This is a speculative design project in collaboration with Fuzzy Studio. The design thesis is re-imagining the relationship with work for women and creating new ways of working while also providing workplace cultures that support good mental health, to make working life inside and outside of work healthier, happier and more productive.
Overview: I.V.I Program is a social policy in which the government recognises and pays for the invisible value being contributed by people outside of their work. Invisible Value Income empowers working parents to achieve their goals at home and at work, without having to choose one over the other.
VOICE - WHAT ARE WOMEN SAYING?
We have conducted 26 in-depth interviews and received 53 questionnaire responses from working females worldwide who work across different industries, including healthcare, consultancies, public service, and more. In total, this involved 83 participants, including 4 wellbeing specialists; to understand what causes them stress, how concerned they are about their mental health and the ideal image of their future work and life. It is interesting to note that even though their backgrounds are different, their future visions are similar.
We summarised these expectations for the future as the dimensions of private life and the external workplace. These six dimensions of workplace wellbeing have been subsequently used in Boston Consulting Group Italia's internal employees' affiliation workshop to analyse and integrate organisational changes before and after the pandemic.
User - Who are we designing for?
As the research progressed, we also learnt that the factors affecting working mothers' wellbeing are primarily external. These were the result of problems with the system as a whole. A working mother performs the majority of housework and childcare, which is unpaid. However, her partner's productivity at work is not affected when compared to hers. It is unfair that the value created at home is not paid for financially, because in the grand scheme of life, it does create value for others. Why is this invisible value not getting paid? Is this not gendered? Is the current evaluation system not creating "pain points" for working mothers?
SIGNALS - HOW WILL WOMEN'S FUTURES LOOK?
Bearing these questions in mind, we went back to find existing real-world signals that could be used to guide our thinking. Due to technological progress and the diversification of values in society, women's lifestyles have become more diverse, and there are many options for their future. Several new progressive government policies aim to empower individuals and promote gender equality. At the company level, attention is also being paid to innovative strategies that cater to employees' unique needs. At the individual level, people around the world are campaigning for equality.
All these signals point to a possible future where the government, companies and people are sensitive to individual differences and strive for an inclusive society.
Based on previous insights and analysis, we made our future what-if scenario: “What if invisible value, which is value created outside of work that isn't currently measured by an index, could be evaluated economically?”
SOLUTION - INVISIBLE VALUE INCOME PROGRAM:
IVI Program is a social policy in which the government recognises and pays for the invisible value being contributed by people outside of their work. The "Sensei" digital platform will automatically record people's daily work contribution and generate visual outputs and the income they are entitled to. The platform will measure the physical condition of its users by collecting G.P. activities.
The psychological state is monitored by the platform's regular mood checks. It will generate users’ predictions and suggestions about their future workload distribution based on the state of their wellbeing. The platform helps users plan their future expectations with relevant stakeholders. It allows users to understand the impact of their choices and helps them make the necessary decisions to reach their goals. By visualising and compensating the contribution at home, the de-stigmatisation of conversations among colleagues around family issues would create a more empathetic working environment.
TAKEAWAY - VALIDATION AND WORKSHOP
We put our I.V.I. program concept through nine in-depth validation sessions (It included working women, working fathers, company management and HR) and an external workshop organised by our client, i.e. Fuzzy Studio. Through the validation sessions, many participants resonated with and saw the value and concern behind the I.V.I. program.
We learnt : At the company level, give users the ability to grant their employer partial access to program data. “The idea of being able to measure how your time is used and the flexibility of time would be brilliant as an HR tool”. For individuals, providing a trust-based service and visualisations of invisible value can create conversations at home and at the workplace. “The platform might encourage the partner to also participate in domestic work”. We hope our project starts a conversation and inspires action that can be taken today.
We understand that it is difficult to imagine something as ambitious as the I.V.I program becoming a reality shortly, but we still hope our project can at least start a conversation, and even inspire action that can be taken today.
For example, Couldn’t individuals be more sensitive to the invisible contributions made by their partner and colleagues?
Couldn’t employers be more proactive in trying to understand the challenges of employees outside work?
What do you think?
