Abstract

Brands like Apple, Google, Nike, Amazon, and PepsiCo have been established because of practicing and using design thinking to create innovative products. For example, Nike is the best sports company because they have great technology and equipment to boost the performance of the athletes. In basketball shoes, Nike provides cushions and lightweight materials to accommodate the sport.  Design thinking indeed has led to the success of products design and to the operational processes. Innovation is synonymous with design thinking.

In this article, I want to present how design thinking is particularly relevant in the context of Human Resource practices. Quite recently, at Deloitte, the company developed Human Resources solutions that focus on creating a positive employee experience by using Design Thinking principles. These Human Resources solutions have built standard operating procedures (SOPs) and processes that put the employee experience in the centre and by doing so made it simple, gratifying, and fascinating. Deloitte incorporated design thinking elements through digital designs to experience work processes, behavioural economics, and much more. Traditional Human Resources solutions are built around process steps, forms, and formal training. Individual employees want to experience one on one information and interaction in the organization. The previous format of broadcasting information has been discarded and mails are sent to individual employees pertaining to their scope of work and scope to improvise the process.  

Deloitte used Design Thinking to convert Human Resources from a “process developer” to an “experience architect”. From redesigning the physical work environment to optimising the digital workspace and directing how managers use their time, Design Thinking has helped Deloitte reimagine the entire process of hiring, training, engaging, and evaluating employees. Deloitte has invested in their employees, studying how people behave at work to create profiles and personas to model their solutions on. These profiles are specific to the employee demographics, work environment, and the set of challenges they encounter. Ideating and prototyping have enabled the company to come up with quicker solutions and effective tools. Feedback mechanisms based on questionnaires have helped them bring specific requirements to light and facilitate learning and awareness. Few companies are even using agile methodologies to teach people to do less and focus more.

Design thinking is a multi-disciplinary tool. It is non-linear. In the Human Resources context, the principles of design thinking are applied to answer humanistic questions by assuming challenges faced by people and trying to make them easier. Each individual has a different approach to looking at a challenge in the organization; each individual has a different perception. 

Design thinking develops an in-depth understanding of people for whom solutions are being designed and involves them in the process so as to come up with out-of-the-box ideas to enhance their workplace experiences.  It seeks to integrate the skills and methodology of designers from multiple disciplines into a collaborative effort. Multidisciplinary designers need to understand how diverse areas of expertise can come together to solve complex design problems.

While brushing teeth, it’s not easy to reach the deep inside of the mouth, leaving molars and teeth not brushed thoroughly. GE designed an electric toothbrush that made rapid automatic bristle motions, either back-and-forth in rotation in order to clean teeth. A modern electric toothbrush is usually powered by a rechargeable battery charged through inductive charging when the brush sits in the charging base between uses. This is an example of design thinking in production.

Helping people find safe water sources near them is one of the ways in which non-profit tech start-up mWater has improved thousands of lives. mWater apps and software let users find, monitor, and map the quality of water and sanitation sites.  This also helps local authorities detect water infrastructure gaps. Designed for field use, the apps work both online and offline – using the cloud for automatic data syncing when online and GPS for finding locations offline. With over 10,000 active users in 93 countries, mWater already has a database of over 350,000 public and private water sites around the world.

Innovation is at the core of businesses. Delivering differentiated and satisfying customer experiences can lead to a boost in loyalty, market share, and revenues.

Imagine what a similar focus on employee experiences could mean for business. Leading companies are already recognizing that the employee experience is the new battleground for competitive advantage.

Organisations and world economies are constantly evaluating ways and means that can restore balance and help jumpstart slumping livelihoods. In the ongoing Covid pandemic, and at this critical juncture, organisations are leaning on Human Resources (HR) to restore employee morale and boost confidence in the company’s future. Adapting to this rapidly changing environment requires a renovated approach. The Human Resources fraternity has been prompt and agile in shedding the old ways and facing unprecedented challenges with new and innovative ideas. HR plays a crucial role in enabling organisations to transition from working-at-office to working-from-home, almost overnight. In short, the pandemic catapulted HR teams to occupy a seat on the strategy table from being just a support function. 

Design Thinking in Human Resources can enable organizations in understanding, envisioning, and designing how employees experience work, perceiving the employer-employee relationship through talent solution platform, storming, norming and forming ideas quickly with employee experience ideas, and prioritizing action to ensure consistent employee experience as described in team development by Bruce Tuckman.

