Employee Progression Tool was developed for BPO Team with 5000+ staff spread across the globe. This is an intranet based application that provides employees with clear career progression roadmap within the department. This tool is developed to help employees identify, enhance and maintain the skills and knowledge to perform well in their role, whilst helping employees reach their own potential and achieve career aspirations. It is designed to help
employee to understand the possibilities of growth available in the department, and guide them on how to get there, pointing out the relevant training support they require along their way.

This was developed from the scratch, with main focus on helping employees to understand the possibilities of growth available in the department, and guide them on how to get there, pointing out the relevant training support they require along their way . I was responsible for the End to end of the product design and deployment.

Product Designer (End to end Product Design )

Product Strategy, User Research, Analysis, Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Testing, Team Management

Jan 2012 - December 2012

During the research phase,we conducted multiple focus group discussions. During those discussions we recorded all the inputs, ideas and perceptions of all the individuals. We created a summary and shared information with all the members who took part in the focus group.

I analyzed various Employee Progression Tools available in the market, gathered the information in the form of a report. We finally came up with few steps that are required in the application from BPO centric.

• Employee enters into the tool with a mindset to find one of his dream job roles
• When he chooses one he requests his manager for the approval
• Post approval the application should highlight the ‘Strengths’ , ‘gaps’, ‘next steps’ and all the training programs which are required hould be highlighted
• Once the employee completes the required activity then he starts applying for his dream roles as and when they appearas and when they appear.

These are the most obvious features expected in these kind of tools, but most of the times these are not are the most obvious features expected in this tool, since users perspective is not gathered or considered, hence, even after the launch of the tool in certain organizations the number of employees accessing such applications is very less.

So, we decided to conduct "Need Finding Assignment " as part of our Research Phase.

Need Finding Assignment

I approached almost 20 employees in the BPO department, and explained them about the design brief. Below are few sketches and suggestions of few employees I met as part of the Need Finding Assignment -

1. Anirudh Kumar, Process Analyst suggests to see below features in the tool -
   • to see an interactive tool (he says static tools are boring) which has a search option in which he can directly input the keywords and get the results
   • A 3 tier drop down menu which can capture the Process, department and the level an employee is aiming for and accordingly the results page will show all the available roles and skills required
   • A single view page for the user which shows the current status and the last / latest activity. An automatic mail to self and his manager about the activity in periodic intervals

   On the sketch below, Anirudh illustrates how a 3 tier drop down menu will be useful and minimizes the clicks and navigation between pages -

   

2. Snehal, Manager for Verification Process suggests to see below features in the tool -
• A fast track procedure. He has used a career progression tool already in his previous company and was not quite happy with it. He says any tool should not be static and bore the user rather should be dynamic.
• The tool should display the requirements and as well the availability of resources. By which he will get to know whether the role he is looking for has any demand or not.
• The tool should have link to the training programs and e learning courses with which a user can see his scores and can assess his status on a regular basis.

On the sketch below, Snehal illustrates how a tool should help the user as a single interface between employees current and his dream role and it shouldn’t be cluttered with multiple options and jargon which will leave the user confused and how its should be interactive and ease at use so that employee can move concentrate on his gaps rather than understanding.



3. Vishal, Assistant Manager for Check Processing Process liked to see below listed features -
• Vishal wanted a tool which can categorize the roles across the company with the skills required
• He also mentioned that most of the employees are not aware of the ‘Gaps’ they have in their competencies/skills and are also not aware of ‘what’ is required for an employee to get into one of those role, which can be laterally or next level.. So the tool should be able to highlight them

On the below sketch, Vivek the below sketch, Vivek illustrates how the roles should be illustrates how the roles should be categorized

With all the data gathered from the Need Finding process, I documented them. Here's the list -

1. The Job roles are divided into 4 Job families and each Job family consists roles from entry level to expertise level roles.
2. Employee has to select the Job Role from the drop down and accordingly he/she will be taken to a page which will give all the possible Job Roles that person is eligible to move further
3. Once the employee chooses a dream role, all the relevant training or certifications or skills required is displayed
4. Approval from the manager feature will only come into the flow when the employee applies for a Job role (Job site is a seperate tool which can accessed across the company, so as and when the Job role is published we just provide the link in our tool).

Whilst i was working on the Wireframes, my team was putting together a plan to conduct testing with the employees. We conducted testing with the Users. The test results showed some suggestions and accordingly the changes were made. We continued the testing until the results for good.

We created high fidelity mockups in Adobe XD. I worked very closely with the Front End team to spec out any missing interactions that were not covered in the high fidelity mockups. I conducted a UX review of each front-end screen that was implemented to ensure it was aligned with the designs before it went live.

Actual screens of the NOC Web Application

The Solution we provided -

1. Intuitive UI helped in quick decision making
2. Ease of Access made performing actions easy and simple, in just 2 clicks user gets to see all the info required to move to the next level
3. User Persona Analysis helped in reducing the multiple clicks for completing a task

The usability testing (remote & inperson) I initially conducted were run again with the developed application. Feedback this time was much more positive!

Average Rating - 9 / 10

This application brought lot of accolades not just from the Department Head but also from Group Head. Eventually this customized department application was awarded as "Best Employee used Tool for Personal Growth" . To add further, other departments started reaching out to me to provide similar tool for their Department.