Speed Matters: How Career Sites Can Learn from Formula One with Bryan Adams, Happydance

Ever wondered what Formula One racing and career websites have in common? More than you might think, according to Bryan Adams, CEO and founder of Happydance, who recently joined Bill Banham on the HRchat Show to discuss an innovative new campaign that's bringing F1-inspired competition to the talent acquisition space.

The "Careers Site Grand Prix" pits career websites against each other, measuring their performance in speed, accessibility, and SEO – creating an F1-style leaderboard complete with weekly podiums and seasonal champions. This timing perfectly aligns with Formula One's 75th anniversary celebrations and the iconic Silverstone Grand Prix.

Bryan, a two-time bestselling author with 20 years in employer branding and a past guest on our sister show, the People and Performance Podcast, shared a startling statistic that frames the entire conversation: for every second past three seconds that your career website takes to load, you lose 10% of your audience. "You're not up against other career websites," Adams explains. "You're up against Amazon and Netflix, TikTok and Instagram" – platforms that have dramatically reduced our patience for digital experiences.

The parallels between F1 and talent acquisition run deep. Just as racing teams seek marginal gains through precise optimization and teamwork, organizations must optimize their career sites across multiple dimensions – load speed, accessibility, mobile responsiveness, and personalization – to create winning candidate experiences. As more candidates browse and apply for jobs on mobile devices, meeting them where they are becomes increasingly critical.

What's refreshing about Bryan's approach is his emphasis that creating high-performing career sites isn't just about having Fortune 100-level resources. It's about getting fundamentals right, measuring what matters, and using data to drive continuous improvement, much like successful F1 teams. When asked which F1 team Happydance resembles, Bryan bypassed the obvious powerhouses to identify with teams that "are constantly punching above their weight, constantly relying on ingenuity, creativity, teamwork, new innovation."

Want to see how your organization's career site measures up? Visit gp.happydance.love

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  Speaker 2 (00:26):
  Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show.
  Hello listeners, this is yourhost today, bill Bannam, and I
  don't know if I've ever sharedthis with you before, but I am a
  huge F1 fan, formula One fan.
  I took a little bit of a breakwhen Lewis Hamilton was robbed
  of his deserved eighth title,but I'm back and I'm loving this
  
  (00:47):
  season and actually this seasonrepresents 75 years of F1.
  And to celebrate 75 years of F1and the iconic Silverstone
  Grand Prix, happy Dance islaunching the careers site.
  Grand Prix HappyDance islaunching the Careers Site,
  
  (01:29):
  grand Prix a bold, buzzy six andseo and showcase the results in
  a dynamic f1 style leaderboardcomplete with weekly podiums and
  end of season champions.
  And I'm delighted to say thatthe hl gazette is a media
  partner for this campaign.
  Joining me back on the podcastafter way too long is Brian
  Adams, ceo and founder of HappyDance Careers websites.
  
  (01:52):
  Brian is also a two timesbestselling author, a TEDx
  speaker and pun intended an allround good sport.
  Brian Adams, it's been too long.
  Welcome back to the HR chatshow.
  How are you doing today?
  I'm all right.
  Thanks for having me back, bill.
  It's been too long.
  Welcome back to the HR chatshow.
  How are you doing today?
  
  Speaker 3 (02:06):
  I'm all right.
  Thanks for having me back, bill.
  It's been too long, hasn't it?
  
  Speaker 2 (02:10):
  It's been.
  It's been several years.
  I feel like maybe it was aconversation during the early
  part of the pandemic.
  I'd have to double check.
  And, of course, listeners.
  I will add a link to Brian'sprevious appearance in the show
  notes.
  Brian, for those people who didnot listen to our previous
  conversation, why don't youstart by taking a couple of
  minutes telling our listenersall about yourself, all about
  Happy Dance and what gets you upin the morning?
  
