Project Card
The objective of this project was to design a new module for the HR application that enables employees to submit leave requests electronically and view the company-wide leave calendar. This module was designed as an integral part of the existing application, aimed at optimizing leave management and improving communication between teams.
By implementing this solution, managers and employees gain easy access to up-to-date information on team member availability, which significantly enhances project planning efficiency and day-to-day collaboration. The intuitive user interface allows for quick and convenient submission of leave requests, monitoring of approval statuses, and simplifies resource availability management for team leaders.
Project objective
• Transferring the process of submitting and accepting leave applications from the e-mail version to the system (business objective)
• Sharing the leave calendar of all employees of the entire organization (business objective).
• Minimizing the number of documents by switching from paper to electronic circulation (HR team objective).
• Sharing the leave calendar of all employees of the entire organization (business objective).
• Minimizing the number of documents by switching from paper to electronic circulation (HR team objective).
Why are we doing this? What is it supposed to give us?
• Creation of an application for requesting and accepting leave regardless of the type of contract.
• Facilitate/speed up requesting and maintaining the history of requests
• Improved communication between teams through easy access to information about the availability of all employees on specific days.
• Keeping all information about employee leave in one place. Until now, requests and acceptance were made by email, Teams or verbally
• Informing superiors and project managers about the absence of team members on an ongoing basis.
• Reducing the duties of an administrative employee by removing the need to manually verify and collect leave requests and contacting employees to deliver outstanding requests.
• Reducing the need for employees working remotely to come to the office to deliver paper documents, which will contribute to reducing costs and travel time (currently 38 people on UoP)
• Reducing the amount of paper documentation.
• Facilitate/speed up requesting and maintaining the history of requests
• Improved communication between teams through easy access to information about the availability of all employees on specific days.
• Keeping all information about employee leave in one place. Until now, requests and acceptance were made by email, Teams or verbally
• Informing superiors and project managers about the absence of team members on an ongoing basis.
• Reducing the duties of an administrative employee by removing the need to manually verify and collect leave requests and contacting employees to deliver outstanding requests.
• Reducing the need for employees working remotely to come to the office to deliver paper documents, which will contribute to reducing costs and travel time (currently 38 people on UoP)
• Reducing the amount of paper documentation.
Evaluating success.
• Checking whether employees use the application. Number of leave applications entered in the application in relation to the actual leave taken. If > 95% in the first 3 months, it is a success.
• Reduction in the amount of paper documentation during the year
• Saving time of the HR employee
• Reduction in the amount of paper documentation during the year
• Saving time of the HR employee
Competition overview
During my analysis of competing solutions, I focus on specific user scenarios that I have previously outlined for the application. This allows me to concentrate on the key user flows required for the project and identify elements that could be useful for my design. At the same time, I evaluate features that may not work effectively in competing products and note areas for improvement.
This approach helps me discover elements I hadn't considered before, which can enhance the design of the application. Below, I’ve outlined three different leave request flows from competing applications. In one case, I was able to examine both the employee and employer perspectives, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the process and identifying potential optimizations.
Protopersonas
In situations where I don’t have access to full user research, I create protopersonas. This helps me keep in mind the different user segments for whom the project is being designed. I build these protopersonas based on interviews with business stakeholders and conversations with potential users, which allows me to outline typical needs.
This approach helps ensure that features and the interface are tailored to specific user needs, even in the early stages of the project.
1. Employee on an employment contract
(approx. 40% of the company's employees)
Goals and needs:
• Want to submit leave applications quickly and conveniently without having to come to the office.
• Needs a transparent system that will inform him about the status of the submitted application.
• Appreciates the ability to view the leave calendar of teammates to better plan his tasks
Frustrations and challenges:
• The need to submit leave applications in person in paper form is burdensome
• Forgetting to submit the application on time.
(approx. 40% of the company's employees)
Goals and needs:
• Want to submit leave applications quickly and conveniently without having to come to the office.
• Needs a transparent system that will inform him about the status of the submitted application.
• Appreciates the ability to view the leave calendar of teammates to better plan his tasks
Frustrations and challenges:
• The need to submit leave applications in person in paper form is burdensome
• Forgetting to submit the application on time.
2. Managers
(approx. 18 people in the company)
Goals and needs:
• Wants easy access to his team's vacation requests in order to approve them efficiently.
• Needs to view the vacation calendar to plan resources and project deadlines.
• Looking for a way to minimize time-consuming administrative processes.
Frustrations and challenges:
• Manual processing of leave requests is time-consuming and error-prone.
• Employees send him leave requests via email, Teams or verbally. It is difficult to find the history of these requests later.
• He must enter all leave requests of the entire team manually into the calendar in Outlook
(approx. 18 people in the company)
Goals and needs:
• Wants easy access to his team's vacation requests in order to approve them efficiently.
• Needs to view the vacation calendar to plan resources and project deadlines.
• Looking for a way to minimize time-consuming administrative processes.
Frustrations and challenges:
• Manual processing of leave requests is time-consuming and error-prone.
• Employees send him leave requests via email, Teams or verbally. It is difficult to find the history of these requests later.
