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Intranet Design to Streamline Seasonal Staff Recruitment
- 1. Rachel Dodell JOEL YAP INTRANET DESIGN TO STREAMLINE SEASONAL STAFF RECRUITMENT Philadelphia Parks & Recreation (PPR) Andrew Viren — Performance Manager UI/UX Designer Civic Innovation Corps ‘23
- 2. - Objective - Product Development Process - Research Insights - Minimal Viable Product (MVP) - Demo - Retrospective - Q&A + Feedback TODAY’S PRESENTATION
- 3. OBJECTIVE Project Goal - Design an accessible internal tool that facilitates resource-sharing and networking for recruitment of seasonal staff at PPR Rationale - Seasonal employees make up the largest staff segment at PPR yet lack access to internal communication tools - 1 in 5 vacancy rate in City of Philadelphia positions makes the need to fill seasonal roles at PPR even greater - Empowering frontline workers benefits PPR & the community it serves
- 4. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS “Double Diamond” (Iterative Framework) - Discover (Week 1 - 2): What is the underlying problem and/or opportunity that needs exploration? - Define (3 - 4): Which problem statement(s) will guide our design? - Develop (5 - 6): How can we generate a range of creative solutions to address the defined problem? - Deliver (7 - 8): What’s the most viable and user-centered solution, and how can we effectively bring it to fruition? Project Deliverables - Discover: Review of prior research findings, secondary research, additional user interviews - Define: Research synthesis, personas, journey map, user stories - Develop: Landscape analysis, sketches, user stories, features, wireframes (tool: Figma) - Deliver: Prototype, moderated usability testing with 5 target users
- 5. RESEARCH INSIGHTS 1. Resource Accessibility Research from 2022 highlights need for centralized “one-stop shop” accessible to seasonal staff for essential resources. 2. File Management Challenges Existing seasonal recruitment materials suffer from inefficiency due to lack of filtering and quick search options. 3. Decentralized Recruitment Communications Team’s expertise and resources are underutilized due to lack of a centralized recruitment process. 4. Networking Deficiency Seasonal employees are interested in contract extensions, but lack knowledge & channels to initiate such discussions.
- 7. Problem Statement - How might we optimize the distribution of recruitment materials for staff recruiters in charge of hiring seasonals? Opportunity Statement - How might we transform the perception of the seasonal hiring process for returning staff to expand the pool of candidates that are rehired than would be otherwise? DEFINING THE PROBLEM
- 8. CREATING A MINIMAL VIABLE PRODUCT
- 9. Social media integration PRIORITIZING FEATURES FOR MVP Impact Effort Discussion forums, able to ask questions Warm fuzzies (shoutouts, bdays, work anny) Innovative template customizat ion (i.e., Glitch) Learning pages on various HR topics Org chart Redesign jobs page w/ generic job descriptions Document repository (w/ tailored filter menu) Staff directory (remixed for recruitment
- 10. Social media integration PRIORITIZING FEATURES FOR MVP Impact Effort Discussion forums, able to ask questions Warm fuzzies (shoutouts, bdays, work anny) Innovative template customizat ion (i.e., Glitch) Learning pages on various HR topics Org chart Redesign jobs page w/ generic job descriptions Document repository (w/ tailored filter menu) Staff directory (remixed for recruitment
- 11. PILOT PROTOTYPE: HOMEPAGE Pain Points - Employee: No access to internal resources, must ask supervisor - Employer: Hard to find OneDrive folder, constant emails to Comms Solution: “PPR Recruit HQ” - A. Intranet site is accessible for employees without phila.gov emails - B. Simple navigation to orient users on site’s core value proposition - C. Quick links for main features A B C
- 12. USABILITY TEST + ITERATIONS A. Most participants expressed confusion with purpose of quick links B. “Document” is too vague A. Added clear and concise call to action B. Added descriptions of each quick link to improve comprehension A B A B
- 13. PILOT PROTOTYPE: RESOURCE HUB Pain Points - Employee: Needs an easy way to access forms, documents, etc. - Employer: Recruitment folders are inefficient, lacks organization Solution: Resource Hub - A. Filter menu tailored to seasonal employment & recruitment - B. User-friendly visual navigation A B
