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 StepStone doesn’t have a dashboard and the Totaljobs one was old, extremely outdated and not responsive.
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:
An improved dashboard would reduce administrative support calls by surfacing clearer, real-time job and application data.
A modernised experience would reinforce product value perception and drive customer retention.
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.
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
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.
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