  Speaker 3 (02:32):
  Yeah, cool, thanks, bill.
  Well, I won't take two minutes.
  I'll just try and keep it brief, but for the last 20 years,
  I've been obsessed with employerbrand, employer brand strategy
  and helping organizations telltheir story of what makes them
  different and relevant to talentwhen it comes to people making
  great career decisions.
  In 2020, I released my secondbook, give and Get, employer
  
  (02:55):
  Branding, which has provedfairly popular and sort of
  created the spark for a numberof conversations that I just
  love to have about employerbrand, evp, employee value
  proposition, and in the last 18months, I've pivoted to sell
  that company of 20 years so it'sa major shift and showcase
  
  (03:34):
  their employer brand online sothey can find the best talent
  available to them.
  Yeah, it's been a wild ride.
  So a lot of a lot of changesince we last spoke, bill, but
  also still in the same ballpark,and I'm still obsessed of the
  same sort of stuff employerbrand and storytelling and
  candidate experience.
  
  Speaker 2 (03:54):
  Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat
  podcast.
  If you enjoy the audio contentwe produce, you'll love our
  articles on the HR Gazette.
  Learn more at HRGazazettecom.
  And now back to the show.
  Yep, so previously brian was atph creative.
  I missed you, brian, at aconference I think it was last
  
  (04:18):
  year, I don't know if it wassherm or hr tech or something.
  I popped by the stand when youwere still with those guys to
  say hello and I was told I'dmissed you by two minutes.
  There we go, there we go, soit's good for catching up today.
  Now, then, what we're talkingabout today is the fact that
  Happy Dance has launched acareers-like competition
  inspired by a sport that I love,and I'm still reeling over
  
  (04:42):
  Hamilton not winning his eighthtitle, which he should have done
  , but that's a different story.
  Formula One it's fast, it'shigh stakes and it's full of
  precision.
  What made F1 the perfectmetaphor for the world of
  candidate experience?
  And, as part of the answer,what message are you hoping to
  drive home?
  
  Speaker 3 (04:59):
  Yeah.
  So I mean, my sort of originstory is all about employer
  brand and how we make peoplefeel and the messaging and you
  know, all of the soft stuffaround a human connection
  between an organization and acandidate, which is lovely and
  it really does serve as adifferentiation factor between
  
  (05:21):
  us and competitors in themarketplace, factor between us
  and you know competitors in themarketplace.
  But actually, bill, you know,when it comes down to it, we're
  a sas company and the softwareneeds to work and at the really
  sharp end, if this was ane-commerce company, like you
  know, it'd be really importantfor us to make sure that the
  technology loaded quickly, theexperience on the page was sharp
  
  (05:43):
  , the information was there, youcould buy when you wanted and
  all that good stuff.
  So actually this is a campaignto get right down to the nitty
  gritty, to the really sharp endof what we really do and prove
  that our career websites are thebest technology out there in
  
  (06:04):
  the marketplace, not just ourdifferentiation of the brand and
  how we position companies andhow it looks and how it feels
  and how it reads, you know.
  So that's our approach andthat's what we're really trying
  to get to, bill.
  
  Speaker 2 (06:18):
  And also F1 is sexy and cool.
  
  Speaker 3 (06:21):
  Well, that doesn't suck as well, right, and it was
  funny, actually, our MD JimTaylor, it was his idea, and
  he's as well.
  Right, you know, um, and it wasfunny, actually, our, our md
  jim taylor, it was his idea, andhe's like do you know what?
  We've got a couple of companiesthat are attached to f1 and I
  think, uh, drive to survive isjust like thriving, like I mean,
  it's like really sort ofcaptured my attention as well,
  you know, um, and he's like Ithink there's something in this.
  
  (06:41):
  There's a really good parallel.
  What if we did something tocompare the speed and precision
  of F1 with how fast a careerwebsite launches and lands and
  makes a difference on candidateexperience?
  I just thought, wow, this is abrilliant idea.
  So we ran with it and you know,it's exciting and fun.
  
  (07:02):
  And you know, here we are, youknow.
  
  Speaker 2 (07:05):
  Absolutely.
  I once met LewisHamilton'silton's dad, by the
  way, an absolute gentleman justno way, that's amazing, and jake
  humphries lived down the roadfrom me.
  I met him once too.
  
