Laurel Geddes
Laurel Geddes
Product Design Manager — Laurel.Geddes@gmail.com
 

Employee experience, Research

Front Line Employee Experience & Digital Workspace

Client Industry: Financial Services
Client Revenue & Footprint: Not-For-Profit, Washington
Project duration: 3 weeks

 
 

Empathizing with employees and planning actionable improvements to their digital workspace that enable them to provide a consistently remarkable member experience.

 

My Role

Employee Experience
Research & Synthesis
Workshop Facilitation

 
 

BRIEF

 

The client is interested in assessing and simplifying the front line employee experience in financial centers as part of an effort to create a more modern digital workspace for employees. The assessment will explore ideas to consolidate applications, prioritize enhancements and recommendations, and build a plan for moving forward.

The client believes a more modern digital workspace will ultimately benefit the member and the membership experience. Currently, the experience for members in the financial centers has been described as inefficient due to a cumbersome technology landscape for front line employees. Branch employees experience technology sprawl via multiple applications (upwards of 30) that must be used to either sell or service to the member.

 
 

PHASE 1

 

DATA GATHERING

We observed member interactions across multiple roles and categorized them by transaction type. Member interactions were then evaluated against client’s predefined transaction types.

Transaction types were then plotted by frequency of execution, time to complete, and the number of applications and forms required. This analysis revealed the transaction types with the greatest complexity and impact to the employee and member experience.

2016-12-09 BECU Phase 1 Deliverable DRAFT.001.jpeg
 

empathizing with employees

I created storyboards based on our observations to enable stakeholders and executives to better relate to their front-line employees by showing employee and member pain points within the context of a typical scenario and specific transaction type. The verbatims we gathered during observations provided insights into barriers that prevent employees from executing their job efficiently and providing the best possible member experience.

 
 

PHASE 2

 

future state VISION workshop

The objective of the 2-day workshop was to envision ways to improve the process of executing eight transaction types. Eight stakeholders reviewed the step-by-step process we observed for each transaction. We discussed the 5 major pain points and brainstormed ways to reduce risk, increase productivity, and improve the experience. We captured ideas and capabilities across several categories, including must-have requirements, dependencies, constraints (technology, process, application consolidation), and “blue sky” ideas.

Action Planning

We used these insights to develop a program framework, consisting of a vision statement, pillars, and a prioritization approach. We provided a prioritized, high-level action plan for the client project portfolio. We recommended next steps and provided a project scope breakdown for the highest priority projects.

 
 
 

RESULTS

 

Phase 1

Through a “storm” of observations and data analysis, we developed an understanding of the current state experience for front line employees at contact centers and financial centers. We focused on transaction types, supporting applications and processes, and the overall experience.

Phase 2

We envisioned an improved front line employee experience and explored ways to achieve it. We brought forth an informed, actionable plan for starting application consolidation that allows employees to provide a consistently remarkable member experience.