Qualitative research & concept development at Humana Inc.
How might an employee ascend from conducting day-to-day tasks to a self-actualizing journey with their employer?
Great places to work aren’t always great places to advance. As part of a greater organizational effort I set out to understand and assess concepts to promote employee satisfaction and career growth.
Activities:
Focus group moderation
Qualitative analysis
Quantitative analysis
Prototype value & impact assessment
Concept design
No stone was unturned to understand the current state employee experience. I analyzed existing data from employee experience surveys, performance reviews, termination interviews and academic research. Two cohorts of participants were studied directly: individual contributors and managers with more than three direct reports. Four focus groups were conducted across forty study participants.
Stimulus packets offered a private means for the employees to provide unfettered feedback that was tempered in the in-person sessions.
The results of the initial data mining contributed to 25 concepts that were designed to advance key aspects of the employee experience.
Participants in focus groups evaluated concepts in a workbook prior to discussion, ensuring discussions could be focused on concept impact and drivers of the employee’s assessments.
Results highlighted enterprise culture gaps between management levels, income disparity, satellite offices, and even the inconsistent treatment of pregnant women and minorities.
“Our voices aren’t heard when we have these types of meetings...Our voices still would not be heard!”
“Usually people only give feedback for a negative experience. We get so many surveys you get fatigued and don’t respond to any.”
Results of the focus groups and stimulus helped shape an enterprise Ideal Employee Experience that impacted employee and leader assessments, hiring guides, enterprise tools, and corporate incentive policy.