the project
The University of Washington is often considered the Ivy League of public schools and is a prime destination for students West of the Mason Dixon line. However, UW’s lure is not limited to incoming freshmen. It is often sought out as a leading employer and can be just as selective of its staff members as it is of its student body. It was important for us to make sure our onboarding of employees was on par with the welcome we give students.
Today, onboarding for new employees at the University of Washington, ONE UW, is a holistic experience and a viable business strategy. It is the culmination of a series of touch points that together create a welcoming and engaging experience that equips new employees with the tools, tips, and tricks they need to have a successful career with UW.
My roles
I was tasked with bringing new employee orientation (web) on brand. After ONE UW became an official project with approval from management I became the product owner.
I conducted user interviews, researched best practices in similar organizations, organized content, created wireframes to communicate design solutions, and crafted the visual identity. In tandem to this, I facilitated the project team (comprised of a developer, copy writer/editor, and a junior UX/Dev), mentored junior staff, and presented ongoing work to the executive management team for stakeholder review.
Creating and pitching ONE UW
The preexisting process of new employee orientation, known as NEO, happened in two optional phases. A new hire could register to attend an in person orientation which occurred once or twice a month, or the new hire could hop online and complete a web version of orientation. Both instances offer very different experiences. Online was outdated and felt like an overstuffed PowerPoint deck, while the in person was off brand and left something to be desired. During discovery we targeted a major pain point for the university which is the silos created by the size and diversity of the campus. With this we took to the whiteboard and started brainstorming what onboarding could and should be and came up with a three pronged approach.
1. Online
Our primary goal was to bring onboarding on brand.
New hires would no longer have to wait until a few days into their employment to start orientation. With our new pre-onboarding functionality users can start getting a lay of the land one week before their first day.
The online experience would change from strictly policy written in a legal tone and voice to a balanced exposure of both the need-to-know and the nice-to-know. We would marry important policy content with the more whimsical, such as campus history and local coffee shops to try.
Most importantly we would strategically be shifting the focus of onboarding to highlight and embrace a new hire's personal identity.
2. IN PERSON
We would need to bring the in person experience on brand as well, since it has grown organically over the past 6 years.
Our in person orientation would move away from large groups of 150+ new hires sitting in an auditorium for 3.5 hours watching a PowerPoint deck to small groups of ~15 people, hand picked from across the university (to ensure workforce diversity).
The emphasis here would be on creating connections, while also answering any lingering questions new hires may have. One issue that plagues UW is how disconnected the university is; a more intimate setting would allow new hires to network and make genuine connections with individuals they would most likely never meet.
Most importantly we will be promoting cross departmental collaboration through new connections.
3. HIRING MANAGERS
Everyone is hired differently at UW. Our goal is to create consistency in the onboarding experience to a point. Hiring managers will be required to do their part when it comes to helping an employee settle in.
With a newly developed Managers Toolkit we will provide the necessary recourses and guides to help managers help their employees acclimate to their new roles and environments.
Most importantly we will make sure managers understand the importance onboarding plays in employee satisfaction, retention, and engagement, and that they feel supported by UW in this journey.
THE ONE UW BRAND IS BORN
NEO was certainly getting a face lift so we brainstormed a new brand to match. One of the missions I had was to take steps towards unifying the campus. The acronym ONE UW was born. Onboarding for new employees at the University of Washington may seem like a mouthful, but shorted it accurately depicts the experience. We want to send the message that despite your physical location or the work you do (which is variable at UW), we are a collective ONE who supports the strategic missions of the university.
Storyboard sketch that introduces ONE UW
Discovery
I worked on ONE UW in tandem with the UW HR Web Refresh which helped us save a considerable amount of time in the research phase. We were able to adjust our personas slightly to accommodate for the "new hire" variable since we still have a very broad audience and a lot of different hiring types to consider.
I started by surveying new hires at one of UW's in person orientation sessions to figure out what was really important to a newcomer. I crafted a simple survey asking participants to rank the top 5 things they are interested in learning as new employees.
Through our grass roots efforts we conducted several interviews with individuals who are impacted by onboarding; this included human resource administrators, hiring managers, the in person NEO team, new hires, and old hires. Through natural conversation we were able to isolate the pain points for each group. From a legal and admin perspective we needed a way to track completion of trainings and onboarding, from a new employee perspective we needed to focus more on community and culture.
Design
We worked through a lot of ideas before settling on one that felt just right. Initially we explored a game-like onboarding that walked new hires through campus via an illustrated map. It would explore the physical locations around campus as it unveiled pertinent information. "Need to learn about your benefits? Let's cover that topic on a pin where the benefits office is located." This was a fun idea but we weren't able to scale it to contain all the content we needed.
Interactive map concept; a multidimensional exploration of UW
Storybook concept; walking user through campus and a smooth linear fashion
The four columns; final concept
The four columns
On campus down from Drumheller Fountain stand four white hand-fluted columns supporting nothing but themselves. They once stood at the entrance of UW’s first building, built in 1861. Today they are symbols representing; Loyalty, Industry, Faith, and Efficiency, or “LIFE.”
These historically rich columns represent the foundation of this institution, and not unlike UW, our new hires will build their own four columns within the orientation process that will support their future careers at UW.
Information architecture and wireframes
Using a combination of Balsamiq and Adobe Fireworks I worked with the junior member our our team to wireframe and document functionality and requirements. We worked closely with our developer to make sure what we explored was within scope and technically feasible using Wordpress (endorsed by the university).
It was important for us to lay a foundation that would open up the possibility of a customized experience in the future. The idea being that everyone will have a base onboarding experience which we can then build off of depending on the nuances of your specific position. It's like building a car, everyone starts with the same base model but can add different bells and whistles (leather seats + sun roof, or maybe leather seats + auto-starter).
However, in the true spirit of "minimum viable product" we tabled this functionality for a later version, building this product in a modular way so that we can easily implement the customization of the experience down the line.
Subject matter expert (SME) narrative concept; introducing you to key staff members as well as important onboarding information
Development
Throughout development my role was to make sure designs matched our vision and that functionality was implemented correctly. I was acted as lead QA analyst, and did my best to break things.
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