- 14. USABILITY TEST + ITERATIONS A. Some staff recruit year round B. “Downtown” creates negative perception, reinforces division A. Added all seasons B. Recommended neutral terms (i.e., “Office” or “Office-based”) A B A B
- 15. PILOT PROTOTYPE: TALENT DIRECTORY Pain Points - Employee: Short contract, wants to return but holds negative view of PPR, lacks awareness of other roles - Employer: Lacks bandwidth to foster relationships (traditional recruitment method) Solution: Talent Directory - A. Search/filter options to connect employees and staff recruiters - B. Emphasize PPR core values A B
- 16. USABILITY TEST + ITERATIONS A. Lack of clarity with job type B. *Most users wanted to see skills, interests, and experience A. Used buck sheet to improve filters (i.e., specific job types, added “duration”) B. *Concern with user-generated content B A A A
- 17. DEMO: HOMEPAGE
- 20. Improved user experience based on user feedback (i.e., clearer copy and terminology, icons, and navigation). Opportunities for enhanced filtering and functionality, such as specific job titles, skill filters, and job descriptions. Potential and recommendations. Mixed feelings on satisfaction, but users recognize app’s potential via continuous improvement + feedback. This could be very helpful. It's bringing us more current to the current operations for recruitment. We're not there yet, but we can be there with something like this. Participant 5 (Program Manager) USABILITY TEST IMPACT
- 21. Additional testing on more field-based seasonal staff (early adopters) to provide feedback for strategic direction and future product development. Develop training/onboarding plan to help users understand app features; increase adoption and engagement. Establish governance plan for updating site information and ensuring relevance. NEXT STEPS
- 22. Comfort with ambiguity. Test early and often, and let users guide the way. Growth mindset in an agile workflow. Embrace failure as opportunities to learn and get closer to an ideal solution. LESSONS LEARNED
- 23. Rachel Dodell JOEL YAP THANK YOU! Questions, comments, and/or feedback? Contact → joel.d.yap@phila.gov or andy.viren@phila.gov UI/UX Designer Civic Innovation Corps ‘23 👨 🏻 💻 🙋 🏼 ♂️
Editor's Notes
- Hello, my name is Joel Yap. I’m from northern California and am a Civic Innovation Corps Fellow through Coding it Forward this summer. I served as a UI/UX Designer for this project, where I built an intranet MVP to streamline seasonal staff recruitment.
- Today I’ll go over the project’s goals and how we navigated through the product development process to solve a specific challenge. I’ll then demo our MVP solution, go over some reflections, and open it up for any feedback.
- Project Goal: Our goal was to design an accessible internal tool that facilitates resource-sharing and networking for recruitment of seasonal staff at PPR. Rationale: We chose this group because seasonal employees make up the largest segment yet their access to internal communication tools, such as Sharepoint, is limited. With the high vacancy rate in the City, there’s an even greater need to fill critical seasonal roles. And by empowering frontline workers, this not only benefits PPR as an organization, but the community it serves.
- Because this product is starting from 0, we used the double diamond thinking process throughout our 8 week timeline. It’s divided into 4 stages, allowing room for divergent and convergent thinking in both the problem space and solution space to ensure we are designing the right things, and designing them right. To the right are the specific methods I used to learn, hypothesize, and test ideas.
- After conducting research, I gathered 4 key insights. The first is from last year’s research on the need for a centralized “one-stop shop” for essential resources that’s accessible to all staff. The second is that the current system for disseminating recruitment materials lacks efficiency and is difficult to access. The Comms Team has done great work to improve recruitment, however, because there’s no centralized recruitment process, their work goes underutilized. Finally, seasonal employees are interested in extending their contracts, but lack the knowledge and channels to initiate these discussions.
