Improving employee retention and talent acquisition by apply design thinking to improve both recruitment process and employee experience

In today’s competitive landscape, businesses are investing heavily in customer experience (CX) – and for good reason. A seamless, intuitive CX drives customer satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately, revenue. But while companies pour resources into perfecting the customer journey, they often overlook a critical piece of the puzzle: the employee experience (EX).

The truth is, as customer experience improves, the burden on employees often increases. They are the ones behind the scenes, ensuring operations run smoothly, meeting rising customer expectations, and adapting to ever-evolving processes. Yet, their workflows, tools, and day-to-day experiences are rarely designed with the same care and intentionality as those of the customers they serve. This disconnect leads to frustration, burnout, and disengagement – all of which contribute to high turnover rates and challenges in talent acquisition.

This is where design thinking comes in. By applying the same human-centered principles used to enhance customer experiences, we can reimagine the employee journey. Design thinking allows us to:

• Understand the pain points of employees through empathy and research.

• Redesign workflows to eliminate inefficiencies and reduce unnecessary stress.

• Create tools and systems that empower employees to be more productive and fulfilled in their roles.

• Foster a culture of innovation where employees feel valued and heard.

When employees are happier and more engaged, they are not only more likely to stay with the organization but also become its greatest advocates, attracting top talent in the process. By prioritizing employee experience alongside customer experience, businesses can create a virtuous cycle of satisfaction, productivity, and growth.

In this exploration, we’ll dive into how design thinking can transform employee retention and talent acquisition, creating workplaces where both employees and organisations thrive.

Simon Kim, a well known American restaurateur that build the successful Michelin-Starred Korean Steakhouse. If you have not met or heard opinions from the man regarding how to create a working environment that is optimised for climix customer experience, I recommend the follow youtube video: https://youtu.be/oAADFdfa-G4?si=12OQKGVUIIAc_idb In order to save you time, allow me to summarise the content in on sentence said by the man himself "Hospitality of pleasing people doesn't start at 5:00 o'clock (when the restaurant opens, but it starts NOW. We please each other, creating a culture where we constantly make each other happy. When the restaurant open and our first customer comes in, It is natural to make them happy".

There are other experience of the spectrum where I myself experience as a manager during the time I work as a retail manager at Chemist Warehouse, and ever since I had a reflection on my own mistake, I make an oath with my best version that I will do everything in my ability to fix this in my career journey.

Anyone would resonate with me on this matter during COVID-19 event, when the stress triple almost every week basis, the workload is increased but the system is now where near to be empathy and supporting for frontline health workers. This has result in a phenomenon called quite quitting and until this very day, I have seen my peers whom willing to discard their years of professional training to pursue something that don't deplete their energy.

Where is the blame? it is on the stagnation of the system, refusing to have a deep reflection even after COVID. I believe, this specific case does not only apply to my own workplace, that has been my calling ever since.

If you are also a human centric individuals, and share the same empathy as well as having the courage to find a solution to build a sustainable and resilient team, I am THE GUY you can count on.