Norland

Introduction

For over 130 years, Norland has been setting the gold standard in childcare training. Its graduates - known as Norland Nannies - are renowned worldwide for their early years and childcare expertise. Norland has its own dedicated recruitment service, the Norland Agency, exclusively placing graduates in nanny and early years roles.

With a reputation for excellence, Norland needed a recruitment platform to match. They approached Rocketmakers to design and build a modern, bespoke system that could streamline their unique workflows, improve the experience for nannies and clients, and support their ambitious growth plans.

The Challenge

The Norland Agency’s work is highly specialised and hands-on. Unlike many recruitment businesses, every placement involves bespoke matching of nanny to family, with administrators carefully guiding the process at every stage.

However, the Agency’s existing system, a third-party CRM,  was ill-suited to Norland’s distinctive workflows. Staff had to create complex workarounds, while both nannies and clients struggled with an outdated experience.

Norland needed a solution that reflected their custom workflows and hands-on service model while streamlining operations for their busy administrators. It also had to provide nannies with a modern, engaging platform to manage their careers, and make it easier for clients to register roles, review applicants, and make confident hiring decisions.

The Solution

Rocketmakers partnered with Norland to create a fully bespoke recruitment platform designed around the needs of its three core user groups: staff, nannies, and families. Its core were three interconnected sub-systems: an Admin Portal to give staff powerful tools for managing jobs, candidates, and client relationships; a Nanny Portal where graduates could update their profiles, browse opportunities, and apply for roles; and a Client Portal to make posting vacancies, reviewing applicants, and confirming hires simple and straightforward. Together, these systems form a seamless ecosystem that supports the recruitment journey end to end.

As part of a user-centred design process, we ran design workshops with staff, mapped essential workflows, and iteratively tested prototypes. One of the most critical - and riskiest - elements was the data migration, moving years of records from the legacy CRM into the new platform without disrupting business operations. Thanks to careful preparation and mapping, this complex migration was executed smoothly, with the entire project delivered on time and on budget.

The Impact

Since launch, the response to the new system has been very positive. Nannies and clients find the portals easy to use and navigate, which has made managing profiles, exploring opportunities, and moving through the hiring process more straightforward.

Agency staff have highlighted the simplicity of the new admin tools, along with the benefits of clearer activity tracking and notifications. These improvements have helped streamline day-to-day operations and reduced the need for manual workarounds.

Together, the updated workflows have made the Agency more efficient and client-focused, supporting Norland in continuing to deliver a high-quality recruitment service.

Behind the Build

For Rocketmakers, this was both a local partnership and a technical challenge we relished. Norland is an iconic Bath institution and helping them provide such an important service for families worldwide was especially rewarding.

This was a sizeable and technically complex project: three independent portals - for staff, nannies, and clients - each with their own features and workflows, but all needing to interconnect and operate seamlessly as one cohesive system. Designing and delivering such a platform required careful planning, close collaboration with Norland’s team, and a relentless focus on user needs.

From the challenge of mapping intricate workflows to managing a large-scale data migration, every stage of the build required attention to detail and technical precision. By taking a design-led approach and preparing thoroughly for the migration, the team ensured the project was delivered ahead of schedule and on budget. The result is a robust, future-ready platform that captures the unique nature of Norland’s service while supporting their continued growth.