  Speaker 3 (07:15):
  Very nice man, very tall practically part of you
  know mclaren or ferrari at thispoint bill.
  
  Speaker 2 (07:21):
  You know, I mean that's like brilliant, humble
  brag stuff so, uh, brian, thiscampaign combines storytelling
  with serious tech analysis.
  Of course.
  How important is it for ta andemployer brand teams to
  understand both the creative andthe technical sides of the
  
  (07:41):
  digital candidate experience?
  
  Speaker 3 (07:42):
  that's a really good question and we sort of take for
  granted the speed of thedigital candidate experience.
  That's a really good questionand we sort of take for granted
  the speed of the technology andthe performance of the
  technology because ultimatelythe candidate experience is sort
  of memorable and differentiatedby the messaging and how a
  brand presents itself, butactually that all falls away if
  the technology doesn't perform.
  
  (08:04):
  You know, with my origin storyand my passion and my expertise
  and you know my 20 yearsexperience in employer branding,
  it's really easy for me tosometimes gloss over the amazing
  work of my team, my sort ofcrew, if you like, um of
  engineers.
  You make sure the technologyloads quickly, is super
  
  (08:27):
  optimized, is like the top,tippy top of performance.
  You know it's easy for me togloss over that stuff, but
  actually this is a campaign thatreally celebrates the technical
  expertise and performance andreminds us just how important
  like load speed, seo,accessibility, optimization, all
  
  (08:48):
  of these things how theycontribute to a great candidate
  experience.
  
  Speaker 2 (08:52):
  Okay, well, let's just take one of those aspects
  for a moment Load speed, whichis something I spoke about with
  your team prior to thisinterview today and now that's a
  key focus here here.
  What difference does that makein terms of the candidate going
  to a site and maybe adding theirdetails, or maybe an employer
  going to a site and looking forcandidates what, what, what's
  
  (09:13):
  the difference?
  What?
  What difference does half asecond make to that experience
  in terms of ultimately finding ajob or ultimately finding a
  candidate?
  
  Speaker 3 (09:23):
  Yeah, I mean you know you go to a career website and
  the analogy with F1 isphenomenal.
  Actually, the more I thinkabout it Because you know this
  is an old study, it's over 10years old but it says that for
  every second past three secondsthat your career website takes
  to load, you lose 10 of youraudience.
  
  (09:44):
  Now just think about that.
  You know, after three, four,five seconds like you can lose
  half your audience beforethey've seen anything at all.
  You want to tell them aboutyour company just by the speed
  at which it loads.
  And you're not up against othercareer websites.
  You're up against other digitalexperiences, which include
  Amazon and Netflix, tiktok andInstagram and all of the things
  
  (10:09):
  that have absolutely diminishedthe patience we have from the
  time of clicking a button andexpecting an experience on the
  other end.
  And you know this can be thedifference between getting the
  attention, creating affinity anddriving a candidate to action,
  or they completely disregardyour organization before you've
  
  (10:32):
  had a chance to say anything atall.
  
  Speaker 4 (10:38):
  Once in a while, an event series is born that shakes
  things up, it makes you thinkdifferently and it leaves you
  inspired.
  That event is Disrupt HR.
  The format is 14 speakers, 5minutes each and slides rotate
  every 15 seconds.
  If you're an HR professional, aCEO, a technologist or a
  community leader and you've gotsomething to say about talent,
  
  (10:59):
  culture or technology, disruptis the place.
  It's coming soon to a city nearyou.
  Learn more at disrupthrco.
  
  Speaker 2 (11:13):
  What about some of those other components you
  mentioned a moment ago?
  You mentioned SEO, youmentioned accessibility.
  That's huge.
  This is an hr podcast we're ontoday.
  Uh, why?
  Why do those two things mattertoo?
  
