Fixing how employees request leave and accommodations.
Maximus handles thousands of employee leave requests. The old process was slow, confusing, and caused a high volume of support calls. Admins were constantly correcting errors or chasing down missing info. There wasn’t a clear structure for how leave was requested, tracked, or approved.
What I Did
I led UX strategy and design as Sr. Director of UX. I ran weekly co-creation sessions with the MALT team and stakeholders. I rebuilt the entire flow in low fidelity and restructured the IA around real-world use cases—like pregnancy, surgery, disability, or family emergencies.
I partnered with the content team to rewrite every screen in plain English. No corporate-speak. We broke up complex steps and added contextual guidance where people got stuck. Every screen was simplified and reworked for clarity.
Where we started
We kicked off with stakeholder sessions, call data review, and a heuristic audit. The client knew it was broken, but no one had mapped the full experience before. So we did. We ran a full Design Thinking process, starting with whiteboard sessions to surface pain points. We documented four employee archetypes and walked through their journeys. Across the board, we saw the same issues:
- Confusion on where and how to start a request
- No understanding of eligibility
- Legal-heavy language that didn’t guide users
- Hidden forms, bad IA, and zero feedback loops
- Sky-high call center volume
How it rolled out
We finalized mockups based on test feedback and handed them off for Appian development in December 2024. The tool went to our dev team in late 2024. Budget was $61k. We came in just under at $59,901.59. After launch, we tracked CSAT, call volume, and support tickets tied to confusion.
Result
Employees can now find the right leave type, check eligibility, and move through the process without guessing. The legal content is still there—but now it’s in the background where it belongs. The support team isn’t fielding as many “How do I start?” calls. The tool finally works like it should’ve all along.