Design Thinking; Crafting the Employee Experience

Deloitte research shows that people collectively check their phones more than 8 billion times each day, which has significantly contributed to the emergence of “overwhelmed employees” as workers struggle to process and manage this constant flood of information. Ergo, it is no surprise that 79% of executives rate design thinking as an important or very important issue as it acts as a barrier to growth in business productivity.  

Design thinking provides a means to focus on the employee’s personal experience and to create processes centred upon the worker. This innovative initiative requires HR to move away from traditional solutions such as using programmes or processes to train people, assess performance and ensure compliance; instead, focus must be placed on innovative initiative requires HR to move away from traditional solutions such as using programmes or pstudying people at work in order to apply effective design thinking and action to achieve an optimal employee experience.

Design thinking is an opportunity for HR to reshape how it works with the organisation and to redesign its own procedures. However, in order to create a truly engaged, motivated and satisfied workforce, design thinking must be embedded within HR. Examining satisfying customer experiences outside of the work environment and prototyping new programmes on small groups enables HR to gain a real understanding of employee likes and dislikes. These initiatives can help HR to build and reinforce design capabilities throughout the organisation.