Pillory Barn was contracted by Earl Street Recruitment in 2022 to deliver a brand refresh along with an improved online experience, in response to trends accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

We took Earl Street Recruitment through our comprehensive brand process which included consultations, stakeholder engagement, presentations through to finalising a new brand toolkit.

An extensive website project has proved to be a ‘gamechanger’ for the business, with improved functionality. Potential candidates can now easily register and interact with the business via the website. This has benefited the business directly by releassing time for the seven-strong team to focus on the most important part of their jobs – matching candidates with clients for a broad range of temporary and permanent roles.

Deliverables for the project were:

Discovery and Research: Meetings with all project stakeholders to gain an in-depth understanding and discuss project deliverables.

User Experience (UX) Workshop: An interactive session with the stakeholder team at Earl Street Recruitment to map out the overall journey and experience of site users. This helped in determining the structure, sequential order, and hierarchy of all main sections of the new website in wireframe format.

Design: Designs were created for the homepage (desktop and mobile) and all required templates for inner pages. The design included brand elements, colour schemes, typography, and imagery.

Development: The website was built using WordPress as the Content Management System (CMS). The development process included installing and setting up the WordPress CMS, integrating required add-ons, and building and testing responsive navigation, templates, page types, and content blocks. Accessibility tasks were carried out to ensure compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA standards. The website was optimised for performance and tested across multiple devices and browsers.

WP Job Manager Integration: The website included a recruitment platform powered by WP Job Manager. This allows for job listings, job posting functions, user dashboards, profiles, alerts, application processes, job search and bookmarks.

Content Migration/Population: Selected content from the existing website was migrated and the new website populated with imagery and text supplied by the client.

Testing and Validation: The website underwent testing, including user acceptance testing, multi-device testing, forms testing, and speed and performance optimisation. Accessibility testing was also conducted using automated software and manual checks.

Training: A training session was provided on how to use the CMS and manage content, navigation, and SEO tools. Guidance was also provided on common steps and processes needed to create and manage pages.

Launch: actions in the launch stage included submitting the site to search engines, installing security measures, and generating an XML sitemap.

The website project delivered a user-friendly and visually appealing website for Earl Street Recruitment, with features such as a recruitment platform, responsive design, accessibility compliance, and a content management system for easy updates and management.

Hosting: Hosting for the website was provided on servers located in an ISO27001 accredited data centre. The hosting package included server support and regular backups.

Maintenance and Support: Ongoing maintenance and support for the website was offered, including keeping the CMS and plugins up to date and providing additional tasks on a request basis.