Global workforce management app for talent sourcing
Explore cost savings by market while sourcing talent for a global workforce.
The challenge
The client, a global leader in servicing enterprise employers throughout the world with a vast network of human capital, needed an innovative workforce management app to modernize their engagement with customers.
Planning meetings and quarterly business reviews with customers were reactive in nature (ex: what do you need, what are your goals?), and problems brought up in meetings were solved after the meeting, and required a follow-up.
The goal was to create a tool that provides compelling story points that are proactive in nature (ex: here’s how we can help you right now), allowing account managers to solve problems within a single conversation and maximize conversions.
The solution
Nucleus is a workforce management app for account managers to use as a centerpiece to change the engagement dynamic with their customers in consultative meetings.
The tool provides core measures in a fluid story around contractual requisitions and service level agreements to serve up dynamic story points that are educational and informative. The application positions the customer as a thought leader in the human capital space by portraying the power of their network as it relates to talent needs, market, and industry.
Through detailed scenario planning, Nucleus allows account managers to answer questions within seconds, and find the right level of optimization to allow customers to tap into global talent markets at substantially lower cost.
UX objectives
- Position the account manager as a subject matter expert.
- Accurately portray the reach, depth of network, and coverage of the client’s capabilities.
- Display complex scenario-based data in a way that is conversational and tells a story.
- Allow account managers to visually demonstrate story points in a fluid and flexible way that can be adapted to feedback in real time.
- Leave the audience with an understanding of how their talent needs can be optimized, whether current or future.
Project details
The project was a consulting collaboration between a solutions architect, a software engineer, and myself, working on an extremely tight deadline. The client had an upcoming staffing industry event, and the board of directors determined that it was a strategic necessity to demonstrate deep thought leadership in the space at the event.
For four weeks, we collaborated for near 18 hour work days in order to meet the deadline, and ship a working prototype of something that nobody in the staffing industry had done before.
nu·cle·us
Noun
The central and most important part of an object, movement, or group, forming the basis for its activity and growth.
The core concept of the Nucleus app is centered around the "Zindex" - a composite index of key sub-measures that acts as an aggregated view of the relationship with the customer. The Zindex is scored on a 1-100 scale, benchmarked against similar businesses, and displayed as red (unhealthy), yellow (average), or green (healthy).
Defining the core measures
The Zindex is measured through a normalized index of:
- Spend per headcount
- Time to fill roles
- Headcount at risk
- Average rate per hour
These measures are normalized against like industries, markets, and talent focuses and aggregated on a scale of 1-25. The total Zindex measurement is the sum of these aggregate scores, and represents the overall health of a company’s human capital needs.
Bringing it all together
The core metrics are displayed as contributors to the overall aggregated health of the business as equally weighted values adding up to the Zindex score.
Key components in the application
Launch page
The launch page is the first screen customers see at the beginning of a strategic meeting, and is designed to be a focal point page meant to conversationally communicate the concept of “Power of Network” through reach, depth of network and market coverage.
Through this introduction, the story naturally leads into conversation points like real time dollar amount saved for the customer, and number of talent requisitions filled for the customer.
Health of the business overview
The Health of the Business module is a 360 degree view of the relationship with the client, all centered on the Zindex. The focus is on cumulative measures with visual cues on rate of change. It is designed to be easily interacted with per domain to allow account managers to demonstrate trends or investigate further for more conversational context. Alternate views of the domain or additional metrics are layered behind a swipe gesture.
Health of the business details
A swipe from the Health of the Business Overview reveals an alternate view of the overall business health with a more detailed analysis into:
- Volume – total spend, line of business distribution, and job class distribution
- Performance – age of open requisitions, average time to fill requisitions, and supplier distribution
- Opportunity – total suppliers not used by similar businesses in similar markets, and market pressure on desired talent segment with alternate markets
Market insights
The market insights module focuses on insights above the account, but has direct correlations to current related work with respect to planned talent categories and related markets for the customer. Categories of insights and story points include:
- Market and rate swing / market pressure
- Skills demand curve and prediction
- Alternate skills to successful job profile (ie: skills mix to role relationships that have a high degree of success)
Project outcome
The app was formally unveiled at a major talent sourcing industry event, with the goal of attracting new customers by demonstrating deep thought leadership, innovation, and the power of an extensive network. Within the 3-day event itself, the client used the tool to demonstrate the capability of finding major cost saving opportunities for a Fortune 50 company, which later signed a contract for approximately $45 million in annual revenue.