WHSmith is a consumer brand with a rich heritage in the UK and internationally, operating more than 1,700 stores in 30 countries. The company also recruits for partner brands within its franchise model such as Marks & Spencer and Costa, as well as Funky Pigeon and InMotion. But because the business offers such a wide diversity of roles, it can be difficult to work out where your career might begin with WH Smith, so it asked Chatter to develop a new careers site that would make this easy.

One of the challenges was that candidates often just visited job pages rather than the careers site itself, and roles were not personalised or showing the rewards and culture on offer. It also did not reflect the extensive employer branding exercise the company had just undertaken, and it wanted to get this message across. Firstly, Chatter built in easy-to-use search and navigation features so candidates could find jobs quickly. For internal candidates, it created a separate job feature with results including internal-only moves. It added compelling video content featuring people and working environments in key locations, as well as content about benefits, careers and equality, diversity and inclusion. With built-in custom logic, the site now customises each job applying different styling and relevant content to the role.

On top of this, Chatter needed to reflect the global nature of the business as well as the brands that sit within it, so it developed a content architecture that would help candidates see the scale of the operation. To reflect the revamped employer brand, it added strong visuals such as interactive candidate booklets. In just three months after site launch, views and clicks have risen considerably. Kate Harcourt, group head of talent acquisition, said the new offering had “totally transformed the narrative”.