It is difficult for organisations to attract and retain talent. Regardless of a company’s location or size, attracting and retaining talent at the top, middle and bottom positions. Employee expectations are racketing up against Human Resources as comparisons are made to frictionless customer experience outside of the office. Organisations are expecting the Human Resources teams to build agility in the internal and external environment. Organizations demand Human Resources to help in making better decision making, for giving actionable insights, increasing creativity in all processes for making better people decisions. How can Human Resources help the organisation, its employees, and themselves?

Changing the expectations of customers require new ways of thinking about people and designing people management strategies. Design thinking helps in this area.  Design thinking and design research help in making strategic decisions at many levels. This is an example of how AirBnB’s strategic team uses data to address current user experience challenges on the social media platform. The year 2009 was tough for Airbnb as it was very close to going bust. The start-up registering only $200 per week as revenue and were nowhere close to making a sustainable business out of their initiative. The founders noticed a pattern that all their listings in New York had poor images and it was very difficult for customers to see what they would be paying for. One of them – Graham suggested a completely non-scalable and a non-technical solution to the problem. He advised travelling to New York, renting a camera, visiting all the properties to take good quality images and replace the old amateur images with the new high resolution and beautiful ones. Even though the resolution was not backed by data, the results were amazing. After improving the quality of images for the listings, the revenue generated rose to $400 per week. Design thinking requires strong backup data as well as customer feedback.

Design Thinking enables Human Resources to think beyond the typical process and pragmatic approach to service delivery and focus instead on the experience and outcomes that it is looking to drive. The principles of repetition, trying, failing, retrying, and improving are critical to success in design thinking. It cannot be a do it once approach, where one solution is rolled out, the program ends, and then for years it’s never improved or assessed.

Design Thinking is based on understanding the in-depth needs of different stakeholder profiles; to conduct design thinking is to firmly put your feet in the shoes of your stakeholder. This is why empathy is a crucial element of the practice. Its goal is to generate solutions that bring value to all stakeholders. In the case of Human Resources, this could be the managers, employees, or candidates that experience any part of the Human Resources process.

Since Human Resources primarily handles the recruitment, employment experience, and the exit process of employees and represents the company, understanding human needs and executing accordingly becomes crucial. In Human Resources design thinking focuses on building a structure, a design for operations that would align the goals of the company with its employees. It starts by building the problem statement to find ways of resolving that. In most organisations, a fast-paced work environment demands quick solutions to the challenges of humans. Unlike machines, humans are after all, not engineered to deliver automated accurate results around the clock. Innovation is the only way to meet this challenge and design thinking is capable of driving that innovation. Tim Brown, one of the pioneers of Design Thinking believes that “leading through questions” is the best way to drive innovation. Questions bring us closer to stakeholder requirements and help us understand the scope of improvement. In the following areas of Human Resources let’s see how design thinking helps:

Human Resources Planning

Human Resources planning involves recruiting, selecting, hiring, and training the right candidates to make them ready for the job. This is one of the crucial processes for any company since it builds the branding for them. Design thinking can optimise this process by incorporating empathy. It can help recruiters to create a welcoming environment for new recruits at the company. Continuous interaction between both employer and employee seeking the job opportunity helps set expectations. Empathy will also help the HR team to identify any intrinsic challenges and address them. Ideation, another crucial step in design thinking encourages users to be creative and think of newer ways of addressing an issue. Interactive sessions and understanding the core characteristic of employee is vital to innovation. Human Resources teams must discard conventional approaches for driving innovation in recruitment policies.

Continuous Performance Management

Performance management aims at recognising the meaningful work that employees do and rewarding that appropriately. Employees feel elated when their good work is lauded by the organization. For understanding the human potential, organizations must have measurable Human Resources tools for assessing performance. Employees like to get recognition for their talent and domain knowledge. Design Thinking can make this process more effective by using tools of surveys to connect and empathise with the employees and understand their concerns and expectations. The Human Resources teams in organizations must keep updating their performance management policies and tools.  

Retention policies

A sense of belonging is most important for human relations. When employees feel that they are cared for by the organization they put in more effort; when they are appreciated, their productivity augments. The Human Resources department is responsible for maintaining a harmonious relationship between the employees and the company. The biggest problem is faced when organisations don’t have clear communication channels with employees. Lack of a proper communication channel can lead to various issues and misunderstandings. Employees must stay well connected with the organization. Design Thinking can enhance this process with an empathy-driven approach towards issues that concern both parties. By using the design thinking methods, the Human Resources team can assess problematic situations with good solutions that pacify both equally. 

