Applying Behavioral Insights
Mini Case Study with Examples
Hi there, I’m Robert and welcome to my behavioral insights page. You will find posts about behavior, psychology and decision making to help grow products, innovate services and improve employee experiences.
Background
This project was done with the UK Bedford Job Centre and focused on increasing attendance at recruitment events. The example was done by the Behavioural Insights Team and this case is adapted from the book Behavioral Insights by Michael Hallsworth and Elspeth Kirkman. You can get their book here.
PLEASE NOTE:
This case study reflects what is presented in the book, and in the BIT report where the authors note that the process is presented as linear to make it clear even though in reality there are feedback loops where previous decisions are revisited and more steps which are not included and which were not available for us to include.
If you want to see the detailed Miro board for the case you can find it free: Go to my tools and frameworks page
If you want to read the BIT team report: (PDF) I've booked you a place, good luck: A field experiment
Defining the parameters and scope
In the case study, the goal has started with a top-down approach, you could however begin by looking at a micro level and work out goals from that level up.
This scope was more tactical than strategic because BIT could not influence and change the whole system, but rather they had influence on one single job centre.
Opportunity and focus
Behavioral insights can be applied to challenges that are complex and include many actors.
The first step is to identify the basic conditions for achieving the desired goal, actions and actors that contribute to those conditions. The changes that we might be able to influence vary in their impact and feasibility depending on the actor.
In this case:
The unemployed person has a limited range of actions to initiate, and only governments can make wide- ranging structural changes and while behavioral insights can support such changes, the process is typically long.
In comparison, a job centre trying new ways to communicate what skills the local labor market needs or an employer adjusting their application process are better options in terms of feasibility and the impact you can expect from an intervention. This helps us limit the scope.
Target Behavior and Outcome
Identify the best way to measure progress towards the goal. As the focus is on connecting people with jobs, you would explore how this is done today/ what is possible and find the best opportunity for an intervention
In this case, it was identified that mass recruiting events were a good fit, as they tended to be successful in getting people into work. Attendees were sent an sms and sent them an invite after attending if they were eligible.
However out of these only 10% showed up, which made for a good case to target this a good target outcome The Target outcome was specific and it was already being measured.
Tips 💡
Be realistic on what the intervention can achieve based on cost benefit analysis.
Why rate of attendance at mass recruitment events among invited jobseekers was a good target outcome:
clear link to the overall goal: the events were typically effective at helping people get into work
specific: the group involved was well-defined and there was consensus over how attendance was defined
minimal costs and uncertainty: behavior measured reliably by existing systems
feasible: existing rate of attendance was low and evidence indicated most job seekers were motivated to seek work, which made it more plausible that relatively small changes could achieve change
Map the journey
Once the target outcome, behaviors and actors have been identified you can start mapping the journey and what may influence the behaviors. The BIT team identified 4 possible areas to focus on.
Identify the Contributing factors (Barriers)
Once the journey and the opportunity areas are identified you can start mapping the contributing factors on the behavior (barriers).
These are mapped using the COM-B model* and include:
-Capability
-Opportunity
-Motivation
*Michie et al
Prioritise Barriers
Once the barriers were identified the Barriers were mapped into a matrix.
Interventions and Solutions
Once the BIT team prioritized, they then did some literature reviews and research to understand how they would find solutions to implement, taking into account and addressing the contributing factors.
Testing
Testing was done doing a randomized controlled trial. There was a control condition and three treatments.
Testing
In total,1224 Jobseekers had been chosen for the test. They were randomly allocated to receive different versions of the sms. The attendance rates were then measured by each group.
Results
The treatment that did best included a message which was personalized with the job seeker's name and a ''good luck'' message.
You can read more in the report below.
If you want to learn how to apply behavior you can explore my Behavior Design course
Thanks for reading,
Robert