“Simple can be harder than complex.” So said Steve Jobs, a man who built his career and reputation on making complex technology simple, beautiful, iconic and usable. He went on to say: “You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there you can move mountains.”

Corporate HR could be forgiven for thinking it is in the business of moving mountains, and with some justification. If the role of HR was ever simple in the past, it is not now. Increasing regulatory changes embraces the extended enterprise, the gig economy, and finding the right fit for talent have all made the role both far more important, and far more complicated than it ever was.

Adding to this complexity are technology, applications, and a seemingly endless flow of information from multiple sources – one piece of research suggests that Americans collectively check their phones 8 billion times daily. Despite this frenetic activity, however, productivity is weak.  According to figures from the U.S. Labor Department, labor productivity has grown at 2.2% a year on average since World War II but just over 0.5% over the last five years. That’s the slowest five-year growth rate since the 1970s. Overwhelmed employees working harder for such poor returns doesn’t make sense.
But although the work environment today is complex, managing it need not be complicated. HR can take a lead in reducing complexity in the workplace – and in boosting performance – through design thinking and putting the employee experience at the center of work processes.

Designed to succeed
“Design thinking” is a much misunderstood term. It is not about aesthetics. It is about applying the principles of design to the way people work.  There is research evidence suggesting that where HR delivers the highest levels of value are almost five times more likely to be using design thinking in their programs than their peers. HR design thinking today includes digital design, mobile app design, user experience design and behavioral economics.
Those who advocate this approach to the modern workforce say that design thinking provides a means to focus on the employee’s personal experiences which then creates processes centered upon the worker. Done well, the result should be solutions and tools that can be seen to directly impact on employee satisfaction, productivity and enjoyment.

Start with the user in mind
A key element of this is moving HR to think about people first, and process second. Imagine the HR function empowered to think about every aspect of an employee’s work experience, including the physical environment, the tasks they are asked to perform, how people meet and interact with colleagues and managers.

This would also mean HR ensuring software and systems start with the user in mind rather than focusing on the process. Too often we present employees with the technological equivalent of a pig wearing lipstick and expect them to like it. Of course they don’t. Software, and the experience of using it, should be beautiful, and can only be that way if the systems are designed from the start with the user in mind.

Design thinking is being recognized as essential to the modern corporation. However, if it is to work properly, it needs to be embedded within culture of HR as a workable and practical response to the ongoing challenges of undiminishing complexity. That may mean that HR should be upgrading its skills so it is capable of incorporating key design thinking concepts. This is the time for organizations’ HR to, in the words of Steve Jobs, be thinking clean so it can move some HR mountains.

See more at: http://blogs.infor.com/infor-hcm/2016/08/design-thinking-hr-simple-hard.html#sthash.CkJG1sa2.dpuf