Workscape Institute

Simplicity. Clarity. Ease-of-use. They’re words that are thrown around quite a bit these days and – in some cases – taken for granted.

Follow up:

Today I listened to my favorite album, participated in a conference call, replied to e-mails, reviewed and approved a new corporate video and surfed the web to check the weather forecast, the stock market performance and movie times… all from a single device that fits into my pocket. The amount of technology that is crammed into a simple and elegant device is remarkable, yet those of us who own iPhones or other similar devices rarely think about the silicon and lines of code behind the scenes.

What a tool like this does is remarkable – taking sophisticated pieces of technology and making it accessible to a broad diversity of users… all possible because savvy designers never lose sight of the fundamentals: make it easy for everyone to use.

Those of us building HR solutions need to subscribe to the same philosophy. Whether you’re responsible for creating an online benefits enrollment application, a communications campaign or facilitating the compensation planning for your company, the keep-it-simple principle applies. How many programs have looked good on paper only to falter in execution because they were too cumbersome, to complex or required too much training? Unfortunately, it’s something to which most of us can relate.

“Remember your audience” is the driving force behind world-class technologies and it’s a philosophy that we work to adhere to every day. At Workscape, we call this approach “Employee-Centric HR” and although we began referring to it in such a manner one year ago, it has been the prevailing theme since our inception over a decade ago. Workscape solutions are designed to provide HR teams and managers with the information they need to make their day-to-day tasks easier but we remained focused on making everything we provide usable and intuitive.

In this challenging economy, an Employee-Centric approach to the design and delivery of solutions becomes even more critical… there’s simply no room for “technology for technology’s sake.” We extend this philosophy into the way we present ourselves to the marketplace, as evidenced by the redesigned Workscape.com that features clearer navigation, more multimedia and the ability to hear directly from your peers in HR how they’re leveraging Workscape’s solutions to improve their business. Perhaps the greatest feature of the new site, however, is that there’s a greater focus on that which truly makes us – or any organization for that matter – unique: the team behind the solutions.

So as we continue to drive innovation into our second decade, we’ll stay focused on our Employee-Centric Approach. What are you doing to help your organization become more employee-centric? Add a comment to this blog… we would love to hear from you!