Personio

I engaged with Personio, a German tech startup and leading provider of cloud-based HR management and recruitment solutions, to help build a new payroll solution.

This solution aims to streamline the payroll approval process and give HR managers full control over it for a seamless end-to-end experience.

Note: Due to contractual restrictions, I can’t disclose more detailed information about this project.

ROLES

Product design

personio-hero-photo

Context

Running payroll is in itself a demanding responsibility where customers need the confidence to know that the process is carried out efficiently and without error.

Due to the intricate nature of the task —which involves validating data, generating documents and communicating with authorities— this is usually performed by tax consultants and payroll accountants.

User testing showed that, beyond maintaining up-to-date and accurate employee data each period, the biggest pain point in the payroll approval journey was actually hitting the “approve payroll” button.

The approach

Along with service and content designers, UX researchers, and product managers we worked on building up the confidence of HR managers through constant and clear communication along the entire journey.

Among other things, we considered:

  • Customer’s stage of adoption of the platform
  • Confirmation and implications
  • Process updates
  • System errors
  • Changes to data while processing

We introduced key messages to communicate the accuracy of the data throughout the preliminary phase, where users take advantage of built-in compliance and automated data validation. Then, we added different levels of friction to inform HR managers about the status of the process and the expected output. Finally, a success page would notify users of the end of the process and allow them to review the documents generated.

Lessons

No task is too small. Although this project seemed somewhat straightforward, once we zoomed out and considered the entire journey, new questions arose and we gained a new perspective on the issue.

Words matter. Because this initiative focused on users' peace of mind, the right tone of communication was critical in designing the experience.