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Sync: Where Wellbeing Meets Workflow

About the Project

Elevate your hospitality business with Sync, the platform that puts employee wellbeing at the forefront. Built to improve communication and trust, Sync provides managers with the tools they need in order to foster a positive workplace culture and maintain operational excellence.

My Role

Design Lead

Service Designer

Time Frame

10 Weeks 

Winter 2024

Tools Used

Figma

Figjam

Design Process

Understanding the Market
Stakeholder & Ecosystem Analysis
In-depth Interviews and Survey
Identifying Opportunity Space
Developing Business Model
Co-Creation Workshop

Blue Ocean Strategy
Future State Mapping
Prototyping & User-Testing
Refining Business Model 
Product Roadmap 

 

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The Problem:
High Turnover in Hospitality

In the hospitality industry, high turnover rates affect businesses and employees deeply. Each departure is more than a lost number; it signifies a breakdown in team cohesion and increased operational costs.

 

High turnover erodes workplace culture and employee morale. The journey to developing 'Sync' started with recognizing the need for a profound change in how managers and employees connect and communicate.

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Struggling to Attract and Retain Employees

Annual turnover in the hospitality industry currently hovers around 70-80%, this impact leads businesses to struggle to attract and retain employees leading to increased operational challenges and impacting customer experiences.

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Gathering Diverse Persepctives

We gathered feedback from employees, hiring managers, and business owners in the hospitality industry to pinpoint the main reasons for high turnover. This direct input revealed significant issues in communication, hiring strategies, and general job satisfaction.

 

By incorporating diverse viewpoints, we anchored our strategy in the hiring process that we found relied heavily on “word of mouth” for recruitment.

Identifying Root Causes Through Our
Co-Creation Workshop

We developed a co-creation workshop that involved various creative thinking activities to help generate ideas and actionable strategies to pinpoint and address the areas of stress for people working in the hospitality industry.

This workshop consisted of 6 total activities, with the first two activity intended to generate ideas and the latter to evaluate and implement the ideas.

Our Big Pivot

Initially, we believed the hiring process was the main culprit behind high turnover. However, the workshop revealed the day-to-day employee experiences were the root cause.

 

This revelation shifted our focus and approach towards designing 'Sync.'

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Our Blue Ocean Strategy

Current digital workplace tools do not effectively use and translate employee feedback. Simply rating a work shift on a scale of 1-5 stars doesn’t give actionable insights to employers.

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With our new perspective, we identified the top digital workplace tools and used a blue ocean canvas to highlight key areas for innovation.

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Narrowing Down Key Features Through Card Sorting

Following ideation, card sorting provided a deeper insight into the desirability of specific features.

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Final Considerations

Before diving into the digital platform's design, we established strong design principles aligned with our value proposition, complemented by clear goals defined through our KPI system.

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Introducing Sync

Through Sync, business owners and management can actively monitor insights and feedback to improve employee engagement and retention.

Manager Dashboard

As part of our solution, we developed a dashboard aimed at managers. This tool allows managers to keep a close eye on employee morale, and provides them with actionable insights they can utilize to tackle staffing issues before they arise.

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Scheduling Assistant

The scheduling assistant allows managers to auto-fill schedules based on set parameters like allowing multiple shifts in one day and scheduling weekends first.

Options also include AI powered parameters such as improved chemistry, which pairs employees who work well together and schedules them for the same shifts when possible.

This feature also allows managers to set and customize their own parameters, ultimately saving time, and optimizing efficiency.

Employee Wellbeing

Even great managers can struggle with keeping tabs on the wellbeing of all their employees.

This is why we developed a system for managers to see the status of their employees in one place. This feature encourages managers to take action based on employee feedback and address issues in a timely manner.

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Reward System

The scheduling assistant allows managers to auto-fill schedules based on set parameters like allowing multiple shifts in one day and scheduling weekends first.

Options also include AI powered parameters such as improved chemistry, which pairs employees who work well together and schedules them for the same shifts when possible.

This feature also allows managers to set and customize their own parameters, ultimately saving time, and optimizing efficiency.

Looking Ahead: Product Roadmap

We crafted a product roadmap to outline the development timeline for our key features: wellness and fatigue monitoring, AI scheduling tools, and employee recognition systems.This helps with enhancing user satisfaction and supporting our business objectives.

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