Doing Unemployment Better : Using human-centred design to create an employment bridging service
Spokes, Pamela (2017)
Laurea-ammattikorkeakoulu
2017
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201705056483
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201705056483
Tiivistelmä
Structural changes in the global economy have led to the high unemployment experienced in Finland for the past decade. Industries are contracting and changing in dramatic fashion as a result of fast-paced technological change leaving unprecedented numbers of highly educated people unemployed in Finland. Based on the principles of human-centred design, the purpose of this thesis project was to create a new service concept for the large numbers of highly educated unemployed to concretise their value propositions to the labour while at the same time exploring the possibility of self-employment. This service concept was developed in collaboration with the service design agency Hellon.
This thesis provides both an understanding of the drivers of economic change and the psychological meaning of work and its function in the human experience and well-being. It looks at how work is changing as a result of technology from three perspectives: the changing nature of occupations, the new world of labour supply, and the changing dynamics of demand (including the gig economy). It addresses issues such as how changes to technology and to the concept of work will affect how we will work and what are the predicted skills needed in the future.
The theoretical backdrop of this thesis examines the paradigm shift in value creation, customer-dominant logic, service design, experience design, futures thinking, motivation, and the meaning of work. In designing the Design Your Dream Job service concept, the double diamond process was used with methods including idea generation, prototyping, design probes, online surveys, participant interviews, affinity mapping, and persona creation. The aim of this service concept was to create a workshop and toolkit that helped participants to reveal hidden skills, discover what meaningful work means to them, broaden their job search possibilities and learn venture creation tools. This new service concept was piloted with 20 unemployed, highly educated participants.
The customer research in this thesis revealed that service innovation in unemployment services is needed because society needs to address complex, systemic challenges. These challenges come from ever-increasing automation, shrinking job security, and the need for different skills. There were three main findings from this workshop, 1) the need for community, 2) the need for innovative unemployment services, and 3) the need to focus on the individual in a group. The feedback from the participants was largely positive with most of the participants believing that they can apply for a wider range of jobs, an overall increase in their confidence in starting a business, with all participants saying that they can use what they learned during the workshop in the future and that this workshop would be worth paying for.
This thesis provides both an understanding of the drivers of economic change and the psychological meaning of work and its function in the human experience and well-being. It looks at how work is changing as a result of technology from three perspectives: the changing nature of occupations, the new world of labour supply, and the changing dynamics of demand (including the gig economy). It addresses issues such as how changes to technology and to the concept of work will affect how we will work and what are the predicted skills needed in the future.
The theoretical backdrop of this thesis examines the paradigm shift in value creation, customer-dominant logic, service design, experience design, futures thinking, motivation, and the meaning of work. In designing the Design Your Dream Job service concept, the double diamond process was used with methods including idea generation, prototyping, design probes, online surveys, participant interviews, affinity mapping, and persona creation. The aim of this service concept was to create a workshop and toolkit that helped participants to reveal hidden skills, discover what meaningful work means to them, broaden their job search possibilities and learn venture creation tools. This new service concept was piloted with 20 unemployed, highly educated participants.
The customer research in this thesis revealed that service innovation in unemployment services is needed because society needs to address complex, systemic challenges. These challenges come from ever-increasing automation, shrinking job security, and the need for different skills. There were three main findings from this workshop, 1) the need for community, 2) the need for innovative unemployment services, and 3) the need to focus on the individual in a group. The feedback from the participants was largely positive with most of the participants believing that they can apply for a wider range of jobs, an overall increase in their confidence in starting a business, with all participants saying that they can use what they learned during the workshop in the future and that this workshop would be worth paying for.