The complexity of simplicity

Simple is the new stylish.

So throwing a jobseeker into a complex universe of online search and applications may not be the smartest way to attract top talent. Regrettably, until recently, that was pretty much the grind for those looking for a job within the Allianz group. But things have changed. And how!

Allianz’s new career portal has now made it way easier for jobseekers to browse through opportunities across the group. Each job listing comes with more than just the description of the responsibilities involved – using Google Maps, the site informs you about the different perks and benefits offered in the region across levels and Google Assistant help you with mock interviews.

The new portal aims to crunch the number of Allianz career sites to one from a whopping 40!

Different business lines, different countries and regions, varied needs and attitudes, the process of simplification was far from simple for a decentralized group that is Allianz.

To begin with, changing the orientation from ‘me’ to ‘we’ was quite the challenge. The general assumption was that a jobseeker would look for a job in a specific entity of Allianz. Reality was that most candidates started a search first and then got interested in the entity that best suited their needs and wants.

Then, there was the traditional recruitment mindset. You have a vacancy, you advertise it, and then screen applicants. But these days, attracting the right talent is a wooing game. Vibrant visual content and storytelling formats are important for even catching the jobseeker’s eye. It took a mental reorientation to turn HR professionals into content creators and online marketers. Putting yourself in the shoes of the jobseeker was the trick.

Aligning group-level messages without compromising the entity’s priorities also needed efforts.  Add to that the different priorities of various departments, and simplification became a complicated task.

So far, Allianz entities independently decided texts, images, videos and messaging for their local career portals. The user experience also varied across entities. Some career pages were a part of the overall corporate website, others were standalone portals, yet others were just a single page with listings. 

The first step towards consolidating the career websites across the Allianz group was finding some common ground. A set of golden rules was developed

• ‘Less is more’: The most golden of all rules. In this day and age of information overload, giving jobseekers only relevant content and cutting out the ‘white noise’ was the key to attracting and retaining their attention.
• ‘Jobseeker first’: A career site is less about the job advertiser and more about the jobseeker. This means focusing on the applicant’s location and offering all the opportunities in that region rather than narrowing the options down to a particular entity.
• ‘Go glocal’: Some concepts are global and the others, local. The right balance allows the group to have a wider global appeal without losing the local flavor. This meant sharing universal content in different languages with Allianz entities, while giving them the freedom to develop heavily localized concepts where needed.
• ‘It’s all about jobs’: Content is king indeed. For a career portal, the most important piece of content is jobs. A strong search function, combined with useful and relevant information for each listing, had to be at the core of the planning. 

Allianz France, Allianz Spain, Allianz Life U.S., AGCS and Allianz Technology were the first group entities to join the simplification ride. “Co-design sessions helped us align on the needs,” says Nadja Gruber, Product Owner of the portal. “We took a step back, put all the usual corporate concerns, processes and even politics aside and asked ourselves: ‘What is our end goal?’ It was to turn users into job applicants.”

To gain an ‘outside-in’ perspective, Allianz and partner Deloitte developed seven user journeys to identify the optimal experience for an applicant. “We focused on the kind of content that adds value to the vacancies advertised. In the end, this is what a candidate is really interested in,” Gruber says.

First tests with external users went well. As many as 80 percent said the website caught their attention and over 93 percent found the structure and information easy to understand.

Refining the process was Allianz Global Digital Factory, which provided digital tools to make the jobs easy to find in the online universe as well as analytics to study the response of the users for further improvements. 

The new modern look and feel complements a customized experience. As more entities and countries join the platform over the coming months, there will be more relevant local content on the site. Users can now switch between countries and browse through listings across the group.

Each listing comes with information not just about the role but also everything related – how the application process works, what are the perks offered at that career level, even what to do if you face technical problems. Integrated Google Maps also shows you the exact location of the office the role is based in.

A candidate can prepare for an interview using Google Assistant’s voice technology. Two modes – preparation and simulation – allow you to choose how tough the interview should be. The Assistant throws real-life questions at you, readying you to face the hiring squad.

Allianz’s digital journey for a fantastic user experience with the career portal is far from over. “We are exploring ideas such as video applications and interactive formats and even augmented reality to make job-hunting an experience rather than a process,” says Dominik Hahn, Global Head of People Attraction at Allianz SE.  

“We want talented jobseekers to reach us through all the channels they are comfortable with – be it through Facebook or WhatsApp or an online portal. After all, a company is only as good as its employees.” 

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The Allianz Group is one of the world’s leading insurers and asset managers with more than 88 million retail and corporate customers. Allianz customers benefit from a broad range of personal and corporate insurance services, ranging from property, life and health insurance to assistance services to credit insurance and global business insurance. Allianz is one of the world’s largest investors, managing over 650 billion euros on behalf of its insurance customers while our asset managers Allianz Global Investors and PIMCO manage an additional 1.4 trillion euros of third-party assets. Thanks to our systematic integration of ecological and social criteria in our business processes and investment decisions, we hold the leading position for insurers in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. In 2017, over 140,000 employees in more than 70 countries achieved total revenue of 126 billion euros and an operating profit of 11 billion euros for the group.

These assessments are, as always, subject to the disclaimer provided below.