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Design the Employee Experience

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

  • 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.

Design the Employee Experience Research & Tools

2. Empathize with employees to understand their experience

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

Empathy Map Template
Journey Map Template
Employee Experience Project Planning Template

3. Brainstorm options for moments that matter

Brainstorm and record potential solutions.

Storyboarding Guide

4. Prototype and test potential solutions

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

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.

About McLean & Company

McLean & Company is an HR research and advisory firm providing practical solutions to human resources challenges via executable research, tools, diagnostics, and advisory services that have a clear and measurable impact on your business.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your HR problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

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Get the help you need in this 5-phase advisory process. You'll receive 10 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Identify priority areas
  • Call 1: Collect and analyze data from existing employee surveys.
  • Call 2: Prioritize lifecycle segment to address and establish metrics to measure success.

Guided Implementation 2: Empathize with employees to understand their experience
  • Call 1: Define selection criteria for employees, review Discovery Interview Guide, and prepare for interviews.
  • Call 2: Analyze data collected from employee interviews and empathy map findings and prepare for employee journey mapping activity.
  • Call 3: Review employee journey mapping findings and the problem statement.

Guided Implementation 3: Brainstorm options for moments that matter
  • Call 1: Review how to create “How might we” statements and select a brainstorming method.

Guided Implementation 4: Prototype and test potential solutions
  • Call 1: Determine approach for selecting which prototypes to test.
  • Call 2: Review test session feedback to determine whether to go to pilot or to revise and test again.

Guided Implementation 5: Pilot solution and prepare for implementation
  • Call 1: Determine project plan tasks for pilot.
  • Call 2: Assess results of pilot and prepare for full-scale implementation.

Contributors

  • Anonymous Contributor, Marketing, Consumer Packaged Goods Company
  • Melodie Barnett, Managing Partner, Pivot
  • Michelle Berg, CEO, Elevated HR Solutions
  • Michael Blair, Consulting Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group
  • Phil Buckley, Managing Director, Change with Confidence
  • Mark Diker, Director, Human Resources, Penguin Basements Ltd.
  • Barbara Giarelli, HR Representative and Change Manager, Building Construction Products Division, Caterpillar, Inc.
  • Erin Gordon, Vice President Human Resources, Lindt & Sprungli Canada
  • Pernille Hagild, Country HR Manager, IKEA UK/IE
  • Lisa Hodgson, Recruiter, Bruce Power
  • Fathima Jaffer, Senior Manager, Enterprise Employee Experience, TD Bank Group
  • Elan Keshan, Consulting Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group
  • Devorah Klein, Principal Consultant, Marimo Consulting LLC
  • Gabe Kleinman, Director of Content and Marketing, Obvious Adventures
  • Mark Leung, Director, Rotman DesignWorks
  • Melissa Master-Holder, Vice President, Learning and Development, LPL Financial
  • Stacey McCullough, Design Thinking Consultant
  • Jacob Morgan, Author, The Employee Experience Advantage
  • Stephanie Speal, Senior Director, Employee Engagement, Measurement & Employee Experience, CIBC
  • Estela Vázquez Pérez, Director, Employment Brand at Employee Experience, Centre of Expertise, RBC
  • Ben Whitter, Founder, World Employee Experience Institute

Related Content: Employee Engagement

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