workpadi Payroll
extending workpadi to include an all-in-one customisable hub for african employee compensation.
UX Research
Product design
role
product designer
duration
2 Weeks
industry
B2B SaaS
tools
Figma
Miro
Project Overview
Workpadi Payroll represents a pivotal evolution in payroll services tailored for African businesses within the Workpadi ecosystem. Rooted in the core philosophy of Workpadi's customizability, this project embarked on the mission to streamline payroll processes, offering businesses unparalleled control over salary structures, tax configurations, and pension contributions—all seamlessly integrated within the Workpadi platform.
A key focus of Workpadi Payroll is its adaptability, allowing businesses to effortlessly manage benefits and deductions based on preset definitions. This elevates the payroll experience, enabling organizations to navigate additional compensation elements and deductions in alignment with their unique policies.
Workpadi Payroll transcends traditional payroll solutions by empowering businesses to tailor their payroll structures to fit their specific needs. From configuring salary payment methods to defining tax structures based on regional regulations, every element is fully customizable within the Workpadi ecosystem. We aimed not only to simplify the payroll process but to consolidate every aspect, from setting up structures to scheduling and initiating payments, within the Workpadi platform.
Problem Discovery
We realised early enough how crucial it was to pay attention to detail when working on this module because we are dealing with money at a large scale. We identified all the potential points of customisability, took note of them and still approached HR professional with experience handling payroll. These are some of the problems we identified;
Complex Benefit and Deduction Management
Businesses struggle with intricate benefit and deduction structures, facing challenges in efficiently managing diverse compensation elements within their payroll processes.
Limited Customisability in Payroll Solutions
Existing payroll solutions lack the flexibility required by African businesses, hindering their ability to adapt salary structures, tax configurations, and pension contributions according to national laws.
Gaps in Payroll Access
Current payroll systems fall short in providing employees with on-demand access to their paystubs, contributing to a lack of transparency and employee empowerment in financial matters.
Inefficient Handling of National Tax Regulations
Businesses struggle to navigate the complexities of national tax regulations, leading to errors and inefficiencies in payroll processing that may result in non-compliance with legal requirements.
The process
A major part of our process involved a competitive analysis of existing payroll systems. We ran thses analyses on payroll systems that are stand-alone and those that are integrated with other parts of human resource management. Most decisions we made on atomic features were iterative. This was because laws around tax and pension differ with various jurisdictions, so the more we learned, the more we iterated.
Competitive Analysis
We were primarily focused on the African market but we realised that a some african organisations use global payroll systems such as Deel and Bamboo HR Payroll so we exanded our research to look at these platforms too. We saw that there were standards that had to be followed in terms of user experience; the least things users will want is total change.
STRENGTHS
- Steady growing Customer Base
- Presense in Nigeria and abroad
- Automated Peer-to-peer exchanges
- Multi-currency accounts
- Internal Transfers
- Payment rails for African diaspora back to home
WEAKNESSES
- Steady growing Customer Base
- Presense in Nigeria and abroad
- Automated Peer-to-peer exchanges
- Multi-currency accounts
- Internal Transfers
- Payment rails for African diaspora back to home
STRENGTHS
- Steady growing Customer Base
- Presense in Nigeria and abroad
- Automated Peer-to-peer exchanges
- Multi-currency accounts
- Internal Transfers
- Payment rails for African diaspora back to home
WEAKNESSES
- Steady growing Customer Base
- Presense in Nigeria and abroad
- Automated Peer-to-peer exchanges
- Multi-currency accounts
- Internal Transfers
- Payment rails for African diaspora back to home
OPPORTUNITIES
- Steady growing Customer Base
- Presense in Nigeria and abroad
- Automated Peer-to-peer exchanges
- Multi-currency accounts
- Internal Transfers
- Payment rails for African diaspora back to home
User Personnas
We stuck with the personnas we defined for Workpadi HRMS since we noticed that the general objectives remained the same, just a few minor changes in overall motivations.
