THE PROBLEM + DISCOVERIES

We know that women want Support Without having to justify why support is needed...

But currently,

Employers make ”Reasonable Adjustments” to resolve issues only after considerable justifications by the employee,

*The definition of Reasonable Adjustments depends heavily on the employer, and management.

which sometimes may not be adequate to provide relevant support.

*Since they are subject to employer policy/management discretion.

this leads to...

1. Mistrust: Feeling of voice not being heard and understood + Feeling that no one is attempting to resolve the issues
2. No Psychological Safety: May feel like discrimination

REFRAMING INSIGHTS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Now, reframing our Pain points based on the new HMW question, we identified 3 pertinent areas: Workmodes, Transparency and Support systems.

Expectations:

1. Work modes: While at work, full availability is expected, with 100% productivity level, for the full day
2. Transparency: People can identify their own limits and are comfortable bringing up issues with management
3. Support: Systems in place are adequate and people should not feel the need to ask for support

Vs. Reality:

1. Work modes: There is no scope to define the level and quality of of productivity + Constant availability is detrimental to focus since it does not factor the distraction that comes with being always available
2. Transparency: No resource to define own psychological safety and no means of self assessment or boundary setting + Effective terminology to communicate issues missing, with no way to express issues without talking to management
3. Support: People are unprepared to give support due to lack of time and skills + Since support is informal, it depends on the team or management if they want to give support

So, our Opportunities are:

To fill the gap between Expectation vs. reality, we need a service that can either:

1. Give agency to employees to define their work capacity : both physically and emotionally, so they feel a sense of control.

This allows for different modes of work, which encourages others to be respectful of boundaries and also makes allowance for different productivity levels.

or,

2. Employ cross-training, to prepare the workplace to ensure smooth functioning even when employees have to be on leave, creating resilient teams.

This leads to decrease in guilt to take time off when required, and creates greater trust, with a knowing that the whole team is equipped to take care of each other whenever required.

After consideration of scope to be manageable within the context of this project,

we selected opportunity 1.

To illustrate further, we have considered the following scenario in a:

• Small organization
• Close Knit team
• Office based jobs (not client facing)

SERVICE PROPOSITION

1.Assess

First stage of the service is self identification in which their calendars and project timelines are synced.To identify their work style they take a comphrensive personality test which creates a work persona for each employee for example, Tabita is a perfectionist and the thing stressing her out most at work is having no private time to focus.

Here, the Pod provides nudges in the form of practical suggestions of what she can do to decrease some of her stress.

2. Daily Choice + Planning

Manage Work

Stage 2 which is daily choice and planning where they can opt to manage work or leave.

In manage work, based on their synced calendars, the Pod automatically assigns modes of :

• In meeting
• on call
• travel

whenever relevant.

They can choose their work mode like:

• Heads Down Mode: Work without distractions and focus on tasks at your own pace.
• Responsive Mode: Available only for text and emails
• Join Me for a Break Mode: Invite your colleagues to join you for a tea/coffee break
• Collaborative mode: Actively participate in team projects and discussions.

when they are not in default modes based on their requirement of the day

Their modes are displayed for coworkers to see and interact accordingly.

Based on pre uploaded project timelines,Each employee is shown a personal productivity graph which tells when their expected downtime and uptime are.

Based on where they currently are, a recommendation is given to select additional workload they can take up.

This is accompanied by a reminder to set healthy boundaries.

There is also a scope to define what kind of work they can take up based on their inclination for the day.

the 3 categories are:

• Head, for more analytical tasks,
• Heart for emotional and rational intelligence,
• Gut for intuitive decision making.

Manage Leave

In the Manage leave section, along with regular leave option the Pod provides a new type of leave called Alternate leave, where you can take time off in hourly increments which will be totaled at the end of the month, which can be compensated for later

This is to provide flexibility in cases of emergencies or urgent personal commitments

3. Employee/Manager Feedback

This is the final stage of the service where employee receives analytics driven feedback for self reflection.

This includes nudges against overworking and encouragement to take a break

The manager also recives feedback but its more for tracking of resource to check which project needs more resource and whether any employee is being over burdened

The Pod also provides the option to reallocate resources.

Value Proposition for employees:

1. Providing Autonomy and Flexibility to fit employees’ personal and professional needs increases their sense of control and ownership over their workday.
2. Helps employees to better understand and recognise their own capacities and limits, fostering self-awareness and personal growth.
3. The transparency on the Pod fosters increased team function by: Facilitating better alignment & coordination by providing real-time information on availability, leading to smoother and more efficient team interactions.Displaying work modes sets clear expectations about availability and priorities, enhancing mutual understanding and providing context for behavior and response times.

Value Proposition for managers:

1. Identify and leverage diverse team strengths by increasing self-awareness within the team.
2. Enable better resource management by engaging data analytics to give a cumulative understanding of team morale in addition to reallocation of resource options.

Value Proposition for employers:

1. Higher retention rates by fostering supportive work environment
2. Possible decrease in costs associated with burnout and increased operational efficiency
3. Stable teams that foster job security with low turnover rate reducing cost and effort associated to train new recruitments