Design Researcher

About the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB)

We're here to help. When an injury or illness happens on the job, we move quickly to provide wage-loss benefits, medical coverage and support to help people get back to work. Funded by businesses, we also provide no-fault collective liability insurance and access to industry-specific health and safety information. We are one of the largest insurance organizations in North America covering over five million people in more than 300,000 workplaces across Ontario. For more information, visit wsib.ca .

At the WSIB, you'll have the opportunity to:

• explore many career paths and follow your passion
• continuously learn and grow professionally
• be recognized for the great work you do
• participate in programs that support your health and wellbeing

You'll also receive a competitive salary and may be eligible to participate in our health and dental plan. 

This role requires the successful applicant to commit to an in-office work arrangement up to 5 days a week beginning in 2027.

Salary From: $90,406.85  - 102,877.54

1 Temporary Opportunity up to 12 months.

Job Summary:

The Design Researcher is responsible for defining and evaluating the customer experience for our products and services, both digital and non-digital. The Design Researcher serves as an independent, neutral resource to the WSIB and customers in the research and development of customer experience research, strategy, and initiatives with the aim of creating a world-leading customer experience for the workers, employers, and health care professionals of Ontario. This involves:

• Soliciting and acting upon direct customer feedback, surveys, and front-line staff feedback regarding WSIB's products and services.
• Identifying and recommending continuous service improvements that support established customer service excellence, measurements, and targets.
• Assisting with the development of and facilitate the adoption of strategic change recommendations to ensure the WSIB is a customer-driven service culture.
  

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Plan, design, and prepare for the execution of high-quality customer research activities to support the design, development and continuous improvement of WSIB's digital and non-digital services. Stay current on developing trends and best practices in design research, and actively contribute to the design research community through writing and presentations.

• Clarify research objectives and prioritize research questions based on customer experience goals, analysis of current knowledge, input from cross-functional WSIB teams, and identified risks. Liaise with the Product Management, Quality, Data & Analytics, and Communications groups to collaborate and coordinate design research with the research being done by other teams across the organization.
• Pursue a variety of qualitative research methods, including developing innovative research methodologies, both to inform product and service direction and later evaluate ideas for solutions that emerge. Identify the best research methods with consideration for timeline, resources, and data quality.
• Determine the best method of participant recruitment considering factors such as historical conversion rate, prior customer touchpoints, random versus representative sampling, and research objectives. Recruitment methods may include leveraging SMEs (Subject Matters Experts) across the organization to generate leads, digital marketing outreach, utilization of an established participant pool, and/or targeted phone calls, etc.
• Build scripts that effectively communicate to customers the value and benefits of their participation.
• Manage the participant recruitment process including locating, storing, and contacting participants

2. Lead the end-to-end execution of academically rigorous contextual and discovery research to unearth the needs and motivations of all WSIB's customers and develop a deep understanding of the customer experience from an "outside in" view.

• Run a broad range of research engagements (e.g., interviews, journey mapping, ethnographic observation, etc.) to align design and experience with customer needs.
• Ensure quality of research, and drive improvements in practice.
• Work on multiple or overlapping projects that could require challenging methodologies and collaboration with outside suppliers of research.

3. Conduct mixed methods (qualitative & quantitative) data analysis on customer research to determine key findings, insights, and recommendations, and identify the need for additional data, as required.

• Maintain a single data repository to capture, track and report on customer experience research data.
• Manage relationship with third party provider(s) of online customer experience analytics; generate and communicate critical customer insights to business partners.
• Analyze customer data, identify patterns, and synthesize findings so that research is shareable and traceable.
• Translate research findings into actionable, prioritized recommendations to provide WSIB opportunities to improve customer service.

4. Develop and present complex research findings and insights to business partners, Senior Executives, project leads, front line staff and other colleagues across the organization to help guide and refine the development of customer centric concepts, products, and services.

5. Develop and deliver design thinking workshops to blended teams of internal and external stakeholders, including front line employees, middle management, Senior Executives, and all customer segments. Lead teams through unpacking research findings and facilitate the co-synthesis of insights. Help teams understand their customers more deeply and develop a shared point of view on the customer problem to be solved and the design challenge to be tackled. Support service managers by uncovering customer value and generating new and useful customer insights. Work closely with design colleagues, business partners, and developers to turn customer research findings into stories and actions that lead to valuable product and service features.