To mention again, edge cases may still exist but our fallback plan is the customisable nature of workpadi, allowing its users define their circumstances, even for pay levels, tax deductions, pension contributions, benefits and deduction for statutory and additional cases.
We need an efficient way of managing our employees without having to restructure our workforce, just plug-and-play.
name
Emma Thompson
age
32 Years old
Occupation
HR Administrator in a Tech Company
Goals
- Streamline leave request and approval processes.
- Ensure accurate and timely payroll management.
- Centralise and organise employee data for easy access.
Frustrations
- Manual and time-consuming HR workflows
- Challenges in payroll calculations and compliance
- Disorganised employee data and tracking
Motivation
Working in an early-stage company requires the need to get HR right from the jump. We need to enhance our HR processes early for a more efficient workflow.
My company is not so big but I still need a way to manage all of my employees without having to use large HR tools.
name
Alex Rodriguez
age
43 Years old
Occupation
Small Business Owner
Goals
- Access a user-friendly HRMS for small teams.
- Optimize HR processes without extensive costs.
- Simplify onboarding and offboarding for a growing team.
Frustrations
- Limited resources for HR management.
- Need for scalable and cost-effective HR solutions.
- Time-consuming onboarding and offboarding procedures.
Motivation
Small business, big dreams, HR shouldn't be a hurdle. i want to achieve efficient HR processes with something small and does not break the bank to foster business growth.
Data handling and manipulation is good for employees. everyone should access what they need when they need it.
name
Adetayo Gabriel
age
37 Years old
Occupation
HR Manager in Manufacturing
Goals
- Streamline and automate leave approval workflows.
- Improve payroll accuracy and efficiency
- Access comprehensive HR analytics for strategic planning
- Give employees access to self-service
Frustrations
- Coordinating complex leave approval workflows
- Ensuring accurate payroll calculations for a large workforce
- Limited insights from HR analytics for decision-making
Motivation
My organisation is quite large but i want to give my employees the best experience to allow me enhance HR processes for strategic and long-term organisational planning.
What the personnas revealed
- Most people are already used to the idea of HR systems, so going by Jakob's law, we had to identify and maintain standards around requirements, flows and functionalities - of course with room for improving efficiency.
- We need to make workpadi as modular as possible. What this meant was that we needed to break the full roadmap of workpadi down into functional modules that can stand-alone and still be valuable.
- This breakdown is necessary because not all companies will require all the modules for their business.
- It proved the entire essense of Workpadi, the need to ensure that companies of all sizes can use Workpadi and define it to suit their organisational circumstances.
- Beyond design, our focus extends to preparing objectives for training users and onboarding companies. This involves equipping HR professionals with the necessary skills to effectively utilize Workpadi.
Userflows and Wireframes
When it comes to payment administration cases, it is important to view security as a highly crucial factor. For all the flows we defined, we esnured that they were secure. Secure in the sense that not anyone in the organisation can access activities around payroll.
As part of our initial design of the HRMS platform, we defined access levels and approval flows. We did these to ensure that for every flow, within and outside the context of payroll that may lead to a significant event happening in the organisation, administrators are defined to approve or decline them.
These made all our userflows around payroll highly secure. We developed wireframes afterwards for Pay groups, running payroll from start to finish. The goal was to prioritise total visibility and control of all funds paid out to employees down to the smallest detail.
Style Guide and Component Library
We used the initial style guide and components we defined for Workpadi HRMS. It is all within the same platform so of course, uniformity is important to users.
Solution & Final Designs
Setup Compensation: Salary structures
As an HR Admin or employee, I aim to seamlessly access all available modules from the dashboard without disrupting my mental model. The navigation should provide clarity, ensuring that the arrangement aligns intuitively with my workflow. Additionally, I desire an insightful overview of employee status and crucial information. Through this, I can efficiently manage tasks and stay informed.
