrade in
October that included several minor improvements. The site will
receive "tune-ups" every couple of months as we make improvements to the look,
feel and navigation - based on user feedback.
New Vacancy Announcement Format
Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of the USAJOBS project has been the
opportunity to totally revamp the way federal vacancy announcements are
displayed. We have transformed the standard government vacancy announcement
into a format that's easier for job seekers and the agencies to use. The new
design and format also provides an opportunity for agencies to better brand
themselves and appear more appealing to potential employees.
HR specialists from many government agencies were part of the team that
re-designed the face of the government vacancy announcements. Some of the major
new benefits include:
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A shortened first page
which presents the most important information about the vacancy in a concise
form
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Agency branding
through agency specific banners at the top of each announcement
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Tabbed pages
to organize the information into logical sections
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Clear action-oriented buttons at the bottom of each page
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New Vacancy Announcement Builder
We are also developing a new Vacancy Announcement Builder, which allows
recruiters to "build" their job vacancy announcements electronically. This will
produce vacancy announcements that will be displayed using the new tabbed
format shown above. Some of the other features and benefits of the new Vacancy
Announcement Builder tool include:
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Ability to save preferences
means you can build announcements faster
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Real-time previewing
of generated text means you can watch your announcement being constructed while
you work rather than having to check it all at the end. This should result in
more accurate announcements being built.
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Boilerplate text can be edited and spell checked
to ensure that your vacancy announcements are accurate and make sense.
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New boilerplate language is "less bureaucratic"
and more job-seeker friendly. The OPM team has worked with partner agencies to
totally streamline much of the language found in vacancy announcements.
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Use of links to more information means more readable announcements.
Instead of two paragraphs of information text that may only be relevant to a
small group of users appearing in every announcement, there will be hypertext
links clearly visible in the announcements that will take the user to
additional information if necessary.
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Simple formatting tools are also provided, allowing recruiters to
highlight information of interest or importance within the job posting.
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Systems Integration With Agency Staffing Systems
Work is now under way to start integrating the new USAJOBS site with your
staffing automation systems. This will provide candidates with the most
seamless experience when applying to government jobs - while still allowing
agencies full control over their application process.
If you would like to find out more about systems integration or provide
feedback on the USAJOBS launch, please forward your comments via email to
Claire Gibbons from OPM at cxgibbon@opm.gov
or Brent Pearson from Monster at bpearson@monster.com.
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