Understanding the Employee Ecosystem
Research into employee experiences, organisational structures, and onboarding services
Client
Team
Human Resources Group
Internal to Organisation
Two Design Researchers, and One Scientist,
Supervised by One Design Manager
Collaboration with Behaviour Science Team and,
an Enterprise Platform team
Scope
User Research | Journey Maps | Workshop Facilitation | Survey Design
The contents have been abstracted in accordance to NDA norms. Focus is kept on the process and role.
This project involved three parts :
Capturing the emergent themes in the employee experience and workplace zeitgeist via research workshops
Understanding organisational workflows, involved stakeholders and their challenges, through interviews
Assessing the experience of newly recruited employees undergoing a training programme, via surveys
Discovering needs, fears & aspirations of Employees
Capturing the emergent themes in the employee experience and workplace zeitgeist via research workshops
Context
To design for employee engagement, understanding employees is essential. However, employees may feel reluctant to discuss subjects of intimate interest. Eliciting information through explicit articulation methods may lead to findings that feel conventional or detached from context.
Research workshops were devised, inspired by journey maps, pop culture, and business-management literature. The workshops were designed to capture the needs, fears, and aspirations of employees from a specific demographic within the organisational context.
Process : Research Workshops
1
Workshop Setup
2
Activity Priming
3
Activity Worksheets
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Employees meeting the selection criteria were recruited for the workshop.
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The logistics of the workshop and necessary artefacts were prepared.
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Participants were welcomed. Introductions and ice-breaker followed.
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Mind-mapping-styed exercises and group discussion were conducted.
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Participants were asked to create multiple future journeys — each with a progressively different constraint.
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Journey worksheets were deliberately anonymised.
4
Group Discussion
5
Activity Worksheet
6
Worksheet Analysis
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Reflections and thoughts of participants were discussed.
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Participants were prompted to select their favourite journeys, and identify important elements.
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Intent of the exercise was to encourage critical reflection.
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Journey worksheets were analysed for key themes in employee needs, fears, and aspirations.
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Workshop routines were documented for further improvement.
Tasks
Outcomes
My key tasks were:
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Recruiting participants for workshops
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Preparing artefacts and setting up workshops
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Facilitating the workshops
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Analysing findings from workshops
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Presenting insights synthesised
Workshops were well-received by the participants.
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Needs, fears, and aspirations of employee demographic in focus were identified for alignment with organisation talent strategy.
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The journey maps created served as artefacts for upcoming strategy and planning workshops.
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Workshops were documented for contributing to research publication.
Mapping the Employee Ecosystem
Understanding organisational workflows, involved stakeholders and their challenges, through interviews
Context
Managing the employees for a large multinational organisation is a challenging and critical task. It involves the orchestration of several structures and mechanisms. To uncover the systems at play, several key stakeholders were interviewed.
The focus of the interviews was to understand roles, responsibilities and challenges. Through discussions, design artefacts were created. These would aid in further decision-making, and concept detailing.
Process : Mapping the Employee Ecosystem
1
Interviews
2
Design Artefacts
3
Findings & Synthesis
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Stakeholders across the ecosystem of the organisation were interviewed.
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Notes were taken during the interviews.
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Design artefacts were co-created alongside stakeholders.
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Critical aspects were noted, and questions were posed during the interview.
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Interview transcripts were analysed for critical findings.
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Design artefacts were completed, with additional findings from interview transcripts.
Tasks
Outcomes
My key tasks were:
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Taking notes during interviews
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Analysing interview transcripts for findings
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Interfacing for the creation of design artefacts
Based on interviews with key stakeholders, relevant findings were uncovered and design artefacts were created.
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Stakeholder map and service blueprints for critical organisational functions were prepared.
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Roles and responsibilities of stakeholder teams were identified for organisational workflow transformation.
Onboarding Experience Evaluation
Assessing the experience of newly recruited employees undergoing a training programme via feedback surveys
Context
A training programme was envisaged for newly recruited employees. This involved a series of events to onboard them into the organisational fold and introduce industry practices.
The employees were to periodically rate and review these events, via surveys. The intent of the surveys was to analyse employee onboarding as an organisational service offering.
Process : Onboarding Experience Evaluation
1
Survey Design
2
Analysis
3
Report Creation
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Questionnaires were created based on relevant service experience metrics.
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The questionnaires were administered by programme trainers.
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Fly-on-the-wall observations were carried out.
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Anonymised survey responses were received for analysis.
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Survey findings were triangulated with observations.
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A mix of preliminary statistical and qualitative analyses was conducted to derive insights.
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Reports were designed with key observations, insights, relevant graphs and recommendations.
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Reports were consolidated with Behaviour Science reports, and integrated with an enterprise platform.
Tasks
Outcomes
My key tasks were :
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Designing the survey questionnaire
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Developing evaluation templates
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Analysing responses with preliminary statistics
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Deriving insights from consolidated findings
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Interfacing with different stakeholders involved
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Collating and structuring insights via reports
Analysed reports were presented to C-suite management & key leadership.
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Upcoming training programmes were aligned with learnings and recommendations from reports.
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Management praised the reports. Key takeaways to be incorporated into organisation and talent strategy.