  Speaker 3 (11:26):
  well, you know I mean um accessibility correlates
  directly to um diversity,inclusion, all of the different
  segments of your audience whomight be on a desktop, on a
  mobile, might be on 4G or 5G or,you know, in a third world
  country sometimes, like you know, you have to accommodate for
  
  (11:48):
  your entire audience andoptimize for all of those
  conditions to be truly inclusive, to get the best candidates
  possible.
  You know you don't just want tohire the best candidates with
  the best broadband speed.
  You know, it's just, it's justlike.
  Unfortunately, it's not thateasy.
  You know, and your organizationis designed to present a brand
  
  (12:12):
  experience, to be as inclusiveand diverse as possible.
  And you know load speed is justthe absolute tippy top of
  priorities when it comes toengaging with a full audience
  wherever they are.
  And there's a brand experience.
  It's your job to take yourbrand to your audience, not the
  
  (12:32):
  other way around, and that isjust.
  It's becoming more and moreimportant and the data shows it.
  More people are applying forroles or experiencing a brand
  for the first time on a mobile,more and more as the months go
  by.
  And you know, if you want tocompete for the best talent,
  your job is to be there and meetthem where they are so my
  understanding is part of thiscompetition.
  
  Speaker 2 (12:54):
  Uh, the winner gets a trip to silverstone to see the,
  the british gp, which soundsamazing.
  I want to enter or find a wayto win myself, but the point is
  you've opened this challenge upto everyone.
  It's not just to crown a winner, of course, but to raise the
  bar across the board tohopefully improve industry
  standards.
  Why was it so important todesign the campaign as a
  
  (13:17):
  learning opportunity, not justas a race?
  Well, you know, bill, we've gotnearly 100 customers.
  
  Speaker 3 (13:19):
  It's so important to design the campaign as a
  learning opportunity, not justas a risk.
  Well, you know, bill, um, we'vegot nearly 100 customers and
  the the data that we aggregateacross 100 customers who get
  millions of impressions on aweekly basis, not just a monthly
  basis, is is is enormous.
  Um, sharing some of thoselessons is important for us to
  raise.
  You know, a rising tide raisesall ships, you know that kind of
  thing.
  But but can I be honest, bill,we're just really bullish and
  
  (13:44):
  we're really arrogantlyconfident that we've got the
  best tech out there and we canperform the best, and we welcome
  open competition.
  And do you know what?
  We've had some great entrantsalready, some other
  organizations, I've got somefantastic career websites.
  So it's going to cause chaos onthe grid.
  I'm going to really upset myteam thinking that this is going
  
  (14:07):
  to be a breeze, but this iswhat it's about.
  You know, if we can havehealthy, positive, fun
  competition, we can share theresults, we can learn from it,
  we're going to raise theindustry, we raise our standards
  , and that's what it's all abouta fun question for you that's
  just occurred to me, um, but I'mgoing to ask it because we're
  
  (14:29):
  using also cheesy f1 languagetoday.
  
  Speaker 2 (14:31):
  And so, brian, if happy dance was an f1 team,
  which f1 team would it be, andwhy?
  
  Speaker 3 (14:39):
  whoa, what a great question.
  Oh, bill, you always throw methese questions.
  Um, do you know?
  I think, and um, I've got to behonest here.
  Uh, I am an f1 fan because ofdrive to survive on um netflix.
  I'm not one of these peoplewho've sort of avidly followed
  
  (14:59):
  it for years and years and yearsand years, but you know what's
  captured my heart is the likesof McLaren, who, or Williams,
  who are constantly punchingabove their weight, constantly
  relying on ingenuity, creativity, teamwork, new innovation all
  
  (15:23):
  the time, not just sort ofbudget and money and you know,
  to sort of guarantee the win ofa race.
  That spirit exists in happydance and it's what keeps a
  smile on my face, it's whatdrives the team forward and
  makes us want to do bettertomorrow, better than we did
  yesterday.
  So it wouldn't actually be RedBull or Ferrari or you know the
  
  (15:48):
  obvious.
  I would like to think everybodyagreed with me in happiness
  that we have the spirit of theunderdog but the ambition of the
  winner.
  