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Setup Compensation: Additonal Allowances
As an HR Admin, I aspire to effortlessly set up and personalize Workpadi to align with the unique needs of my organisation. The Company Setup and Approvals feature should empower me to customize workflows, defining who holds the authority to approve specific actions within the organisation.
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Setup Compensation: Additonal deductions
As an HR Admin, I need the People Setup feature in Workpadi to efficiently establish and customize our organisational structure. This includes setting up departments, designations, job titles, defining roles and reporting hierarchies, and creating custom fields to collect unique employee information. Additionally, I require the ability to configure leave schedules, allowing for streamlined leave application processes, defining constraints, and implementing overall controls for effective leave management.
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Manage Pay Groups
As an HR Admin, the Workpadi People feature is critical for gaining a comprehensive overview of all employees within the organisation. I require seamless access to detailed employee information and the ability to navigate through their situations effortlessly. The feature should empower me with easy-to-use search, filter, and sort functionalities, ensuring efficient handling of large volumes of information.
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Run Payroll
As an HR Admin, I need to view and edit employee details, track their activities, and assign on/offboarding tasks seamlessly. This feature should also allow quick actions like suspending or terminating employees, streamlining the personnel management process efficiently.
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Company Account Funding & Transactions Details
As an employee or HR Admin utilising Leave Requests & Management in Workpadi, I require the capability to not only submit and manage leave requests but also access a comprehensive overview of the leave situation across the organisation. This feature enhances transparency and facilitates better planning for both employees and administrators.
Drag or Swipe for more >>>
Other Modules
At the start of this project we defined a roadmap that includes modules that support the entire employee lifecycle from hiring down to offboarding. Of these modules, we prioritised a set of modules for this release. We worked on other modules such as;
- onboarding for new companies and employees
- Calendars and Reminders
- Payroll, compensation setup and management[More details in the Workpadi Payroll case study]
- Reporting section for all activity on Workpadi
- Platform settings and configurations
- Pricing structure and Billing section
- notification module and activity monitor for employee logs
- and more...
Email Templates and communication assets
As a Workpadi user, HR admin or employee, transactional emails are necessary for timely communication on updates. When an action is taken, or an action is expected, they should receive well-crafted emails giving information on what is expected. I designed 40+ email templates for actions that require transactional emails and ensured they were well written with adequately directed messages.
Additionally, some assets were also required for auto-generated documents within the app, like paystubs and invoices. I designed these documents based on industry standards and ensured they had the right resolution for print media cases.
Challenges faced and takeaways
The initiation of the Workpadi project posed a some challenges Firstly, the project, as initially perceived at the time of problem discovery and architecting service design, it loomed as quite a sizeable undertaking. Secondly, being the sole designer on the team heightened the intricacies of project timeline management.
While communication remained fluid within our closely connected team, uncertainties surrounding the project created hurdles in accurately gauging timelines.
Not withstanding, these challenges drove I and the team to find solutions to how we looked at the project. We strictly approached it on a module by module basis and this helped. SOme other takeaways include;
- I recognised the need for indepth research especially when building for users with highly defined roles. Your aim should be to add little to no changes to their workflow.
- Recognise the importance of accurately gauging the scope of a project from the outset to avoid heightened expectations.
- I learned to appreciate the efficiency and effectiveness of communication within close-knit teams.
- Learned to embrace adaptability and flexibility as essential qualities in navigating unforeseen challenges.
- Commit to a process of continuous improvement, refining approaches based on project experiences.
Conclusion
Designing Workpadi HRMS was a profound journey, weaving creativity and functionality to redefine HR systems. As the sole designer, what initially seemed daunting turned into a rich learning experience. Communication thrived in our close-knit team, tackling uncertainties underscored adaptability and continuous improvement.
This journey not only birthed a robust HRMS but ingrained principles of holistic project management and user-centric design.
Workpadi HRMS stands as a testament to our commitment to innovative design, with heartfelt gratitude for the opportunity to contribute to this transformative project.
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