HR Professional Design Guidance
An HR Professional User Type’s needs are unique when compared with their peer front stage actors. This section will provide both general guidance for HR Professionals and their specific needs with Data & Insights.
Who Are the HR Professionals?
Workday’s product offering to a large extent caters to supporting HR Professionals in managing their company’s human resources. A practical definition and job titles can be found below.
Research Insights on the HR Professional
The What We Know About the HR Professional: Data & Insights Needs paper is secondary research based on a compilation of over 50+ internal and external sources for the HR Professional user type. These guidelines contain synthesized directional design guidance enabling Workday designers to apply these principles to their designs and workflows.
Design Guidance to Meet Their Needs
A large part of an HR Professional’s day to day goals are dependent on data and as such the design guidance provided here will be focused on HR Pro’s data and insights needs.
Based on the What We Know About the HR Professional: Data & Insights Needs research article, the following framework is recommended for considering their needs when designing experiences for them.
Delivery of high quality data that align to the strategic priorities of the organization is critical for the HR Professional to achieve their goals. Design guidance will focus on these four themes:
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Delivery of High Quality Data
Having confidence in the data the system delivers is essential for HR Professionals and the examples in this section are meant to illustrate this theme of guidance.
Traceability
Build traceability and source transparency into products and features that provide data & insights to the user.
Example: People Analytics Story Card (Workday Product Example)
Traceability & source transparency are provided through cost center details and further breakdown of key metrics.
Source Transparency
Where applicable and practical, provide transparency on the definition/calculations of metrics.
Example 1: Peakon True Benchmark Panel (Support Documentation)
Peakon provides transparency with standardized data across industries and the attributes which can be used for True Benchmark adjustments:
Example 2: People Analytics (Workday Product Example)
Definition details on how the metric is calculated:
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Presentation of Data
Presentation of data that is easily consumable and appropriate to the task and context that the HR Professional is engaged in is key to them being able to successfully achieve their goals. The examples in this section for data acumen and drillability are meant to illustrate this theme of guidance.
Data Acumen
Understand the data acumen/savviness of the particular HR Professional for whom the data/insights are served
Example: Peakon Curated Insights (Support Documentation)
The Curated Insights dashboard is role based and caters to HR Business Partners and Senior leaders highlighting trends across managers on key themes.
Drillability
Build Drillability into the design of the data serving interface to meet the user’s twin needs of breadth and specificity.
Example: People Analytics KPI Overview Page (Workday Product Example)
HR Pros are presented with a high level overview of key metrics and can select the “View more” button on a KPI card to open a modal with detailed information.
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Contextualization of Data
Contextualization of the data is key to enabling HR Professionals with understanding the significance of the data. The examples of using benchmarks and thresholds in this section are meant to illustrate this theme of guidance.
Benchmarks
Incorporate relevant benchmarks to allow for comparability.
Example 1 : Qualtrics (Support Documentation)
Time period, percent change and sample size provide key benchmark references in these examples.
Example 2: Adaptive Planning (Workday Product Example)
Plan and target metrics provide key contextualization for this HR Pro.
Example 3: Scheduling (Workday Product Example)
Target, Actual and Projection metrics provide key contextualization for this HR Pro.
Thresholds
Build thresholds into the product or features and alert users to data that needs action
Example: Peakon (Support Documentation)
Peakon highlights roles that have a high attrition risk:
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Findability
When designing for this user type, consider navigational efficiency to ensure that HR Professionals have the right data at the right time with minimal barriers to access. The examples in this section are meant to illustrate this theme of guidance.
Navigational Efficiency
The examples in this theme of guidance highlight reducing the amount of navigation that users have to do between relevant data points to minimize loss of context.
Example: The New Strategy Category in the Navigation, R2 2024 Release
The new Strategy category in the IA groups and provides ingress to key experiences for the HR Business Partner within their flow of work.
Time Sensitivity
Example 1: Peakon’s Suggested Priorities (Figma File)
In this example, Peakon highlights time sensitive data for the user to take action.
Example 2: Time & Scheduling Hub (Workday Product Example)
In the Time & Scheduling Hub, key data points like gaps or overstaffing are highlighted and prominent for the user to take action.
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