• He must enter all leave requests of the entire team manually into the calendar in Outlook
3. HR employee
(2 people)
Goals and needs:
• Needs to reduce time spent manually collecting and verifying leave requests.
• Wants to centralize leave data in the system to more easily monitor and report employee leave status.
• Wants to reduce paper documentation
Frustrations and challenges:
(2 people)
Goals and needs:
• Needs to reduce time spent manually collecting and verifying leave requests.
• Wants to centralize leave data in the system to more easily monitor and report employee leave status.
• Wants to reduce paper documentation
Frustrations and challenges:
• Manual processes are time-consuming and error-prone, which affects HR efficiency.
•Has to keep paper leave applications of all employees for 5 years
• Has to remind employees to bring paper leave applications
•Has to keep paper leave applications of all employees for 5 years
• Has to remind employees to bring paper leave applications
4. Project Managers
(5 people)
Goals and needs:
• I want to get information about the absence of people from the project team
• I want to know who is on vacation when, so that I can better plan work in projects
Frustrations and challenges:
• The project is not going according to plan because employees go on vacation without informing the Project Managers
(5 people)
Goals and needs:
• I want to get information about the absence of people from the project team
• I want to know who is on vacation when, so that I can better plan work in projects
Frustrations and challenges:
• The project is not going according to plan because employees go on vacation without informing the Project Managers
User Stories
As an employee I want to:
• submit an absence request via the app to inform other employees and supervisors about my vacation plans
• view the history of my requests to check when I was absent.
• edit the submitted request if my plans change.
• cancel the submitted request if my plans change.
• see the number of remaining vacation days, so that I know how much vacation I have left.
• see information about the status of the request, so that I know at what stage of acceptance it is.
• receive notification of a change in the status of the request, to stay up to date with information.
• see the calendar of absences of all team members, so that work can be better synchronized.
• submit an absence request via the app to inform other employees and supervisors about my vacation plans
• view the history of my requests to check when I was absent.
• edit the submitted request if my plans change.
• cancel the submitted request if my plans change.
• see the number of remaining vacation days, so that I know how much vacation I have left.
• see information about the status of the request, so that I know at what stage of acceptance it is.
• receive notification of a change in the status of the request, to stay up to date with information.
• see the calendar of absences of all team members, so that work can be better synchronized.
As a Manager I want to:
• Approve or reject leave requests from my team members so that I can give consent for their time off.
• Forward a leave request to the Delivery Manager for additional approval, to ensure that the employee's leave does not conflict with the project schedule.
• View the leave calendar of all my team members to better synchronize work schedules.
• View the leave calendars of other teams to improve cross-team coordination.
• See information on remaining leave days and overtime for my team members to manage these details more effectively.
• Receive notifications for new leave requests from my team members that require approval, so I don’t miss any submissions.
• Receive notifications about team member absences to stay updated on team availability.
• Submit my own absence request through the application to inform other managers and supervisors about my leave plans.
• Approve or reject leave requests from my team members so that I can give consent for their time off.
• Forward a leave request to the Delivery Manager for additional approval, to ensure that the employee's leave does not conflict with the project schedule.
• View the leave calendar of all my team members to better synchronize work schedules.
• View the leave calendars of other teams to improve cross-team coordination.
• See information on remaining leave days and overtime for my team members to manage these details more effectively.
• Receive notifications for new leave requests from my team members that require approval, so I don’t miss any submissions.
• Receive notifications about team member absences to stay updated on team availability.
• Submit my own absence request through the application to inform other managers and supervisors about my leave plans.
As a Project Manager I want to:
• view the vacation calendars of all employees in your organization to better plan resources and project schedules.
• respond to leave requests from project team members to stay up to date on employee availability
• add comments to leave requests to better communicate decisions and potential scheduling requirements.
• receive notifications of submitted leave requests from team members to respond to them more quickly
• submit an absence request through the app to inform other employees of your leave plans
• view the vacation calendars of all employees in your organization to better plan resources and project schedules.
• respond to leave requests from project team members to stay up to date on employee availability
• add comments to leave requests to better communicate decisions and potential scheduling requirements.
• receive notifications of submitted leave requests from team members to respond to them more quickly
• submit an absence request through the app to inform other employees of your leave plans
As an HR employee, I want to::
• View the leave calendar of my team members and all employees to better plan work
• See a preview of the leave request history to analyze historical data to identify patterns and trends in leave usage.
• Generate a leave report to analyze trends, forecast employee needs
• Monitor other types of absences, such as sick leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, etc., to better manage absences and required documentation
• View the leave calendar of my team members and all employees to better plan work
• See a preview of the leave request history to analyze historical data to identify patterns and trends in leave usage.
• Generate a leave report to analyze trends, forecast employee needs
• Monitor other types of absences, such as sick leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, etc., to better manage absences and required documentation
Flow
The diagram shows the entire process of submitting a leave application by an employee under an employment contract. The employee fills in the application, sends it to the manager. The manager approves or disapproves it. If he approves, he can also send the application for approval to the Project Managers with whom the employee cooperates. Information about the accepted application is forwarded to the HR department.
The process shown in this way allows me to quickly explain to the team and the client how the process can proceed and allows me to find potential problems or benefits at an early stage.
Design
