Workforce Wage Cost Data Dashboard
Project Details
Tl;dr
Led discovery and early design for a workforce wage cost management dashboard following a major HR software rollout. Designed and facilitated workshops with 25 business and 14 technical stakeholders, defined four key user personas, and created low-fidelity dashboard concepts to visualise workforce data. Synthesised qualitative insights into actionable requirements, aligned leadership expectations with technical reality, and helped progress one concept into a $1.8M engagement. The dashboard enabled granular benchmarking of store wage costs, informed better workforce decisions, and laid the foundation for adoption across the organisation.
Following the rollout of a major HR software implementation, a significant portion of the project budget remained unallocated. For leadership, this wasn’t just “leftover funds”—it was an opportunity. An opportunity to explore how workforce management could be more efficient, particularly at the store level, where wage costs were a major component of operational expenses.
The challenge was framed in one central question:
“How might we improve workforce management strategies to more efficiently manage in-store workforce costs?”
This question would drive the work I led in collaboration with client executives and senior EY leaders. A four-hour workshop produced three draft business cases. From these, one concept emerged as the most promising, evolving into a $1.8M engagement: designing a workforce wage cost management dashboard that allowed stores to benchmark and track wage costs with more granularity than ever before.
Although some workforce management data was already being distributed to stores, it was rarely used in practice. Key issues included:
- Fragmented ownership of workforce data across the organisation
- Inconsistent data quality and accuracy
- Poor accessibility and lack of user‑friendly presentation
These challenges led to mixed reactions from key stakeholders whose buy‑in was critical to the success of any new solution. Addressing these concerns early was essential to building confidence in the proposed dashboard and ensuring long‑term adoption.
As a project support team member during the discovery phase, I contributed across strategy, design, and delivery. My responsibilities included:
- Supporting a cross‑functional discovery team focused on workforce management and wage cost drivers
- Designing low‑fidelity data dashboard concepts aligned to Google Cloud Platform patterns
- Designing and facilitating workshops with senior technical and non‑technical stakeholders to gather business requirements
- Synthesising qualitative feedback into actionable insights
- Establishing Confluence and Jira to support structured project management
- Preparing SteerCo reports for senior leadership
These contributions helped establish a clear set of business requirements, a shared understanding of feasibility, and early dashboard concepts that received positive stakeholder feedback.
An early discovery insight was that leadership assumptions about data readiness did not always reflect operational reality. While strategic intent was strong, there were gaps in understanding around:
- Data availability
- Data quality
- Existing infrastructure capabilities
- Alignment across teams responsible for workforce data
Addressing these gaps quickly was critical to grounding the project in reality. This was achieved by engaging directly with those closest to the data through targeted workshops and stakeholder interviews.
To deepen understanding and validate feasibility, I designed and facilitated three structured workshops:
- Technical capability workshops with 14 senior technical stakeholders to understand current data systems and constraints
- Business discovery workshops with 25 participants from across the organisation to identify:
- What data was currently collected
- What data users wanted access to
- Which metrics would genuinely be used to manage workforce costs
Insights from these sessions directly informed:
- A clearly defined set of business requirements
- A structured project management framework
- Further refinement of dashboard concepts
These outputs formed the foundation for the build phase and will support widespread adoption once deployed.
The discovery and strategy phase resulted in:
- One fully developed concept progressing to a $1.8m engagement
- Clear alignment between leadership ambition and technical reality
- Early dashboard designs validated by both technical and business stakeholders
The resulting workforce wage cost dashboard went on to enable more granular benchmarking and supported more informed decision‑making at the store level.
The Importance of Discovery
Redesigning lengthy, lecture-style training into an engaging, user-centered experience significantly improved confidence, adoption, and sentiment go-live.
Effective Workshop Facilitation
Designing and facilitating multiple high‑stakes workshops highlighted several best practices:
- Ensure all outputs are clearly documented, both verbally and in writing
- Avoid overloading sessions and allow flexibility in delivery
- Keep discussions focused and be confident in redirecting conversations
Bridging Technical and Non‑Technical Perspectives
Coming from a non‑technical background, I initially found technical discussions challenging. Over time, I learned that my value lay not in mastering technical detail, but in understanding just enough to translate complexity for non‑technical stakeholders. This capability proved particularly valuable when preparing SteerCo updates and aligning senior leadership every two weeks.