Encouraging recruitment and engagement with New Zealand’s Defence Force

Welcoming new recruits to a modern and engaging website

Te Ope Kātua o Aotearoa, directly translated to ‘Line of Defence of New Zealand’, is our country’s three-branched military, made up of the Navy, Army and Air Force. Responsible for the protection of national security and humanitarian efforts, the organisation consists of thousands of employees across a broad range of roles.

As a trusted partner of the NZDF marketing team for more than five years, Voyage has continuously enhanced the NZDF Careers site. Our journey began with the initial build and has evolved through multiple updates, improvements, and maintenance of previous iterations. This enduring collaboration, marked by high-quality deliverables and professionalism, led to Voyage being entrusted with a full site refresh, further showcasing the depth of roles and diverse entry pathways within NZDF's primary defence forces.

As a result of extensive workshop sessions and research between NZDF and Voyage, the team identified key pain points and improvements that would maximise value, including:

• Enhancing the user experience to make it easier to find information.
• Improving system functionality and search capabilities.
• Showcasing life at NZDF in an engaging way.
• Streamlining content management for the content editors.

Taking the existing site build to a whole new level

The Voyage team was tasked with making the new NZDF Careers site fast, functional, easy and enjoyable to navigate. Two primary areas of focus for the new site were user experience and enhanced search and navigation, to help visitors find what they’re looking for and be guided through an exploration of roles.

Prior to the full refresh project, Voyage worked with NZDF Careers to improve the existing site. This included implementing a new information architecture (IA) complete with hundreds of pages of content. Based on the outcomes of the IA review and redesign, for the refresh the developers reorganised and simplified areas of the CMS editing experience. Where required, migration scripts were created to move or restructure data.

The initial site build also included a full-stack development with CWP SilverStripe, all with the overarching aim of helping people find their career path. It was decided that the new site would remain with Silverstripe, to ease the transition for both employees and resources, but included considerable improvements to enhance everything from speed to backend content edits.

Finally, we leveraged the momentum of the Codewords campaign, integrating relevant content from other NZDF resources to demonstrate the breadth and impact of NZDF operations to potential recruits.

Putting the spotlight on search and navigation

The new site features improved navigation, expanded filter options, and more informative role cards. To align with the Defence Force’s Bicultural Policy, Te Reo Māori translations were incorporated across the site, while accessibility considerations open up the user experience to more Kiwis.

Algolia's AI-powered search tool was implemented to enhance speed and relevance in job searches. As an AI search tool, Algolia’s API offers speed and relevance, resulting in improved user experience, especially for something as important as careers. Utilising the power of AI, in an instant the tool can weigh and compare matching terms to arrive at the best one.

Additional search innovations included a more prominent placement of the search bar, expanded filter options, popular role tags and improved role cards, a more impactful and considered menu, and more useful information at a glance.

Inspiring more people to choose a career with NZDF

Upon first opening the new NZDF Careers site, visitors are encouraged to ‘Run Deep With Us’, and search for one of more than 100 defence roles. This striking opening tells the story of the full site refresh - bold, impactful, direct and functional.

NZDF Careers showcases the depth of roles within the primary defence forces while highlighting diverse entry pathways. From school leavers to university graduates and trade apprenticeships, the site demonstrates multiple routes into NZDF, inspiring both new and experienced professionals to join the ranks.

The combination of the in-depth discovery phase, informed design, advanced tech solutions, and depth and breadth of Voyage’s in-house expertise helped to realise this empowering end result. The final site brings to life the initial conversations with key stakeholders, including end users and NZDF leaders, while also mitigating the realities of solutions and budget.

NZDF Careers utilises a variety of mediums and design elements to tell an engaging story of our country’s first lines of defence, and inspires those both beginning or embarking on a new phase of their career.