  Speaker 2 (15:58):
  You, sir, are a wordsmith.
  What a good answer.
  Thank you very much.
  Personally, I'm a Hamilton man,although he's at Ferrari now,
  and that's a problem for mebecause I'm not really a Ferrari
  fan.
  I'm kind of torn there.
  There is a lad from Norfolk,where I'm from, who is an F1
  
  (16:19):
  racer at the moment as well, soI quite like him too.
  Now that you've highlighted theconcept of marginal gains,
  which is a key F1 principleWe've spoken about the SEO,
  we've spoken about theaccessibility.
  We've spoken about the sitespeed issues these marginal
  gains.
  They are essential to winningin talent acquisition, just like
  they are in F1.
  What are some of the smallestchanges that can have the
  
  (16:42):
  biggest impact on a career siteperformance, beyond what you've
  already mentioned?
  
  Speaker 3 (16:47):
  Yeah.
  So you know, to win thiscompetition and to create the
  marginal gains that make a realdifference, we've tried to
  change it up a little bit soit's not just the obvious
  aspects of top performance, um,and when it comes down to it,
  from a, from a brand experienceperspective, the personalization
  
  (17:10):
  , the detail you can go to topersonalize an experience, to
  optimize an experience for acandidate so they feel like they
  are really talking to the brandand having their questions
  answered with the insight thatmakes a difference to their life
  , not just an insight to theorganization.
  This is the stuff that matters.
  That doesn't just offer apositive candidate experience.
  
  (17:33):
  It offers a more relevantcandidate experience that takes
  a person closer to theorganization and paints a sort
  of more realistic picture.
  So we're trying to delve intothat aspect as well.
  You know there's tangible thingsthat are easier to measure
  which, of course, are reallyimportant, really important, but
  
  (17:56):
  when it gets down to it, youknow when, like the pit crew,
  are looking for those marginalgains, the 10th of a second and
  all of the aspects that make aworld class performance, we're
  looking for those aspects ofevidence and those elements that
  really make a difference in acareer website that, you know,
  goes into all of thoseconversations with f1 pick per
  
  (18:19):
  team.
  So you know the analogy.
  I don't know is it corny, is itobvious?
  But when you look at theperformance and how many people
  contribute to making an f1 teamand the degrees of world-class
  number one on the grid versus afew points for 10th, you know
  
  (18:39):
  it's amazing, and thesimilarities are just so
  apparent and obvious that wejust couldn't resist leaning
  into it.
  So you know, all of thosemarginal gains go into what
  we're trying to measure, and ifwe can highlight at the end of
  this is a learning experience aswell.
  But at the end of this we don'twant to just say here's what we
  
  (19:00):
  knew was important, so here'swhat you need to look at.
  We're hoping that some newthings pop up, some things that
  really challenge us andchallenge the industry and offer
  some insight and value to sayhey, listen, turns out we need
  to spend more time thinkingabout the language we use to
  answer the questions, not justthe specifics of the yes and
  
  (19:23):
  no's and this like who knows.
  That's the exciting thing.
  
  Speaker 2 (19:26):
  For me, though, okay, very good, we are doing a
  fantastic job here of using allof the f1 references.
  So let's, let's keep up withthose racing words.
  Uh, you, you work.
  I think you mentioned you workwith around about 100 clients at
  the moment.
  I'm guessing they're big andsmall.
  With careers site innovationmoving fast, there we go.
  How can organizations keep up,especially those without the
  
  (19:50):
  resources of a Fortune 100company?
  
  Speaker 3 (19:53):
  Well, do you?
  You know what it's not aboutthe resources and the budget of
  a fortune 100 company?
  Uh, you know it's.
  It's a lot easier to make surethat your career website is
  optimized and performs than justliterally throwing money at it.
  It's not about that.
  Um, you know and a lot of theanalogies really do hold true
  
  (20:15):
  Making sure you get the basicsright, making sure that what you
  want to improve is measured andmanaged, not falling into the
  old sort of conventionalpitfalls of just assuming best
  practice, but actually testingand measuring and using data to
  
  (20:35):
  drive your agenda forward.
  You know, when it comes toaccessibility, seo which now
  doesn't just include searchengines but like chat, gpts and
  like different ways we engagewith technology and more
  conversational sort ofexperiences that we need to
  
  (20:56):
  optimize, for all of these needsto be tested and measured and
  driven forward from a dataperspective.
  
