Recruiter dashboard

Background

Stepstone Group is a leading international brand which owns job sites all over the world. It’s currently active in over 22 countries. Totaljobs is one of its brands and has an extremely large presence in the UK.  

The challenge

The challenge was to create a new, harmonised dashboard experience that addressed recruiter needs and surfaced next-best actions after login. This solution would serve both Stepstone and Totaljobs, ensuring a scalable, global approach that could be applied across brands.

Results

  • 63% decrease in admin and account related calls
  • 2.4% increase in retention

My role

  • Lead Product Designer
  • Worked with a cross-functional team. The PO based in Germany, Developers based in Poland and GTM in London.

Introduction

At Totaljobs the first place users land after logging in is the dashboard, while at StepStone it’s the List of Listings (list of all posted jobs). StepStone doesn’t have a dashboard and the Totaljobs one was old, extremely outdated and not responsive.

Old Totaljobs dashboard
Stepstone list of listings

Research & discovery

Through interviews and workshops with recruiters, customer success agents, and the sales team, we discovered core user goals:

  • Monitor job performance and optimise listings

  • View application statuses quickly

  • Track saved CV searches

  • Check account balance and contract usage

Additionally, internal teams like customer success use the dashboard as a reference tool when speaking to clients, meaning data accuracy and clarity were paramount.

We formed two hypotheses:

  1. An improved dashboard would reduce administrative support calls by surfacing clearer, real-time job and application data.

  2. A modernised experience would reinforce product value perception and drive customer retention.

Totaljobs journeys site architecture
Stepstone journeys site architecture
Navigation analysis

We mapped and compared the current user journeys across Stepstone and Totaljobs. We conducted a workshop to co-create a harmonised navigation model that would inform the foundation for future A/B testing.

Proposed harmonised navigation

Ideation

Using the research insights, I explored multiple dashboard concepts aimed at:

  • Reducing cognitive load

  • Surfacing meaningful metrics at a glance

  • Offering next steps to optimise jobs or respond to applicants

I worked closely with the cross-functional team to validate design assumptions and test early concepts with users. Recruiters appreciated clarity, but early versions were still too busy. Users struggled to identify the dashboard’s core purpose and locate key sections when prompted. This highlighted a need to reduce cognitive load and simplify the layout.

Validation and iterations

Based on those insights, I refined the layout to emphasise hierarchy and clarity. We then tested the updated versions, and one layout stood out for its clear visual structure, quick scannability, and focus on application activity.

We ran usability tests to validate wireframes with both Stepstone and Totaljobs users. The highest-performing version presented:

  • Application activity front and centre
  • Clear visual hierarchy
  • A dedicated section for expiring jobs and unread applications
Dashboard version 1
Dashboard version 2
Dashboard version 3

solution

I created hi-fidelity designs for the different use cases for both Stepstone and Totaljobs and a prototype to ensure developers could see the user journey for each use case.



Stepstone final design
Totaljobs final design

Post launch insights

After release, administrative call volumes dropped and qualitative feedback was positive. However, a new insight emerged: users struggled to interpret account overview data, especially around contracts and subscription models.

We re-tested the widget with updated layouts, eventually separating Job Ads and CV Database views and aligning labels more clearly to the numbers. This change significantly improved user comprehension.


Results

The new dashboard was released towards the end of 2020 and as you can see there’s already an increase in usage at the beginning of 2021 which continues throughout the year.

63% decrease
 in administrative/account-related support calls

2.4% increase
 in user retention

Consistent positive feedback from recruiters and internal teams

Key takeaways

  • A harmonised, insight-driven dashboard increased transparency and reduced support dependency
  • Recruiters are now presented with clear hiring performance indicators and actionable next steps
  • Aligning with jobseeker pain points (like being left in the dark) improved the feedback loop between candidate and recruiter