Welcome to Consultant Wire, a first of its kind newsletter powered by Propel where we give you confident answers to complex well-being questions your clients are asking.
Dismantling employee excuses and genuinely receiving feedback are two sides of the same coin. When employees say they don’t have time to participate within well-being programming, we have identified an obstacle. Obstacles stifle well-being program effectiveness.
When you get this question from clients, it’s easy to say, “let’s make the program more enticing to encourage employees to make time.”
More rewards, more resources, more choices.
Does that actually remove the obstacle?
There’s an interesting paper published in Royal Society Open Science that conducted a meta-analysis of behavioral interventions for several known behavior-change modifiers. It evaluated the effects of both facilitating and impeding actions to drive behavior change.
For example, one intervention could encourage attention with the sign “employees must wash their hands before leaving the restroom,” while another could discourage attention by placing the unhealthiest items on a low shelf in a cafeteria. Both interventions had the goal of driving healthier behaviors but used different methods.
The intervention with the largest effect wasn’t an incentive. It wasn’t providing more options.
What was it?
Convenience.
For most people, refusing to participate (under the banner of any number of excuses) has much to do with friction they experience. Participating has too much friction attached to choose to act.
The most effective interventions are ones that put the action in arms reach of the participant.
It should be noted that we don’t mean making something simple will improve outcomes. In fact, simplification ranked second from last in order of effectiveness.
This is an area we see many organizations making a mistake in. They assume making well-being (or any behavior) extremely simple will attract participation. Often, the participant will see something that is too simple and attach a low value, making inaction more enticing than action.
When you’re advising ways for well-being to gain higher participation, find ways to embed it into the daily rhythms of the employee population. If it is the convenient, obvious choice, it will gain traction.
Key Takeaway
A lack of time is just an indicator that the program is not yet convenient for employees. Addressing how it fits within its surrounding environment will reduce the excuse and drive participation.
At Propel, we incorporate behavioral science into our how we design well-being strategies for clients. It’s changing how our clients understand employee behavior and what it means to promote better health. If you’re interested in more of our strategies, set up a call with our team by clicking here.
Unlike most things these days, this was handwritten by a human. If you have recommendations on what we should answer next, feel free to reply with your thoughts.