Foreword:
Founded in 2006 by the Rive Brothers and with Elon Musk as the Chairman, SolarCity has since grown to become America’s largest solar provider with more than 12,000 employees. The company has a mission and vision to entirely remove the need for fossil fuels in the US and make each home, building, and business completely sustainable on solar energy. In order to accomplish their vision and continue to grow faster than any other clean energy company, SolarCity needs to be recruiting a massive amount of new employees per month.
Our task was to create a recruiting website that could handle the job of bringing in and hiring the people who are going to build this planet's future energy company.
The Problem:
SolarCity's recruiting page on their website didn't convey the amazing work that this company does, nor did it convert users into potential employees like the company needs.
Solution:
Our task was to create a recruiting micro-site that could handle the job of massively recruiting the people who are going to build this planet's future energy company.
Our task was to create a recruiting micro-site that could handle the job of massively recruiting the people who are going to build this planet's future energy company.
Defining the Audience
There are many different types of employees at SolarCity. There are those work in headquarters and deal with business strategies and marketing. A large portion of the the employees are engaged in engineering projects and improving the manufacturing and distribution process. There are those who sell the products to customer and then there are also those who work day to day out on the roofs and actually install the solar panels. Each of these groups of people represent a different type of audience with different interests, skillsets, and language. We quickly realized that in order to create a website that could recruit all new employees for SolarCity, we needed to define and segment our audiences in order to cater each funnel to meet their specific needs. We the audiences down down into four categories:
There are many different types of employees at SolarCity. There are those work in headquarters and deal with business strategies and marketing. A large portion of the the employees are engaged in engineering projects and improving the manufacturing and distribution process. There are those who sell the products to customer and then there are also those who work day to day out on the roofs and actually install the solar panels. Each of these groups of people represent a different type of audience with different interests, skillsets, and language. We quickly realized that in order to create a website that could recruit all new employees for SolarCity, we needed to define and segment our audiences in order to cater each funnel to meet their specific needs. We the audiences down down into four categories:
After a lot of brainstorming we felt like the best solution to deal with this problem would be to create four microsites that could directly target each audience. Rather than immediately building all four sites we decided to start with the operations site and use it as our test guppy.
Even though SolarCity's customer facing website uses a white interface, we chose to go with a dark color scheme. We felt like the darker approach made the company feel more exclusive, exciting and "military-esque" and would convert better than it's alternative.
Even though SolarCity's customer facing website uses a white interface, we chose to go with a dark color scheme. We felt like the darker approach made the company feel more exclusive, exciting and "military-esque" and would convert better than it's alternative.
Making the Employee the Hero
Rather than boasting about how great the company is and about all of the many wonderful things it is accomplishing, we felt like it was really important to focus in on the individual and showcase him/her for their great work. We used images and videos to elevate the role of a construction-working solar panel installer to that of a planet-saving, world-changing hero.
Emphasizing the Impact of the Organization
There are countless construction companies out there who are building amazing things but there are very few companies that are having the kind of impact that SolarCity has. We intentionally focused a lot of the imagery and text on communicating that impact. We want the viewer to get the sense that this isn't just a "another job" but a mission and cause worth fighting for.
There are countless construction companies out there who are building amazing things but there are very few companies that are having the kind of impact that SolarCity has. We intentionally focused a lot of the imagery and text on communicating that impact. We want the viewer to get the sense that this isn't just a "another job" but a mission and cause worth fighting for.
SolarCity also runs a non-profit foundation called GivePower that provides power to schools in developing countries. For ever 100 Mw of solar power installed in the US, SolarCity installs power on a school in need. We felt it important to showcase that on the website and to leverage it as a tool for recruiting.
Built to Be Responsive
We recognized that many of our target demographic were searching for job while on a mobile device. It was incredibly important to us to create a site that looked good on all devices, maintained it's goal-oriented design, and followed a strong grid structure to keep everything tight and organized.
Communicating the Message
When SolarCity speaks to it's customers it focuses it's message on saving money, how the solar panels will look on the home, etc. When SolarCity speaks to it's employees it needs to share messages of impact, potential, and teamwork. The employees of the company feel like they are called to a higher cause and are not working to simply lower a customer's utility bill but to instead play one of most influential roles in climate change that this planet has ever seen.
When SolarCity speaks to it's customers it focuses it's message on saving money, how the solar panels will look on the home, etc. When SolarCity speaks to it's employees it needs to share messages of impact, potential, and teamwork. The employees of the company feel like they are called to a higher cause and are not working to simply lower a customer's utility bill but to instead play one of most influential roles in climate change that this planet has ever seen.
As part of our research, Garth and I spent two weeks with the installation crews on the East Coast. We admired the way they fought to work hard even when the conditions were incredibly tough. We noticed their vision and the feeling of unity they carried between the crews.
We sought out to create a video for the recruiting site that captured their culture.
Watch the video below.
The Results
It's only been a few weeks since the launch of the website but we've already seen tremendous results. Not only does the website look beautiful but it is incredibly effective as well, driving 80% of its traffic into the conversion funnel. We couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out.