Compensation

Compensation and benefits comprise a large part of what the HR department handles. Right from the time a candidate joins a company, gets promoted to the time he quits or retires, the Human Resources department reviews and updates his/her compensation. Design thinking methods can help the Human Resources team to understand the requirements and expectations of the employees and the budgets of the employers and optimise the compensation accordingly in cash and kind. Even while designing policies, empathy-driven approach can help formulate policies that meet the needs of the employees and truly benefit them.

Employee engagement

This is a priority area for HR. Design thinking can offer a variety of practices to create inspiring workplaces. There are many organizations that make work place environment fun-filled. The tagline “all work and no play make Jack a dull boy” is brought into practice. Monthly/Quarterly outings, monthly get-togethers, recreation nights, pipe music played during work hours are some examples of how employees are kept entertained. User-friendly IT systems, weekly changing canteen foods made as per choice, and some other welfare practices are some ways of cooperation in which the employee feels cared for. The aim is to improve engagement, creativity, and productivity. Empathy is a basic requirement of design thinking.

Design thinking is at core of innovation

Many organizations fail to create innovative work culture. Design thinking helps in infusing innovation culture in organizations. Some organizations have succeeded. One such organization is 3M Technologies. In 1968, Spencer Silver, a scientist at 3M’s headquarters was working to create a strong adhesive. Accidentally, he developed a new material that was light enough to easily remove and peel apart. Silver felt that he had invented something unique and useful but struggled to find what that use could be. Another employee Art Fry used Spencer’s adhesive to anchor his bookmark in his hymn book which became one of the stellar products of 3M. A few years later Fry utilized 3M’s sanctioned “permitted bootlegging” policy to develop the idea. Design thinking flourishes on empathy, expansive thinking, and experimentation.

Conclusion

Modern Human Resources and design thinking go hand. Employee experience is most important in employee value proposition and retention. It helps engaging employees more actively in organisational change and by creating an environment and experiences that inspire people and make them more creative and productive.

FMCG major Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has taken a biggest step towards helping its employees to battle domestic abuse. For the first time in India Inc, HUI has coded a policy to protect its staff from domestic abuse. This is significant as it extends the responsibility of a company towards employees’ well-being beyond the office and into the employee’s personal and home life. HUL has designed and implemented this policy at a time when a significant number of its workforce is working from home. The HUL policy aims to protect and provide assistance to staff members who are fighters of abuse, or acts of emotional and physical abuse beyond the office.

Anuradha Razdan, HUL executive director (HR), says “We want to stand up as advocates for change that we would like to see in society by proactively coming up with a policy which calls out to our employees: ‘If you are someone who has faced this and wants to come out and talk, the organisation is here to support you’.”

The UN has described the worldwide increase in domestic abuse as a “shadow pandemic” alongside Covid-19. Globally cases have increased by 20% during the lockdown, as many people are trapped at home with their abuser.

Workplace is evolving; in the area of human resources organizations are adopting and encouraging practices to improve employees’ well-being. Working from home affects every employee perversely depending on their responsibilities and living situations. For example, workers with younger children need to balance keeping them occupied while trying to keep up with work tasks. And the same goes for those with elder-care responsibilities. Understanding employee needs is crucial. For the first time in history, organizations have realised that they need to have open conversations with their employees about how and when work can be accomplished without intruding on employees’ privacy. Organizations are offering a wider range of options for flexibility, such as more freedom when assignments need to be turned in or adjusting work hours per day to allow more time to care for children and elders. Employee mental and physical health is important for effective work – life balance. 

Domestic violence cases are increasing, as employees began working from home after worldwide lockdowns imposed to combat covid-19, and has become a greater concern for organizations. According to HUL, one in three women and one in seven men are abused at some point in their life. HUL looked at this fact, which is the right direction. The new policy will certainly increase productivity positively and contribute to the well-being of their employees.

According to a law firm DSK Legal, the policies of harassment, the POSH Act, are limited to workplace harassment. Now, as the home is extended workplace, it may be a good idea to actually cover up even those bullies. HUL’s initiative could set a precedent for India Inc., which has adopted HR policies with the aim of making workplaces fair and inclusive.

