Design Thinking for Innovation_1 

 Reflection : Improving a critical HR process using Visualisation tool 

 Challenge and Selection 

 My company is a terminal plant specialist and hence we engaged and relied heavily on foreign workers for construction   and performed maintenance work of terminal plants for our clients . From time to time , our workers would take an   extended period of home leave ( vacation ) when they fulfilled certain length of contracture employment , 2 years and   after project completion . 

 The challenges faced by the HR were : 

 1 . the administrative support for the sheer numbers of workers involved ;    2 . the collaboration with all the internal and external stakeholders ( e.g. management , accounts , work permit , 

 lounging , flight arrangement etc ) were massive ; 

 3 . the outdated processes ;   4 . the additional process taken by staff involved which contributed to confusion and additional time incurred ; 

 I chose the visualisation tool to utilise visual thinking within my HR team to achieve a baseline in the understanding of   who were the stakeholders ; what were the operation processes involved ; what were system processes ; what was   working and what were the challenges and to share any additional processes that were taken to work around any   obstacles they faced . I made use of a combination of questionnaires , graphical representation and Visio flow - charts ,   to facilitate discussion within the team and to learn from each other ; to demonstrate clearly the communication   channels between the stakeholders ; the the scope , the processes , the system workflow , the pain points and   improvement areas 

 Application 

 I began by referring to the existing outdated HR process documents to gather an overview to understand ; and   conducted meetings with the HR team , using the prepared questionnaires to learn from them about the scope , the   processes , the pain points , any additional processes taken and also to solicit their inputs for improvement . I conducted   an evaluation into the specific workflows of the HR system to understand if there was any bottleneck in terms of   workflow routing , approval cycle and any area for optimisation . When we uncovered areas within the processes which   were unclear , we noted down all these ambiguities for fine - tuning or sought clarification from the senior stakeholders   if necessary . I recorded all the discussions , new inputs , findings and challenges and combined with the findings from   the evaluation of the system workflows . 

 After the meetings , I created a high - level graphical drawing to depict the communication channel between the various   stakeholders involved . Next , I also created Visio flow - chart which showed the different sub - processes and the columns   for different stakeholders ( see illustration below ) . 

 Design Thinking for Innovation_2 

 With the completion of the visual drawings which incorporated the shared and new inputs , feedback and proposed   changes that were agreed upon , final reviews were conducted with the team to confirm and eliminate any ambiguities   to arrive to the revised process which the team . 

 Insight 

 With this visualisation approach , I learnt that the graphical and flow - charts allowed the team to have a clear visibility   of the problems involved and to resolve . It allowed the team to share their perspectives , new insights , challenges as   well as ambiguities . It facilitated active discussion within the team to help identify what they did not know or   misunderstandings , assumptions in the HR process and at system level in a collaborative manner . The visual thinking   approach provided a more simplified approach for management to quickly provide their inputs whenever necessary ,   as the saying goes , a picture is worth a thousand word . 

 Approach 

 This visualisation approach was well received by the team as it provided opportunities for shared inputs and   understanding , it also tried to eliminate any ambiguity . It allowed the team to quickly focus on the problems , to identify   problems , addressed the problems and brainstorm solutions . The revised graphics can continue to be revisited and   revised when necessary . As this is the 1st time the team utilise this design thinking tool and find it to be effective , I will   use this approach to improve any HR process for better efficiency and optimisation . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Design Thinking for Innovation_1 

 Reflection : Improving a critical HR process using Visualisation tool 

 Challenge and Selection 

 My company is a terminal plant specialist and hence we engaged and relied heavily on foreign workers for construction   and performed maintenance work of terminal plants for our clients . From time to time , our workers would take an   extended period of home leave ( vacation ) when they fulfilled certain length of contracture employment , 2 years and   after project completion . 

 The challenges faced by the HR were : 

 1 . the administrative support for the sheer numbers of workers involved ;    2 . the collaboration with all the internal and external stakeholders ( e.g. management , accounts , work permit , 

 lounging , flight arrangement etc ) were massive ; 

 3 . the outdated processes ;   4 . the additional process taken by staff involved which contributed to confusion and additional time incurred ; 

 I chose the visualisation tool to utilise visual thinking within my HR team to achieve a baseline in the understanding of   who were the stakeholders ; what were the operation processes involved ; what were system processes ; what was   working and what were the challenges and to share any additional processes that were taken to work around any   obstacles they faced . I made use of a combination of questionnaires , graphical representation and Visio flow - charts ,   to facilitate discussion within the team and to learn from each other ; to demonstrate clearly the communication   channels between the stakeholders ; the the scope , the processes , the system workflow , the pain points and   improvement areas 

 Application 

 I began by referring to the existing outdated HR process documents to gather an overview to understand ; and   conducted meetings with the HR team , using the prepared questionnaires to learn from them about the scope , the   processes , the pain points , any additional processes taken and also to solicit their inputs for improvement . I conducted   an evaluation into the specific workflows of the HR system to understand if there was any bottleneck in terms of   workflow routing , approval cycle and any area for optimisation . When we uncovered areas within the processes which   were unclear , we noted down all these ambiguities for fine - tuning or sought clarification from the senior stakeholders   if necessary . I recorded all the discussions , new inputs , findings and challenges and combined with the findings from   the evaluation of the system workflows . 

 After the meetings , I created a high - level graphical drawing to depict the communication channel between the various   stakeholders involved . Next , I also created Visio flow - chart which showed the different sub - processes and the columns   for different stakeholders ( see illustration below ) . 

 Design Thinking for Innovation_2 

 With the completion of the visual drawings which incorporated the shared and new inputs , feedback and proposed   changes that were agreed upon , final reviews were conducted with the team to confirm and eliminate any ambiguities   to arrive to the revised process which the team . 

 Insight 

 With this visualisation approach , I learnt that the graphical and flow - charts allowed the team to have a clear visibility   of the problems involved and to resolve . It allowed the team to share their perspectives , new insights , challenges as   well as ambiguities . It facilitated active discussion within the team to help identify what they did not know or   misunderstandings , assumptions in the HR process and at system level in a collaborative manner . The visual thinking   approach provided a more simplified approach for management to quickly provide their inputs whenever necessary ,   as the saying goes , a picture is worth a thousand word . 

 Approach 

 This visualisation approach was well received by the team as it provided opportunities for shared inputs and   understanding , it also tried to eliminate any ambiguity . It allowed the team to quickly focus on the problems , to identify   problems , addressed the problems and brainstorm solutions . The revised graphics can continue to be revisited and   revised when necessary . As this is the 1st time the team utilise this design thinking tool and find it to be effective , I will   use this approach to improve any HR process for better efficiency and optimisation .
### Output: 