Design the Employee Experience

Find the sweet spot where employee needs and organizational strategy meet.

Design the Employee Experience

Member Challenge

  • Employees have more choices in today’s marketplace, and they know it. Competition is fierce, so enhancing the employee experience is more critical than ever to attract and retain the right talent.
  • Employees’ expectations of their work experiences are evolving.
  • Organizations have few formalized efforts to address employee experience, and where they exist, efforts are siloed or lack resourcing to address the end-to-end experience.
  • Employee experience isn’t limited to areas where HR has direct control.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

In the past, organizations have focused on their own priorities as an employer, but that pendulum has swung toward a more balanced approach. The sweet spot is where employee needs and organizational strategy meet.

Impact and Result

  • Start with the employee lifecycle and identify moments that matter – where the employee and employer needs are most aligned.
  • Use a design thinking approach to engage employees in the process of designing a best-fit solution for a positive employee experience. Improve attraction, retention, engagement, and productivity.
  • An employee experience design can be a big change, so get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Leverage employee feedback and be prepared to iterate to find the best possible solution.

Research & Tools

Name Actions

1. Identify priority areas

Prioritize the employee lifecycle segment and map the key business process.

Name Actions
Design the Employee Experience Storyboard
Design the Employee Experience Executive Briefing
Case Studies: Design the Employee Experience
Design Thinking Primer
Employee Experience Workbook
HR Process Mapping Template
Discovery Interview Guide

2. Empathize with employees to understand their experience

Conduct interviews and create an empathy map, journey map, and problem statement.

Name Actions
Empathy Map Template
Journey Map Template
Employee Experience Project Planning Template

3. Brainstorm options for moments that matter

Brainstorm and record potential solutions.

Name Actions
Storyboarding Guide

4. Prototype and test potential solutions

Develop and test potential solutions to determine whether to move forward to a pilot or revise.

Name Actions
Employee Experience Test Session Guide
Project Roadmap Tool

5. Pilot solution and prepare for implementation

Evaluate success of pilot and prepare for a full-scale implementation.

Name Actions
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