Why user experience impacts the entire workforce
COVID-19 has provided a catalyst for digital transformation. Companies were forced to use the technology available to make life less complicated and operate wherever they were – seamlessly connecting with colleagues and clients. Employers rose to the lockdown challenge overnight, having to roll out working from home in a move that has transformed the workplace and normalised ‘hybrid working’.
The global pandemic has transformed what customers expect from their software. Here, we outline how user experience is at the heart of how successfully software is adopted across a business. Use PayReview as an example of how software must be tailored, tried, and tested continuously to deliver for the entire workforce.
User experience and IT
The software used within organisations is traditionally seen as an IT solution that takes care of the mechanics of a task. However, there are major implications beyond IT and the immediate department that introduces the software in question – each designated user across the business must want to embrace change and see the benefits of the software to their role. This starts at the adoption stage.
Making the business case for financing software shouldn’t be a discrete, one-off exercise. The benefits to the business should be shared with employees from the outset. By pitching to the wider company once Finance has signed off on a new piece of software, you can start to build traction with the idea of this new system that will make everyone’s lives easier. A strong communications plan should cut through the clutter and understand why this is being introduced and the benefits of dedicating time to understanding it.
Designing for success
Once the business is clear about the product's expectations, the user experience and user interface are critical. These two principles will directly affect how people interact with a product, which will determine how they feel about continuing to use the tool. The communications plan will set the foundations for the user experience and what has been promised to employees – this covers value, function, usability, and the general impression they received on first use. The sum of these elements is the emotional outcome and whether they felt like the product made their job more straightforward. User interface is the software's design and delivery – the point at which the interaction between humans and the digital product occurs. The relationship between the two dictates the success of adopting the software.
At PayReview, we ensure that the information layout is clear and digestible. The design is crucial, and we can use your brand identity to make it feel like an extension of an in-house tool. This translates to the experience for the employee, as they have confidence that their information is securely stored in our pay review software and can be rationalised at the click of a button. User satisfaction is primed by how they interact with the product and how easily they can rationalise data, which may have previously been unruly if stored on multiple sheets of Excel Hell. This introduces the risk of missing or duplicated data.
Demonstrating the benefit
When identifying the benefits to feed these into a communications plan to promote user adoption across the business, it’s essential to identify the range of benefits employees can access using the product. The most useful step in this process is to go back to the business case of why the software was introduced – what are the barriers people currently face, what time will this hand back to them, and what are their frustrations with any previous ways of working? Asking employees these fundamental questions can inform the design of the software and focus on the benefits instead of the features.
When introducing an organisation to PayReview, we start with the audience in mind. User research is crucial before we can truly tailor the product to your organisation. It needs to deliver change across the business regarding the pay review process. We focus on the benefits of the different functions of an organisation beyond the features.
“People don’t buy products, they buy better versions of themselves.” - Steve Jobs on why he invented the iPod.
Directly testing with people who will use our compensation software on a daily basis and understanding their behaviours as a pilot group is often effective. This goes beyond assuming which features they will value, and quickly identifies what they like about the product and its benefits for their roles. By being clear about what the product does for your employees, not what the product is, we can improve the long-term success of user adoption from the beginning. This also trains early adopters of the system who can encourage and train others in its use, all driving up the take-up rate. Employee advocacy of the system's benefits is highly effective.
Ease of use
The most effective software designs account for short attention spans. Whether or not you agree with research claiming that humans have a shorter attention span than a goldfish, software needs to deliver the essential information the user requires and needs as quickly as possible.
Research by Microsoft Corp. in 2015, referenced in Time. Infographic from Adobe.
We use a simplified interface to focus on the user tasks and achieve functional minimalism, ensuring it remains valuable and relevant. The hallmark of a great user interface is simplicity and consistency. We have designed the interface of PayReview based on these principles, ensuring that all content is relevant and valuable to feature actionable insights for users. This is a challenge regarding the sheer amount of data concerning pay. We work on this in partnership with clients when defining the most helpful information. For example, scaling back unnecessary filters to information can focus on the data and improve the experience.
We also ensure this is properly tested with the end user. People using the system will have varying backgrounds, experiences, and career goals. Taking into account widespread views and experiences helps to bring everyone onto the same page and encourages greater use of the job evaluation software.
We take the time to test our assumptions with your team so that we’re on track for success at the outset. Our customers often report common benefits regarding time-savings that can be made using this for their pay review software. However, it is always a significant project requiring widespread resources across the business. Others will emphasise the more important data security that comes with this piece of software in contrast to their previous ways of working or the value in the team being able to log in and make their updates in one central place.
We can shape the communications plan’s emphasis accordingly.
Change management is crucial
The saying ‘fail to plan, plan to fail’ has never been truer when rolling out workplace changes. While the benefits may be apparent even to those reluctant to work in a new way, people like what they know. Even if it’s that spreadsheet they trust, people need support to change how they work alongside delivering their day-to-day roles.
When people start using a new product, they have mixed feelings when they see something unfamiliar. Over time, as they recognise the interface and system, it is easier to embed the software into the business. Designer and information architect Peter Morville’s UX honeycomb outlines the ideal characteristics of the user experience as being usable, practical, desirable with simple, clean interfaces and good layouts, findable and quickly able to resolve any issues, accessible to everyone, and credible.
All of these factors speak to potential benefits for users. These should be communicated at the earliest opportunity of the change management process. We can also support the change management side when organisations implement PayReview. Our clients tell us that their employees and line managers find the system intuitive and easy to use. We can help you translate your vision into a clear roadmap for widespread adoption.
Designed for business needs
PayReview is designed with users' goals in mind and can be adapted to support the needs of the business. It supports greater collaboration throughout organisations, promoting more transparent and efficient working methods. This can also bolster the relationship between:
HR and IT - enabling them to be agents of change with excellent infrastructure support.
HR and Finance - giving budget certainty.
HR and Comms - seamlessly informing staff of pay changes.
The key benefits to the working relationships between the different business functions also have a greater empowering effect of supporting every team to make the best pay review decisions across the business.
Book a demo
To find out how PayReview can benefit everyone across your organisation, guide the right decisions around pay, and reduce the time each department spends on their pay review, get in touch with us today. Understand what the system can do for you and how we can tailor this to your immediate needs – book a demo.