Getting to know your staff like your company knows its clients could boost results - and cut HR’s workload
Your company knows its client base inside out – what they want, what they’re prepared pay for, and what makes them tick. But what if HR was to think about its own customers – employees – in the same way?
A jolt of “design thinking” can transform how your HR department operates, and have a major impact on not just employee experience, but your company’s results.
“We’ve known for a long time that a successful company is one that takes time to understand their customer base and what they need, and building business priorities and objectives off of the needs,” says Danielle Strang, head of people operations at Jobber, a business scheduling software provider.
“When you look historically at the HR profession, it’s astonishing to note how many programs or processes or practices have been designed without considering the end consumer, which is the employee.”
Strang – who will be a part of a panel discussing design thinking for HR professionals at the HR Tech Summit on June 27 – says companies like Google, Netflix and Airbnb can attribute a great deal of their success to “taking the time to listen to their employees and understand what is going to add value”.
She’s the first to admit she wasn’t always a design thinker.
At a past role, asked to create an onboarding programme, she simply worked with other HR professionals to design it.
Set the same task at Jobber, Strang flipped it on its head.
“I brought a team of people together from recent hires to tenured people, all corners of our business, there was representation from every function of our business. They designed the onboarding program and I facilitated the process.”
The result was extraordinary: a diverse group of staff drew on their own demographics and experiences to create a “phenomenal onboarding programme” repurposing Jobber’s automated email tool to give new staff guidance and insights into the company for their first three weeks, including laying out their tasks and meetings, and introducing them to the company’s leadership.
“It’s a good reminder that diversity of thought and ideas is our biggest opportunity as HR professionals to tap into. That is truly where innovation lives.”
Related stories:
Airbnb paves the way with new HR role
How to find out what your culture really is
A jolt of “design thinking” can transform how your HR department operates, and have a major impact on not just employee experience, but your company’s results.
“We’ve known for a long time that a successful company is one that takes time to understand their customer base and what they need, and building business priorities and objectives off of the needs,” says Danielle Strang, head of people operations at Jobber, a business scheduling software provider.
“When you look historically at the HR profession, it’s astonishing to note how many programs or processes or practices have been designed without considering the end consumer, which is the employee.”
Strang – who will be a part of a panel discussing design thinking for HR professionals at the HR Tech Summit on June 27 – says companies like Google, Netflix and Airbnb can attribute a great deal of their success to “taking the time to listen to their employees and understand what is going to add value”.
She’s the first to admit she wasn’t always a design thinker.
At a past role, asked to create an onboarding programme, she simply worked with other HR professionals to design it.
Set the same task at Jobber, Strang flipped it on its head.
“I brought a team of people together from recent hires to tenured people, all corners of our business, there was representation from every function of our business. They designed the onboarding program and I facilitated the process.”
The result was extraordinary: a diverse group of staff drew on their own demographics and experiences to create a “phenomenal onboarding programme” repurposing Jobber’s automated email tool to give new staff guidance and insights into the company for their first three weeks, including laying out their tasks and meetings, and introducing them to the company’s leadership.
“It’s a good reminder that diversity of thought and ideas is our biggest opportunity as HR professionals to tap into. That is truly where innovation lives.”
Related stories:
Airbnb paves the way with new HR role
How to find out what your culture really is