Objective of the project: to understand the recruiting experience of both types of stakeholders - large organizations looking for new employees and the job seeker - their journey and their pain points and identify experience innovation opportunities and eventually design a digital product that leverages new technologies.
Time frame: 8 weeks
Teammates: Yong Shan Lee, Samira Cohanim, Pragna Kurra
My role: researcher, ideator, storyteller
Our Process:
Understand: the current hiring and recruiting process
We first conducted secondary research to find out as much as we can about the current issues that make hiring and job searching such a cumbersome and tedious process.
Snapshot of a small part of our research gathered on the Miro board
Define: reframing the problem statement
On the recruiting side, one of the biggest problem areas we found was combating biases. We also noticed that organizational culture and structure plays a big role in the employee (and perhaps prospective employee) experience.
On the job seekers side, frustration can come from everywhere, but especially from miscommunication (or lack of communication) with the recruiting side.
Ideate: brainstorm possible solutions
We reviewed our solution ideas with the Fjord team and received some constructive critique. We were encouraged to narrow the problem down even more and to dig deeper, look beyond the obvious.
Round 2
Understand: In order to gain more first-handed knowledge, we interviewed 4 people: 2 recruiters, 1 job seeker, and 1 organizational psychologist who was also a job seeker.
"I look for a candidate's vision and if they match with the company." - Recruiter #1
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted all of our interviews online via Zoom. The organizational psychologist's interview was not recorded.
"Peak performance is when values meet. So much of culture is top-down." - Recruiter #2
Define: The statements from the interview above sparked my team and I to embark on another deep dive into the impact that company values have on the recruitment process.
We found that as societal expectations shifts, company values that are upheld and authentic are becoming more and more important. So much so that it also affects the retention rate of newly hired candidates.
After doing a thorough research on current job search platforms, we didn't really find one that offered insights on how company leadership is following through in action with their company values.
That's when the non-obvious idea hit:
We wanted to create a digital platform that focuses on allowing candidates to match their values with companies that genuinely share similar values through reviews from the employees who are currently working or have worked at the companies.
INTRODUCING SKYEView:
Storyboard
Scenario 1: Job seeker POV
Scenario 2: Organization POV
SKYEView design principles and guidelines (left) and wireflow (right)
SKYEView Prototype:
Next Steps:
*Conduct think-aloud usability testing with potential job seekers to improve our user interface
*Create a value assessment within the platform for the job seeker (without leading them to a different website) because sometimes job seekers might not really know what they truly value
*Create a platform to help guide younger generations to grow and become better future leaders
*Include services for organizations to consult to restructure the gaps within their organizations
Overall takeaways from this project:
A compelling story is necessary in presenting ideas and solutions
Dig deeper for non-obvious ideas and solutions
Problems are complex - try to solve parts of the problem and do it very well
Uncertainty throughout the design process is inevitable - embrace it
Knowing how to make a design decisions within a team