Standard Chartered has developed a toolkit that provides examples of the various mechanisms that can be taken into attention when attempting to support victims of domestic abuse. It also provides a range of available resources for doing so. Standard Chartered Bank has made announcement for its LGBT + employees. It will extend medical and domestic relocation benefits to its LGBT+ employees and their partners in India. All personnel will now be able to declare an LGBT+ partner as an eligible beneficiary under the bank’s medical reimbursement policy. The declared partner will also get covered under the domestic relocation policy. Organizations are showing they care for their employees.

Last year Tata Steel introduced a policy on employee partners who identify themselves as part of the LGBT + community to take advantage of HR benefits permitted by law.

LaliT Suri Hospitality group too proudly identifies itself as an LGBT-friendly workshop. The idea is to provide more appropriate opportunities to people in the community and to stop any form of stigma attached to them that could prevent them from getting employment.

More recently, cricketer Virat Kohli’s decision to leave the on-going India-Australia tour as his wife Anushka Sharma expects their first child has also highlighted more men seeking paternity leave and increasing participation in chores at home. Kohli truly personified a perfect example of how men must be evolved in wife’s pre and post childbirth event.

In a new policy announced in August, Zomato’s food ordering platform allowed all women (including transgender people) to use up to 10 days of periodical leaves in a year. Zomato wants to foster a culture of trust, truth and acceptance. Zomato understands that men and women are born with different biological realities. The organization wants to make sure that it brings out innovative HR polices as 35% of Zomato’s employees are female.

Today, organizations are faced with an ever-increasing complexity on their side of the employment pact. Purpose for working and respect has gathered central importance for employees. This fact calls for strong relationships between employer and employee and is expanding the management thought process in strengthening employee value. Success is not simply about creating a good customer experience; it is also about generating a more engaging and rewarding employee experience.

Today’s workforce which includes a cross-section of Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z has distinct wants, needs and ways of thinking. This has increased the level of leadership complexity and requires more tailored solutions catering to desires for both flexibility and sovereignty in terms of Employee Value Proposition (EVP). To attract and retain talent, leaders must demonstrate their commitment to the needs and success of their incongruent workforce.

International Human Resource Management (IHRM), as the name suggests, refers to the recruitment, management, and development of employees who come from other countries or who are stationed in other countries for their jobs. Many organisations that manage their human resources activities at an international level deal with diverse workforce. By the end of 2021, it’s predicted that 87% of businesses will have presence in one or more foreign markets as their expansion strategy.  When MNCs expand around the globe handling different payroll systems, country wise HR policies can become a huge strain on a company’s HR team. HR conduct will affect the company culture. Positive results can be achieved by having communication channels that allow for open talks and exchange of feedback. 

3M Corporation’s culture is made for thriving Innovation. It was founded by five businessmen in 1902.  3M has managed to expand and thrive for over 100 years because of its culture of innovation. The company has been able to slowly, but relentlessly, develop their 46 technology platforms of which every 3M product is based on. The organization believes in empowering employees. They allow employees to work on projects they are passionate about. They promote innovative ideas and empower employees to look at their daily tasks through an innovation lens. And, most importantly the employees are acknowledged and rewarded for innovative ideas.

IHRM practice emphasizes on innovation

In 1948, 3M launched its 15 per cent program, where 15 per cent of employees’ time was dedicated to innovation. The Post-It note was invented during 15 per cent time.

Organizations such as Hewlett-Packard and Google have both replicated this approach. Gmail and Google Earth were conceived during Google’s 20 per cent employee time dedicated to innovation. IHRM practices encourage workers to deliberate and implement on their ideas. Of course, they must complete their daily work first. When innovative ideas make it through the ideation phase, employees are given technology grants to pursue these ideas.

IHRM thrives on cultural diversity

Progressive companies all over the world recognize the advantages of integrating workers from culturally diverse backgrounds. These companies view diversity as a business plan as in today’s global marketplace companies interact with different clients with cultures and different code of conduct.  In the early stages, International business was conducted with an ethnocentric outlook that means the orientation and type of operation was based on the parent company.  The modern multinational corporations have geocentric orientation. The total organization is viewed as an independent system operating in many courtiers.  The relationships between headquarters and subsidiaries are collaborative.  Communication flowing from both directions encourages viewpoints of workers at all levels.  Furthermore, managers of different nationals occupy key positions.

The orientation of multi-national corporations is truly international and goes beyond a narrow nationalistic viewpoint. MNCs recognize business opportunities in many different countries.  They raise money for its operations throughout the world.  Moreover, multinational firms benefit by establishing production facilities in countries where their products can be manufactured more effectively and efficiently and at lower cost.  Companies with worldwide operations sometimes have access to natural resources and materials that may be available to domestic firms only.  Also large number of MNCs can recruit management and other professionals from a worldwide labour pool.   Companies have recognized the various plus points of diversity.

