HR TECHNOLOGY
workplace technology. Project teams can’t empathise with employees if they don’t meaningfully include them at all stages of the process.
Define
All too often, decisions around software selection, implementation, and configuration are made by central project teams, consultants, and vendor staff who have received little input from the users whose jobs will be impacted by the new workplace technology to determine the list of detailed technical requirements for a new HR system or the specific elements that need to be included in a new management training course. Design thinking suggests that the designer or project leader thinks deeply about the people who will be impacted by a new solution or process. They should engage and spend time with them to better understand their motivations and challenges, as well as develop a deep appreciation for any physical or environmental characteristics that are important to the solution. But the key to making this information-gathering stage successful is empathy, which can help
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designers and leaders to get past their own assumptions and gain insight into users and their needs. For HR-tech projects, this means making sure that the project managers and HR leaders actually spend time with and observe the “real” employees who use the HR and workplace technologies in their jobs. All too often decisions around software selection, implementation, and configuration are made by central project teams, consultants, and vendor staff who have received little if any input from the users whose jobs and work processes will be impacted the most by any new HR or
During this stage, designers and project leaders gather all the information and input from the initial phase. The team can then review and assess this information with the goal of defining the core problems identified. But a key element of design thinking is the goal to make “humans” the central point of the problem you are seeking to solve. For example, a traditional target metric might have been: “We need to decrease the number of questions for the employee call centre about payroll and benefits by 10% this year.” Instead, a design-thinking approach would define the problem as, “Employees should be provided a platform for payroll and benefits that is easy to use and understand, and where they can find information.” In this stage, the designers and project team gather their ideas to establish the required solution features, functions, and any other process-design elements to address the problem in a human-centered way. The goals of almost all HR-technology initiatives can be expressed in these “human” terms: “Make access to information faster and easier for front-line workers.” “Give managers better guidance to mentor and coach new employees.” “Arm new employees with resources that welcome them and show them that the organisation is ready to support them.” These are “human” expressions that have more meaning to project teams and employees than metrics and abstract corporate goals. It is hard to rally most people around meeting a metric, so the goals of any HR-tech project should resonate and connect in a human way, especially with those whom you will ask to make (sometimes substantial) changes in how they get their work done.
Ideate During this stage of the design-thinking process, the project team is able to start generating specific ideas and approaches. With the understanding of the users of
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