Every great project starts with an idea, and for us, it all began with our CEO’s vision. The leadership team recognized the need to boost employee engagement and create a more connected workplace. The idea was simple yet powerful—encourage employees to invest time in meaningful activities and reward them for their efforts. After the initial brainstorming sessions, the concept took shape. We initially called it 120 Hours, but it changed to 121 Hours at the end.
Phase 1: Defining the 120-Hour Concept
The core idea of 120 Hours was to encourage employees to accumulate 120 hours of engagement in a year across five key categories:
Wellbeing – Activities focused on mental and physical health.
Innovate – Contributions towards innovative solutions within the company
Recognize – Acknowledging and appreciating fellow employees’ efforts.
Share – Sharing knowledge and expertise through mentoring or training.
Sustain – Efforts to promote sustainability and corporate responsibility.
At the end of the year, employees would be rewarded for their participation in these activities. Their collected hours would be converted into additional leave days, with a maximum of five extra days off per year based on their level of engagement. This provided both motivation and a tangible benefit for employees who actively contributed to company culture.
Phase 2: Expanding the Vision to 121 Hours
After receiving initial feedback, the leadership team decided to take the concept a step further. The project evolved into 121 Hours, adding one extra hour—the Chairman’s Award. This prestigious hour would be granted at the chairman’s discretion to recognize employees who had made an outstanding impact throughout the year.
With this refined vision, we moved forward into the next crucial phase: turning the idea into reality.
Phase 3: Planning and Analysis
With the concept finalized, the next step was to translate the idea into a tangible solution. A cross-functional team was assembled, including HR professionals, IT specialists, and project managers, to plan and analyze the requirements. Key considerations included:
Scalability: Ensuring the platform could handle a large number of users and adapt to future enhancements.
User Experience: How employees get their hours, track progress, and view rewards.
Categories and Scoring: Defining the criteria for each category and ensuring a fair and transparent scoring system.
Reward Mechanism: Automating the conversion of hours into leave days and integrating it with the company’s HR system. Employees who have achieved their time bank can redeem their reward for extra time off or for category-related rewards.
Phase 4: Architectural and Functional Design
Once the planning and analysis phase was complete, the team moved on to designing the system. The architectural design focused on creating a robust, secure, and scalable web application. Key components included:
User Interface (UI): A clean, intuitive dashboard where employees can log activities, track progress, and view rewards.
Backend System: A database to store employee data, activity logs, and reward calculations.
Integration: Seamless integration with the company’s existing HR and leave management systems.
Security: Ensuring data privacy and compliance with company policies and regulations.
Progress Tracking: Real-time tracking of hours collected, with visual progress bars and notifications.
Reward Calculation: Automatic conversion of hours into leave days, with a cap of 5 days per year.
System Architecture – Creating a scalable platform that could handle user submissions, approvals, and tracking.
Functionality Planning – Defining core features such as: Employee dashboards to track hours. A submission and approval workflow. Automated reward calculation and leave allocation. Reporting and analytics for HR teams.
This phase was crucial in ensuring a seamless user experience before moving into development.
Phase 5: Development, Testing and Implementation
With the designs approved, the development team began building the web application. Agile methodologies were employed to ensure flexibility and timely delivery. Key milestones included:
Prototype Development: A basic version of the application was created for testing and feedback.
Iterative Improvements: Based on feedback from HR and employees, the application was refined and enhanced.
Testing: Rigorous testing was conducted to ensure the application was bug-free and met all functional requirements.
Training: HR teams and employees were trained on how to use the application effectively.
Phase 6- Launch, deployment and maintenance.
After months of development and rigorous testing, 121 Hours was successfully launched. The journey from concept to execution was filled with challenges, but through careful planning and collaboration, we built a successful employee engagement platform that not only benefited individuals but also strengthened our company’s values.
My Role as the Head of Technology – Leading from the Front
In the journey of transforming the “120 Hours” concept into the fully functional “121 Hours” web application, my role as the Head of Technology was multifaceted and dynamic. While it was challenging to define my role in a single sentence, as I was deeply involved in every phase of the project, my primary responsibility revolved around leading the technical vision, making critical decisions, and ensuring seamless execution across teams.
From the very beginning, I worked closely with the CEO, HR leadership, and other stakeholders to understand the core objectives of the program. My role was to translate the conceptual idea into a technically feasible solution. This involved asking the right questions, identifying potential challenges, and aligning the technical roadmap with the business goals.
The project required collaboration across multiple teams, including developers, designers, HR professionals, and project managers. As the Head of Technology, I acted as the central point of coordination, ensuring that every team was aligned with the project’s objectives. I facilitated brainstorming sessions, resolved conflicts, and kept everyone focused on delivering a high-quality product.
One of my primary responsibilities was to make critical technical decisions that would shape the application’s architecture and functionality. Some of the key decisions I led included Choosing the Tech Stack, Defining the Architecture, Prioritizing Features, Ensuring Security and Compliance, closely monitoring the development process, ensuring that the team adhered to best practices in coding, testing, and deployment.