- We created two user archetypes to guide our design decisions. The “Staff Recruiter” is in charge of recruiting seasonal staff, but struggles to navigate the recruitment process effectively in light of the staffing shortage. And the “Returning Applicant” has a sentimental connection to the department, but can hold some reservations of the reapplication process.
- We created specific problem statements to guide our design. The problem statement addresses an existing challenge that’s causing difficulties, it reads: “how might we optimize the distribution of recruitment materials for staff recruiters in charge of hiring seasonals? The opportunity statement focuses on a potential avenue for positive change and more creative solutions, it reads: How might we transform the perception of the seasonal hiring process for returning staff to expand the pool of candidates that are rehired than would be otherwise?
- With well-defined problem statements, we were ready to then brainstorm solutions for our MVP. An MVP is the smallest thing that a team can build that delivers value for their target users. Rather than build an entire intranet, much like the generic intranet software programs I researched in the market, we wanted to only build the core features to understand if these core features are what staff actually want without wasting a lot of time and valuable resources. It’s also assumed that once it launches, it would reach a more desirable state through rapid iterations.
- We prioritized the core features based on delivering value to our users as well as considering the ease of implementation. The ideas in yellow are taken from user research. The ones in dark blue are ideas from stakeholders. And the light blue are from looking at intranet software programs.
- When prioritizing features, it was challenging to balance recruitment needs with last year’s research while considering universal design principles. But the document repository and dynamic staff directory (remixed for recruitment) seemed to fit best.
- Restate the problem and demonstrate how your design decision solves it
- Describe usability issues and how your iterations solve it and create a better user experience
- Restate the problem and demonstrate how your design decision solves it
- Describe usability issues and how your iterations solve it and create a better user experience
- Restate the problem and demonstrate how your design decision solves it
- Our solution: “PPR Recruit HQ” is an Intranet site is accessible for employees without phila.gov emails Simple navigation to orient users on site’s core value proposition Quick links for main features, such as a resource hub and a talent directory
- The first feature is the Resource Hub, which aims to streamline access to resources for both of our user archetypes. Employees or seasonal staff often struggle with accessing forms and documents efficiently, while staff recruiters find recruitment folders disorganized and inefficient. The Resource Hub addresses these issues with a tailored filter menu catering to seasonal employment and recruitment needs, along with a user-friendly visual navigation system. In the future, this could also serve as a centralized place for recruitment with additional features to maximize the efforts of the Comms. Teams.
- The second feature is the Talent Directory. Since seasonal employees are seeking other roles after short contracts and staff recruiters are constrained by traditional recruitment methods, this feature offers a simple way to have them connect. It enables returning staff to find new opportunities while helping staff recruiters discover untapped talent within the PPR workforce. There are also filters available based on available start date, intended duration, and job types. By highlighting PPR's core values, it promotes positive interactions and helps reshape the perception of PPR for apprehensive yet mission-driven returning applicants.
- Through usability testing on a low-fidelity prototype, I was able to fine-tune the user experience with clearer text, intuitive icons, and smoother navigation. Testing also helped uncover new avenues for improvement, such as filters on skills and interests and new functionality like guidance on creating generic job descriptions. Although there were mixed feelings on satisfaction, users saw the app’s future potential through continuous testing and improvements.
- Moving on, I’d like to do another round of tests with seasonal employees as they would make up the majority of users and potentially early adopters, and I was only able to test on staff recruiters, a majority of whom had access to Sharepoint and didn’t use recruitment materials. I’m also in conversation with Andy regarding user adoption, marketing, and establishing a governance plan.
- Some lessons learned as a designer is to get comfortable with ambiguity. There were moments when I felt like I didn’t have all the information and worried that I was building the wrong thing, however, those feelings were quelled after getting prototypes in front of users for feedback, which underscores the importance of testing early and often. With that being said, I also learned that while working in an agile environment, it’s important to develop an immunity to failure and see them as opportunities to learn and get closer to the most optimal solution for our users.