With People, for People: A Method for Employee-Aware Business Process Improvement

In the evolving business landscape, where organisations are coping not only with external pressures and complexities but simultaneously with substantial transformations within their workforces, this paper underscores the necessity to adopt an employee-aware focus within business process management (BPM). By employing situational method engineering, this design science research proposes a method for employee-aware business process improvement (BPI). Design objectives derived from BPM, human resource management, and innovation management guide the development of the method. Expert interviews were conducted to evaluate the method. Method instantiation with an agency for digital transformation in the German public sector was conducted to assess the applicability and usefulness of the method. This research incorporates two main facets. Firstly, it interweaves employee awareness into the organisation’s strategic framework, simultaneously providing practical guidance for concrete BPI initiatives. Additionally, it involves the right decision-makers and expertise to facilitate meaningful transformations for employees executing concrete processes.