  Speaker 2 (21:03):
  That's how f1 works and that's how our industry is
  driven forward as well so thefocus of today's conversation,
  up to this point, of course, hasbeen career websites.
  Um, but, depending on the typeof job whether it's um, whether
  it's, uh, an hourly job,contingent worker, a more
  traditional white collar careerfolks also use social media um
  
  (21:26):
  very much for for looking forjobs these days.
  Um, how important is that?
  Um, and how can, how can careerwebsites make sure that they're
  maximizing their reach byleveraging LinkedIn, tiktok,
  instagram, whatever it might be?
  
  Speaker 3 (21:40):
  I mean, that's a great question, bill, and the
  simple answer is any brand thatwants to be relevant to their
  audience needs to take theirbrand where their audience is,
  and it's our job to make surethat we show up, we are relevant
  , we have the information athand.
  
  (22:01):
  The experience is positive, youknow, and I could say that for
  like Netflix, amazon, apple,meta, like any of these
  organizations, not just on thetalent space, but on a brand
  relevance and a brand experienceperspective.
  That's how we need to bethinking TikTok's not going away
  
  (22:22):
  , instagram's not going away,whatsapp is not going away,
  linkedin is not going away.
  We need to optimize for theplaces where our audience is and
  make sure we show up.
  We're differentiated, we'remore relevant than our talent
  competitors and there'ssomething in there that makes us
  memorable and stand out, thatgets the attention and we're in
  
  (22:43):
  an attention economy.
  The platform is irrelevant inthe eyes of your audience.
  Our job is to show upconsistently wherever our
  audience is and make thatexperience as optimal as they
  get from all of the otherbranded digital experiences
  
  (23:04):
  possible.
  Not just talent, but like ingeneral excellent.
  
  Speaker 2 (23:07):
  And before you race off, before you race off today,
  mr adams, uh, one last questionfor you.
  Uh, how can our listenersconnect with you?
  So maybe that is LinkedIn,maybe that's TikTok, maybe
  whatever you want to share thereand, of course, how can they
  learn more about Happy Dance?
  
  Speaker 3 (23:23):
  Yeah, well, I appreciate the opportunity there
  , bill, linkedin is great for me, so LinkedIn type in Brian
  Adams, just like the Canadiansinger, and Happy Dance, you
  will find me and I'm very, veryactive on LinkedIn.
  That's great Love to connectpeople there.
  If you're interested in thiscampaign specifically, it's
  gphappydancelove.
  
  (23:44):
  You can enter your organizationand see how you get on on the
  grid there.
  It's open to the fortune 100organizations plus any
  organization who thinks they canchallenge.
  So that's exciting.
  Or just check outhappydancelove generally and get
  in touch with the team and we'dbe happy to talk to you
  
  (24:04):
  excellent and brian.
  
  Speaker 2 (24:05):
  I know I said this to you before and I appreciate
  that you're based in california,but, as you know, I do a whole
  bunch of hr related events overhere, the disrupts and things in
  the uk um I do some in Canadaand the US at the moment mainly
  in the UK these days becausethat's where I'm based.
  Whenever you are back over here, sir, you have an open invite.
  I'd love to hang out with you.
  I'd love to get you on stage.
  Thank you very much for beingmy guest today.
  
  Speaker 3 (24:25):
  My pleasure Bill.
  
  Speaker 1 (24:36):
  And I will take you up on that.
  As always, until next time,happy working.
  Thanks for listening to the HRChat Show.
  If you enjoyed this episode,why not subscribe and listen to
  some of the hundreds of episodespublished by HR Gazette and
  remember for what's new in theworld of work?
  Subscribe to the show, followus on social media and visit
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