6. Manage agile and waterfall end-to-end customer touchpoint testing processes for digital and non-digital solutions, from recruitment management, designing test tasks, and preparing discussion guides, to test moderation, analysis, and the presentation of results. This may also include managing the full-service design prototyping simulation and testing for digital solutions, from recruiting participants and staff, designing test tasks, and preparing discussion guides, to test moderation, analysis, and the presentation of results. Champion the exploration of viability of new concepts and work with the team to understand the context, collect, and interpret relevant data, develop insights, explore, and define growth opportunities, define strategy, create tangible design expressions, communicate the vision, and help the WSIB deliver customer centric solutions. Research external trends and links to external practices; recommend industry best practices and methods and contribute to and attend forums to maintain and promote the professional practice and methodology to all those interested in customer-centric research.

7. Customer Advocate/ Voice of the customer

• Develop an expert understanding of customer needs and champion these in the delivery of digital and non-digital products and services by engaging with senior leadership, customers, project teams, and stakeholders through a range of channels.
• Serve as the voice of the customer and a persuasive customer advocate. Support the development and implementation of enterprise-wide customer specific strategies and service commitments.
• Serve as a customer advocate in meetings with management and Senior Executives, articulating and advocating the customer perspective on decision points.
• Generate Voice of the Customer Reports that analyze and summarize feedback, findings and insights from research done by the CX Strategy & Management Team, and from multiple data sources housed and maintained across the organization.
• Work closely with colleagues in Data & Analytics and across the organization to define customer centered KPIs that create a rich picture of customer behaviour and tell the full story of how and why people use our services.
• Provide continuous feedback to Service Excellence leadership team for the ongoing development, application of service standards, performance measures, reporting techniques and tools to monitor and support commitments to customers.
• Analyze customer feedback, needs, expectations and WSIB's performance results to develop customer strategies, techniques, and plans. Make recommendations for improvements to address identified deficiencies and/or opportunities for enhancement.
• Represent the branch/division on intra- and inter-departmental committees and working groups to discuss and assess customer service strategies, benchmarking techniques and performance standards and to engage WSIB workforce in improving service excellence.
• Provide consultative advice to business owners on how to promote new products and services to customer segments.
• Conduct research into leading edge and industry wide best practices in customer service and share and apply this knowledge within the WSIB.

8. Research consultant

• Serve as an internal consultant to guide, advise, and support business areas across the organization in executing engagements anchored in human-centered design principles and practices.
• Collaborate with internal clients to understand their business challenges and opportunities and help identify and prioritize their near- and long-term customer experience goals. Instill confidence in the research process among our internal partners and instill project teams with the confidence, capabilities, and discipline to explore new opportunities for design solutions.

9. Lead, conduct or participate as a project member on concurrent activities and projects for the successful development and implementation of continuous service improvement initiatives (i.e., process changes) within the branch and cross-functional teams within WSIB business areas as required. Develop detailed project plans involving a variety of internal and external customers.

10. Perform other related duties as assigned or required.

Job Requirements:

Education 

• University degree at the undergraduate level.

Experience

• Three years prior experience in customer experience and ethnographic research, digital marketing or digital media, customer touchpoint-testing, execution of design thinking methodologies (design research and facilitation) and data analysis.

Our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion

We respect and value the diversity of our people. We strive to create an environment where employees can be themselves and where our differences are celebrated.

We value and celebrate diversity and are committed to creating inclusive experiences for both our employees and prospective employees. We invite all interested individuals to apply. If you require accommodations in order to apply to this position please contact [email protected] . If you are invited to participate in the interview or assessment process, you can advise our Recruiter of your accommodation needs at that time.  

Please visit our  EDI Vision  to learn more about what actions WSIB are taking to advance our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion and to support all employees participating and contributing to their full potential

Disclosing conflicts of interest

As public servants, employees at the WSIB have a responsibility to act in an ethical way at all times to create a respectful workplace and maintain public trust. Job applicants are required to disclose any circumstance that could result in a real, potential or perceived conflict of interest. A conflict of interest is any situation where your private interests may impair or be perceived to impair the decisions you make in your official capacity. This may include: political activity, directorship, other outside employment and certain personal relationships (e.g. with current WSIB employees, customers and/or stakeholders). If you have any questions about conflict of interest obligations and/or how to make a disclosure, please contact the Talent Acquisition Centre at [email protected] .

Privacy information

We collect personal information from your resume, application, cover letter and references under the authority of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997. The Talent Acquisition Centre and WSIB hiring parties will used this information to assess/validate your qualifications, determine if you meet the requirements of vacant positions and/or gather information relevant for recruitment purposes. If you have questions or concerns regarding the collection and use of your personal information, please contact the WSIB's Privacy Office at [email protected] . The Privacy Office cannot provide information about the status of your application.

As a precondition of employment, the WSIB requires that prospective candidates undergo a criminal records name check any time before or after they are hired.

To apply for this position, please submit your application on the WSIB career site by the closing date.