Frank

As the world’s leading specialist IT recruiter, Frank Recruitment Group’s website and marketing infrastructure has a lot to live up to

When we started working together, the group’s structure of multiple sub-brands, each specialising in a different technology, was working well in terms of delivering highly focused specialist recruitment. 

As a result, its goal of making those subbrands synonymous with their relevant technologies – including AWS, ServiceNow and NetSuite – was performing really well. Their specialist focus meant they could really understand their clients’ needs and make excellent hiring recommendations.

But that rapid growth had, unsurprisingly, spawned an ad hoc approach to their marketing technology, resulting in a jumble of tech that was confusing to manage and use

Back end systems were bulging with candidates and CVs, with poor front-end integration adding complexity. Candidates were struggling to upload their own information, so it was falling on the recruiters to do all this extra work.

Looking for a global approach that would power its website and back end systems as quickly in Australia as in the UK, the Frank team knew AWS was the right solution

As well as the improved functionality and consistency, taking everything to the cloud would also cut hosting costs, which had come under scrutiny as part of the review process.

So when Frank approached AWS, Amazon was able to introduce us as the right people for the job. As Advanced Consulting Partners, we were qualified not just to lift and shift but to work with Frank to redefine what was needed, build the application and integrate it into AWS.

Although the heterogeneous tangle of tech had sparked the project, we all agreed that it was the perfect opportunity to build in self-serve processes. Recruitment has traditionally been very contact-heavy but, across all sectors, we’re seeing that people are increasingly unwilling to speak to recruiters, favouring smooth, self-serve interfaces.

But this posed a problem. The team at Frank are aware that, as a sector, recruitment is sometimes regarded with suspicion. It’s a perception they work hard to dispel. But how can you overturn people’s negativity without providing a superb personal service? 

Ultimately they decided to implement a spotless self-serve experience for those who want it, giving them an extra point of difference from their competitors. At the same time, they’d maintain the quality of their one-to-one contact for anyone preferring the human touch.

Designed with a keen eye on delicate GDPR legislation, one of our self-serve routes gives applicants the power to move from first point of contact right through registration, uploading their CV, building their profile and applying for a role. 

Recruiting employers can opt for a DIY option too, with the ability to easily create an ad for their role and upload it to the website. 

Innovation is all well and good but we couldn’t risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Anything we built had to maintain Frank’s SEO rankings and support its PPC strategies. So we analysed all the existing content, making sure to migrate it in the most appropriate way.

We rolled out each of the nine brands during 2021, creating a cookie-cutter process to make the launch and integration with individual databases run smoothly. 

We helped Frank’s leadership to identify the skills they’d need to keep things running smoothly and supported them to appoint the right in-house development team. Then, as each new roll-out transitioned into business as usual, we handed over to these internal colleagues.