Building a Scalable Student Employment Platform with Salesforce
Industry: Nonprofit
2× faster
review and approval cycles through automated access
~40%
increase in portal logins across students, teachers and employers
Background
Careers Next is a nonprofit organization supporting students across Alberta in finding jobs and internships through a province-wide program built on Salesforce Experience Cloud. The platform brings together students, teachers, employers and secondees (temporary staff from partner organizations who support student placements across multiple schools and divisions) into a single, role-based ecosystem.
Salesforce Experience Cloud serves as the operational backbone of this ecosystem, powering secure portals that support application submissions, reviews, guidance and employer coordination. As adoption grew across regions and user groups, Careers Next needed the platform to evolve from a set of connected portals into a governed, scalable system that remained predictable, secure and easy to use at high volume.
Industry Challenge
In nonprofit student employment programs, access, review responsibility and application visibility are spread across roles, schools and divisions. Without governed, role-based controls, teams rely on manual workarounds, slowing reviews and weakening trust in the platform.
Goals
- Introduce clear, governed access across students, teachers, employers and secondees
- Eliminate manual ownership changes and admin-heavy access requests
- Standardize application review visibility across schools and divisions
- Reduce operational risk while improving trust in the platform
- Support growth without adding administrative overhead
Implementation
Infoglen delivered a multi-phase program aligned to how Careers Next actually operates.
Phase 1: Modern, Usable Portals
Objective: Improve everyday usability and user confidence
What changed for users
- Teachers and employers could quickly find and review applications
- Secondees could work across multiple schools without confusion
- Students experienced a clearer, more consistent application flow
What was delivered
- Redesigned Salesforce Experience Cloud portals
- Streamlined navigation aligned to real workflows
- Custom Lightning Web Components for faster search, filtering and review
- Clean, consistent UI across all personas
Phase 2: Automated, Governed Access
Objective: Establish operational control and consistency
What changed for the business
- Access granted automatically based on role, not manual ownership changes
- Review processes became consistent across divisions
- Admin dependency dropped significantly
What was delivered
- Permissions-based sharing model
- Apex-driven automated sharing framework
- Clear access boundaries for Students, Teachers, Secondees and Employers
- Governance aligned to real responsibilities, not exceptions
Impact
Measurable Outcomes
- 2× improvement in review and approval cycle time
- 30–40% increase in portal engagement post-launch
- 500+ student applications completed in the first program cycle
Qualitative Outcomes
- Stronger cross-stakeholder collaboration
- Consistent, secure visibility across all roles
- Higher user trust due to predictable access and modern UI
- Foundation established for future program expansion
Technology Stack
- Salesforce Experience Cloud
- Custom Lightning Web Components
- Apex-based Sharing Framework
- Account Teams
- Salesforce Profiles, Permission Sets and Sharing Rules
- Custom CSS for consistent UI
What the Customer Says
The development work was technically successful and the Infoglen team was knowledgeable, efficient and eager to help throughout the project. The team was responsive and demonstrated strong Salesforce expertise and problem-solving, including providing valuable technical input beyond the original scope.
— Jeannie Hawksworth, Program Manager, Careers Next
Goals
• Govern access and visibility across all user roles
• Eliminate manual ownership changes and admin dependency
• Create a scalable, predictable Experience Cloud platform
Implementation
• Redesigned Experience Cloud portals for real-world workflows
• Role-based, automated access using Apex-driven sharing
• Consistent review and visibility rules across schools and divisions
• Clear governance aligned to responsibilities, not exceptions
Results
• 2× faster application review and approval cycles
• 30–40% increase in portal engagement
• 500+ student applications completed in the first cycle
• Manual access management nearly eliminated
• Higher user trust due to predictable access and modern UI
Products Used
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
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Q: How did Infoglen build a scalable student employment platform using Salesforce Experience Cloud?Infoglen redesigned the client's Salesforce Experience Cloud platform to support students, teachers, employers and secondees through secure, role-based portals. By automating access and simplifying workflows, the platform became easier to manage, more scalable and better suited for growing student employment programs.
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Q: How can Salesforce Experience Cloud support student employment and nonprofit programs?Salesforce Experience Cloud enables organizations to create secure online portals where students, educators, employers and program administrators can collaborate, manage applications and access information based on their roles. This improves the user experience while reducing administrative effort.
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Q: How does role-based access improve Salesforce Experience Cloud portals?Role-based access automatically gives users the right level of visibility based on their responsibilities. This reduces manual permission management, improves data security and ensures every user sees only the information relevant to them.
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Q: How can nonprofit organizations automate application review and approval processes?By combining workflow automation, role-based sharing and custom business logic, organizations can streamline application reviews, eliminate manual ownership changes and create a more consistent approval process across teams and locations.
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Q: Which technologies were used in this Salesforce Experience Cloud implementation?The solution included Salesforce Experience Cloud, Custom Lightning Web Components, an Apex-based Sharing Framework, Account Teams, Profiles, Permission Sets and Sharing Rules, and custom UI enhancements to improve usability and governance.
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Q: What business results did Infoglen deliver?
The implementation delivered measurable improvements, including:
- 2× faster review and approval cycles
- 30–40% increase in portal engagement
- 500+ student applications completed during the first program cycle
- Significant reduction in manual access management
- Greater consistency, security and user confidence across the platform
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Q: Which organizations can benefit from a Salesforce Experience Cloud portal?Educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, workforce development programs, government agencies and membership-based organizations can use Salesforce Experience Cloud to manage applications, improve collaboration and provide secure, role-based access for multiple user groups.
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Q: How can Infoglen help modernize Salesforce Experience Cloud portals?Infoglen helps organizations design and optimize Salesforce Experience Cloud solutions that improve user experience, automate access management and support long-term growth. Whether you're building a new portal or enhancing an existing one, we create secure, scalable solutions tailored to your operational needs.
