The Lasting Impact of a Human-Centered Work Practices Solution
The Opportunity
A major financial institution enlisted the help of Evans Consulting to reengineer the work practices used to collect and analyze internationally comparable time-series data from over 180 countries – a process that was time consuming and error-prone and relied on a rigid and outdated time-series Economic Information System (EIS). Evans closely partnered with the technology and data management departments to understand their priorities and collaborated with cross-functional teams to define the software’s requirements. The final product resulted in functional alignment of stakeholders that eliminated the inconsistencies in their process to collect complex country data.
Evans worked closely with department leaders and staff, and the institution’s human resources experts to deploy the reorganization efforts. Over the course of three projects and several years, Evans combined its human-centered implementation strategy with its technical expertise to improve the institution’s operational processes and provide a holistic and meaningful solution to its workforce needs. After the reorganization’s launch, a cost-benefit analysis of the changed work practices, redefined roles and responsibilities, and more-flexible and feature-rich technology determined the department improve data quality with a reduced staffing need for data management by 25 percent.
Evans’ Human-Centered Approach
Evans worked closely with leadership in the department to design and implement a change management program to encourage technology adoption among stakeholders. Achieving the benefits (and projected savings) required a comprehensive change management approach to effectively modify organization and individual beliefs. Evans helped the department clarify its vision and develop a phased implementation strategy. Additionally, they helped to achieve successful implementation of a new departmental structure, new career ladder for data management, aligned and improved business processes, and an improved partnership with the information technology department in the institution. Throughout the multi-year implementation, Evans supported governance and task teams, provided leadership development to new team leads, developed and drove communication plans for reaching internal and external stakeholders, and facilitated departmental and division team offsite meetings to sustain adoption and reach desired outcomes. This resulted in a culture of continuous improvement around efficiently gathering and effectively managing economic data and delivering timely, responsive data products for clients within and outside the institution.
