The site is now live
Current status
The site you see today is our live version. The site was officially launched in September 2016.
Read more about the past development of the site.
What’s next? Our plans
Now that the site is live, it doesn’t mean the work is finished. We’re now focused on:
- Raising awareness of the site with employers and other key stakeholders
- Publishing regular news and posts
- Producing a regular newsletter sent by email to our mailing list
- Researching and writing specific guidance on specific areas of employment.
These are just some of our plans. Keep an eye out on progress – read the latest site development posts or sign up to our mailing list.
Got a suggestion? Get in touch – we’re keen to take on board ideas!
Phases of development
- Discovery (early 2015)– This was carried out in early 2015 by researching the needs of employers, putting out surveys to both individuals and employers, as well presenting to a number of employer networks about what we were looking to do.
- Alpha (late 2015) – This was carried out over the latter part of 2015, putting forward a prototype solution for employers, testing a style and structure, and getting early feedback about the design. An ‘alpha’ is the first stage of developing something new. It’s a proof-of-concept – it shows our early thinking about how this new site could help us to meet the needs of employers. For Unlock, that means it was a way of us to share our ideas about what a website from Unlock could do for employers, how a website can help employers when dealing with the recruitment of people with criminal records, and how a website for employers works alongside our fair access to employment project.
- Beta (early/mid 2016) – This was carried out in the early part of 2016. We continued to develop the site behind the scenes, getting comments and feedback on the guidance we’d published and developed more guidance on a broad range of areas.
- Live (September 2016) – We are now at this stage. We’re confident that the site meets employers needs. From here, the site will be improved continuously, based on user feedback, analytics and further research.
Keep up to date
We’ll keep you updated on what we’re doing to build this site, and why, through posting regular updates under the tag site development.
You can also sign up to our mailing list to receive email updates about our work to support employers.
