June - September 2014
HR Tool
Designing a Human resources talent pool database for company VPs and Regional managers
We need a tool that helps us identify company internal high performers, and whether their career goals are aligned with opportunities we have to offer.
Reto Wittwer, CEO at Kempinski Hotels
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Project Background
Kempinksi is one of Europe's leading luxury hospitality companies with over 80 hotels globally. Different from other hospitality chains, Kempinksi is a management company. This means that most of the 80+ properties are operated, but not owned by the company. Using this property management model, company leaders have to cooperate with hotel owners when it comes to filling high level positions, such as general or division management.
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My goal for this project was to collaborate with company VPs and regional Presidents to build an HR tool prototype that would allow VPs and regional Presidents to add company internal high performers and match them with open opportunities at the company.
The Team
Me 🙂
Mentored by the CEO and COO
My Role
Research
UX/UI Design
Prototyping
Tools
Google Sheets
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The Problem
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Like most service industries, employee turnover has long been a major concern in Hospitality. Not only does high employee turnover affect the quality of service; it also causes high hiring costs to fill open positions.
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High employee turnover rates are a fundamental labor problem in the hotel sector, and the impact of job attitudes such as organizational commitment on employee turnover has been found to be significant(Griffeth & Hom, 1995).
- Parag Arun Narkhede, Associate Professor at KCES's Institute of Management and Research
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While Kempinski had an enterprise software for internal talent management, the CEO of the company found that it did not meet his needs. What he wanted to know was not shown in the software: Who are the top talents at Kempinski? And, can we find a career path for them at Kempinski that matches both their career goals and the company's development opportunities?
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The User
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The Process
To design the HR tool prototype, I collaborated with the people that would be using it: Company VPs and Regional Presidents. After a one-on-one interview with the CEO, I conducted seven in-person interviews with VPs from four departments at the corporate office in Geneva, and three virtual interviews with Regional presidents overlooking the Middle East & Africa, Asia Pacific and Europe markets.
Based on the results from the interviews, I set up a card sorting exercise to better understand how information should be structured within the prototype.
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After some initial ideation sketches on paper, I built the first high level prototype using Google Sheets, and did a hybrid method of concept testing and participatory design with five VPs at the corporate office to evaluate the information architecture and ease of use of the tool.
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After reviewing the first prototype I went through three main iterations with additional feedback from VPs at the office, before conducting a final usability test and launching the prototype for testing.
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The Solution
The solution was a functional talent pool tool designed in Google Sheets. Based on the card sorting exercise feedback, the document contained several department tabs.
VPs, Regional Presidents and eventually Hotel Managers were able to access the tool to add people they wanted to put on a promotion track. They were required to fill out specific criteria based on their department and desired career track. These criteria were identified during the participatory design session.
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Results
Once I finished the talent pool tool and the project was up and running, I worked on additional iterations after VPs and Regional Managers started using it.
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By the time I left, 114 new candidates were successfully entered into the tool.
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Learnings
This project was my first UX prototype! 😊🥳
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I learnt that
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Working with executives isn't as scary as it sounds.
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You don't always need the fanciest tools as a UX designer. Sometimes, paper and pen or simple tools like Google Sheets can be your best friends.
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Five user interviews can really help you identify 80+% of issues with your design.