Aspiring to Excellence -Modernising Medical Careers

I am not sure if anyone has seen the report by Sir John Tooke on the Modernising Medical Careers fiasco?  The report highlights a number of issues we currently face when integrating communications with business requirements.

The CIPD offer interesting advantages, disadvantages and tips for any business approaching online recruitment.  I feel a few areas need exploring in more depth. 

The usability of employer sites and application forms – to be honest the majority of them are a joke and actually at times embarrassing. There is a huge skills gap across service providers together with a lack of willingness from clients to invest in research and testing - this is leading to service improvement not being factored into web projects. 

We spend a lot of time talking about creativity in the industry but in the search for creativity we have lost the meaning of the term ‘concept’. Concepts are used to find unity across target audiences for creative messages; it is a great way to stop individual differences putting people off responding.  But a concept should always have a deep connection with reality. 

People interact on three different levels visceral, behavioural and reflective (this is taken from Emotional Design by Donald Norman).  Our traditional communications channel – PRESS – is a visceral medium so our concepts were reflected with unifying images and text.  That representation we have all seen to bring the employer brand to life. 

We need to create an engagement strategy that deals with behaviour … but when you look at the report it highlights the need to more from just thinking about how people interact with websites but also making sure this reflects the business needs.  Something that was missed in the online system created for the NHS.

This really creates a difficult problem to solve – we need people who not only understand how we interact with computers but also with a good understanding of HR practice.

I see this in the need to improve the planning skills across the industry – it is a neglected area.  With the complexity created by the internet our ability to control messages, inspire response and manage the whole process is getting difficult.

I feel that there is a reverse snobbery from practitioners to the models that are formulated from the research and university sectors.  This rejection often misses the point of the models.  The models are designed to help the thinking and decision making process.  Using the models does not guarantee success but they help to improve the likelihood – and often help to avoid issues such as too much response or response from the wrong target audiences. 

When I look at the issues we face I feel there is a need to improve relations between theory and practice.  I also think that more collaboration is needed to look at current threats to the industry. Ignoring the reality of the current business situation - attracting talent to the industry, the need to develop existing skills across practitioners and the need to build our standing – will only make life more difficult.

Comments

[Dom Sumners]

sorry John but you lost me about 12 words into this

[John Whitehurst]

sorry - am i rambling again

we need to invest more in research and testing of websites to sort the user experience for candidates.

agencies need to factor in the need for a new sort of creative process to deal with this.

plus we need to improve the knowledge of HR in agencies as it is more and more important to integrate this with the communications.

i will remove my head from my arse and try to write things in english :-)

if i ever do - please tell me as it will be a first

John

[Matt]

Interesting post and summary. I've always been surprised that this whole incident wasn't discussed more within the online recruitment community. One of the points you haven't touched on is something I did see on a blog a few months ago. Unfortunately I can't now find it again! It talked about the whole procurement process for the project and highlighted something that is unfortunately very common. There was a significantly longer time allocated to choosing a supplier then the supplier was allocated to research and scope the project. Although there were wider issues it is really not surprising that things with this system fell apart at even the basic level. What I think you should add to your points John, is that both client and agency need to realise that proper scoping time is key and not just a nice to have.

[dom sumners]

john - good summary and interesting points - thanks for taking the comment as lightheartedly as it was intended!
I think the expertise needs to grow in agencies but combined with an increase in our ability to persuade our clients to do the things we believe/know are the right approach. And i do accept that commercial pressures for us all does not always allow this.

[Ben]

Usability is a huge discussion point all on its own though John - and interesting that you bring it up here.

It's something that often gets swept under the carpet and replaced with 'but I want it to move, and look clever, like that (pointing to another persons' site)'. And there's a subtle balance that we need to achieve in our work.

Totally agree that research is one of the most important elements, and something that should be factored in, but as is often the case, budget (both in terms of money, and time), is not always as available for this as it should be.

This is a subject that I feel quite strongly about - making a site, and the content within, usable and accessible, and not trying to focus all our efforts on shoe-horning in the latest technology 'because we can'.

Now that I'm out of the fun summer of graduate website deliveries, I'll see if I can post a few strings to get the debate going on usability vs creativity. I'm sure we can achieve a happy balance in this process, but often it seems that creativity outweighs usability, unfortunately at the cost of the end-user experience.

Anyway, thanks for summarising John, and thanks for asking for the summary Dom.

[John Whitehurst]

With writing skills like mine you get used to writing things over and over again.

Some interesting points on this from everyone ... commercial constraints, lack of planning and usability.

Usability is a big point to look at ... i get wound up by both sides on this.

Usability and great design should go hand in hand - I am just about to start insulting websites (SO I WILL STOP).

But next time you do a search on google ... check the logo extension and then try to agrue back that usability and great design can not go hand in hand.

I keep on seeing it again and agan - people look at a site as an advert - IT IS NOT.

IT IS A PIECE OF SOFTWARE ... a different aproach is needed.