Philips Service Design Challenge
Wellbeing at work for non-EU citizens in Italy
Client
Philips Experience Design
Partners
SERVICE DESIGN COLLEGE
IBM
Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Role
Project Manager
Design researcher
Video editor
Workshop facilitator
Design team
Annis Alfansi
Marco Biferale
Srishti Chauhan
Fernanda Dib
Stefania Mariani
Meutia Rahmadina
Where
Milan, Italy
Duration
8 months
What?
Service
Workshop
Co-design
User research
Prototyping
Non-EU
Students
This project focuses on easing non-EU citizen's transition into the Italian workworld after their graduation from Italian universities. The results shown below trace the different steps of the research up until the start of the service development phase.
Project timeline
Foreign labour in Italy
Brain drain and low retention rates
Italy is the 4th country with the largest foreign population in the EU, with a total of 5.2 million international citizens.
The country spends circa 35 million euros annually on attracting international students, but after graduation, most of them leave the country.
However, Italy needs this young foreign labour force for several reasons:
Foreign workers contribute at a 9% rate to Italy’s GDP.
They provide new skills, stimulate international trade and contribute positively to long-term fiscal balances.
Italy has a critically aging population (24% are aged 65 or older).
Elderly people are at risk as their pension depends on the national reserve coming from taxes paid by working professionals.
The country is experiencing a brain drain phenomena from Italian citizens who choose to work in other EU countries with higher wages.
How might we improve the wellbeing of non-EU citizens transitioning to the workforce by incentivizing cross-cultural exchange, internationalization, and integration?
Interviews
Understanding our end-users and stakeholders
We carried over 18 interviews with non-EU citizens either studying or working in Italy. In parallel we also spoke to relevant organizations, university partners, employers and managers working in international companies in the country (Design Group Italia, Yes Milano, Tangity, UNICEF...)
A team-member and I interviewing one of our stakeholders
Interview boards
Service safari & cultural probes
A tale of bureaucratic struggles
In order to better empathize with our end-users' struggles, our team went on several service safaris. We followed several non-EU citizen through their registration process in Italy, namely at the Tessera Sanitaria (Health office) and the Questura (Police Headquarters).
Two user journey of non-EU citizens going through their registration process in Italy
Screenshots of our video recording at the Tessera Sanitaria
Field trip & cultural probes
Mapping the context and needs of each stakeholder was vital for us to understand the wellbeing issues faced by non-EU workers in the workplace.
While foreign workers are found to be beneficial to the economy and companies across various industries, there are constraints in place that prevent Italy from supporting their wellbeing.
The main stakeholders are the non-EU workers themselves, private companies, organizations, and governments.
Visualizing the economical and professional ecosystem
System map
Findings and opportunity
Preventing foreign brain drain
Italy understands the importance of non-EU foreign labour and offers great incentives (bursaries, cheap study opportunities) to attract them to the country.
However, after graduation, most non-EU students usually decide to leave for other EU countries (Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain) due to the following factors:
-
hectic bureaucratic procedures
-
language barrier (Italian is still the main language at work)
-
lack of knowledge on how to navigate the Italian work culture.
Creating a strong personal and professional network in the country can motivate non-EU students to overcome common challenges more easily.
Co-creation workshop
Validation of our inputs and feedback collection
We organized a co-creation workshop with end-users and stakeholders. I was in charge of organizaing the session as well as leading the workshop facilitation. Our aim was to:
-
refine our understanding of the problem
-
get relevant feedback on our first MVS ideas.
Myself facilitating the workshop
Key learnings
The workshop provided us with the following insights to implement in our MVS:
-
Provide users with information and support on how to navigate the Italian job market
-
Gather and provide feedback from non-EU citizens who have successfully landed a job in Italy to help non-EU students about the graduate.
-
Gather and provide feedback from non-EU student's experience throughout their journey of landing a job in Italy.
-
Consider partnering with universities to provide resources and support to students and alumni.
-
Find income streams which would allow us to build and develop this project.
Several workshop activities:
identifying our users' fundamental needs, free debate around prompt cards, reaction to our prototype...
Nuance
A work in progress
Based on our research insights, we developed a first version of our MVS, Nuance, which we submitted to the Philips Design Challenge.
Nuance is a service that connects students, experienced professionals (mentors) and companies seeking international talents.
Wishing to go beyond the scope of the competition, we are currently still testing and reiterating this service with several end-users and stakeholders.
Nuance - First MVS
Testing our MVS and prototype website with stakeholders
Key Learnings
Throughout this whole design process, I learned that:
-
as a team lead, delegating is vital for optimal productivity and to make sure every team member stays engaged throughout the design process.
-
too much data is counterproductive: once data starts getting redudant, stopping and making sense of it all is in order.
-
framing the correct problem from the start is essential to stir a team in the right direction, hence the importance of good data analysis.
-
interviewing and involving all of our stakeholders is a must to understand the entire scope of the problem.
Next steps
In the future, we want to proceed with the following steps:
-
finalize our MVS.
-
refine our current business model and test it with Italian HRs.
-
reach out to local and national partners to help us develop the project.
-
find international EU parters to scale our project.