Designing the DEI Brand Experience at the NIH

Brand Strategy, Customer Experience, Interior Design, Project Management

Sector: Public (Government)

My Role

Brand Manager & Service Experience Designer

Problem #1

The NIH needed to restore employees' trust and curiosity in its equal employment opportunity (EEO) office because employees were reluctant to submit workplace complaints due to the risk of being retraumatized in the process that followed. Additionally, the increasing dissonance between brand and customer experience was causing its services to be underutilized.

Problem #2

The NIH needed to restore integrity its public image as an employer-of-choice among diverse talent because its scientific workforce is virtually homogenous, which is bad for scientific discovery.

The Opportunity

The NIH had an opportunity to restore employee trust as well as its public image by transcending the traditional EEO model by aligning its services to meet customer needs and telling an authentic story about its current state and its aspirations of an equitable and inclusive future.

Objectives

• Understand customers' existing relationship with the brand to identify unmet needs.
• Design new, and realign existing, services to customer needs.
• Create new physical experiences (redesign interior of headquarters workspace)
• Stand up new digital properties (website, social media) to increase customer engage
• Rebrand as the Office of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) and tell NIH's story

Outcomes

• Increased customer foot-traffic onsite and increased complaints intake, signaling a lift in customer trust and perception
• 300% lift to online traffic and engagement with social media content
• NIH reached #1 on Equal Opportunity Magazine’s “Top 20 Places to Work in Government” Readers’ Choice List.

Videography/Post-production credit: Sunchase Media / Directed by: Albert E. Smith Jr. / Co-directed and Produced by: Michael J.A. Davis