The diverse workforce Increase creativity

When people from different cultures are put together towards a common solution there is no one best answer to any question because the organization can obtain more and more ideas.  Different cultures of the employees can offer insightful alternatives to a problem.

Increase in Productivity

When people of variety of culture and variety of backgrounds are made to work together it increases their productivity exponentially. This happens because it kills monotony of work culture, brings freshness in work atmosphere.  Different people have different styles of performing work.  Every employee motivates the other with his difference of style.

Managing cultural diversity is an art

We all need to address the myths, stereotypes and cultural differences that interfere with our daily chores.  The age-old gender fact that only male and females exist in organizational workforce has lost ground; today we have gay and transgender individuals making vital contributions to our economy. Nations and workforce are both becoming more diverse. The share of people of different color, cast, creed, religion, tradition, language, diction, practice, and ethnicity is part of organizational workforce.

More women taking leadership positions

More and more women are increasingly seen at the forefront. They are occupying vital roles and are the decision makers in more organizations. The fact is that businesses that embrace diversity have a more solid footing in the marketplace than others. Whatever color, black or brown or white.  That is it.   The word “global village” may appropriately describe the world we live in today.  The fibre optics, aerospace and satellites link the globe like never before. The geographical boundaries are shrinking day by day.   Obsolesce has no space, organizations need to move forward to improve productivity.

IHRM facilitates talent management

The HR functions include a broad range of tasks including: processes for recruiting new staff, on boarding, orientation, performance management and evaluation. .

In some cases, a system may allow an HR representative to create a job posting online, view incoming applications and track candidates through the hiring process.

Increasingly, orientation materials such as filling out payroll information and other paperwork are being relegated to online applications so HR staff is not required to be physically present to handle some of the basics, freeing them to do other work. Once great employees are on board, other components work to track performance metrics and provide professional development to retain top performers.

Base Salary

This term has a slightly different meaning in an international context than in a domestic one. In the latter case, it denotes the amount of cash compensation that serves as a benchmark for other compensation elements like bonus, social benefits. For the expatriate, it denotes the main component of a package of allowances directly related to the base salary and the basis for in-service benefits and pension contributions. Base salary actually forms the foundation block of the international compensation. Foreign Service Inducement Premium is a component of the total compensation package given to employees to encourage them to take up foreign assignments. This is with the aim to compensate them for the possible hardships they may face while being overseas. Organization also pays relocation allowances, spouse assistance allowance, education allowance besides, some additional benefits such as pension plans which normally differ from country to country due to difference in national practices. Thus all these and other benefits (medical coverage, social security) are difficult to imitate across countries.

IHRM gives importance to employee engagement

Some HR departments may extend their HRMS tools by also utilizing social media and online applications to engage their employees and stimulate interaction within the corporate environment. Through these channels, employees can collaborate on projects, learn more about the corporate brand, refer qualified friends for job openings, and respond to company surveys designed to measure job satisfaction.

Meet Compliance Standards

Industries that operate in financial, health, insurance or public sector capacities are required to follow specific regulations and are subject to reporting and compliance standards. An HRMS component specifically designed to keep track of frequently changing regulations allows HR departments to stay on top of the necessary record-keeping and reporting requirements. Automated maintenance informs the HR department when background checks, licenses or continuing educational requirements need to be updated and assures that the company is operating in compliance.

People Analytics is one of IHRM Trends

The growth of people analytics is global and not confined to one country. The areas of people analytics are wide in the organization from talent acquisition in identifying right talent to minimizing bias in hiring, employee retention, increasing employee engagement, measuring culture, workforce readiness, and employee experience to name few. For example, Google has turned people analytics into a winning culture with project oxygen. The tech giant has turned into one of the best companies known for hiring the best, and retaining them with the highest engagement rate. With people analytics Google has registered significant improvement in metrics like employee turnover, performance, and satisfaction.

It’s observed that in most MNCs analytics are increasingly important to upper level managers and HR departments. Programs that track the effectiveness of HR initiatives and recruitment methods help key executives pinpoint what works in attracting new talent to the company. They can also compare salary levels within the industry and make adjustments if needed. Data that is compiled from the fluctuating workforce also helps leaders gain a better understanding of turnover trends, such as why employees move on to another company or how to improve worker retention.