India has the largest number of millennials joining the workforce every day. Unlike the previous generation, they are not only looking for a good salary and job security, but also employers who will assist them in achieving their personal and professional goals. While organizations have started recognizing the need to improve employee experience, employees still lack trust, have work-life imbalance, constantly feel the pressure to perform better and overall have a negative work experience. This is where employers have started employing nudge theory at the workplace to increase employee engagement.
Creating an engaged workforce requires companies to adopt employee focused programs like flexible working hours, increased internal mobility, improved communication that fosters transparency and improves the relationship between the employer and the employees. Increased mobility of talent and redeployment programs that include career development opportunities is an effective way to enhance employee engagement and retain high performing individuals. These programs also create a strong leadership pipeline and enhance the value of the employees to the organization. However, these are big changes that require small nudging techniques to create a long-term impact.
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Workplace nudging includes making small changes in the organizational set up to create a collaborative work culture. With the help of emerging technologies such as AI, it can help in improving employee engagement and changing company culture one nudge at a time. Employee nudging can include suggesting an employee to take up microlearning modules for career development. Even managers can be nudged to act as mentors for onboarding employees or those who need guidance.
In 2008, behavioral economists Cass R. Sunstein and Richard H. Thaler introduced the concept of ‘nudge’ in their renowned book as, “any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives.” It gives a great insight into how humans behave and make decisions. Organizations can incorporate the nudge theory in the workplace, and use these insights to enhance employee engagement and improve the overall employee experience.
Small workplace nudging can go a long way in changing workplace culture. For instance, reducing meeting time or introducing quiet time can drastically improve the productivity of a team. Often, employees fail to meet deadlines not because of excess workload but more because of constant interruptions and a number of meetings. Setting aside some quiet time for a fixed number of hours every week, can go a long way in addressing this challenge and improving employee experience. This was implemented by a Fortune 500 company which saw a remarkable increase in employee productivity. Workplace nudging is a good way to experiment with small groups, make the necessary changes and then scale it up gradually.
Another brilliant example of technology aided nudging technique was demonstrated by a consulting company. Managers often send emails to employees after working hours and expect a response sooner than later. The company implemented a policy in its email system, so that the leaders are a little more considerate of the employees’ lives outside work. Every time a leader tried to send a message after working hours, a pop-up appeared which reminded them that they are sending a communication beyond regular office hours.
They were given the option of sending the email as low priority, deferring it or even cancelling it. Indian workplace culture is known for poor work-life balance. Hence, nudges like these can prevent the leaders from intruding in the personal time of employees, thus, improving the overall employee experience.
Employee experience can be further improved by keeping employees healthier. Some organizations have introduced gyms and exercise classes, usage of fitness bands or pedometers and even standing desks. However, it is limited to a very small number of organizations in India. Focusing on employee health has several benefits including reduced absenteeism, improved productivity and happier employees. Even simple workplace nudging like putting posters to encourage taking the stairs can go a long way. The best part about nudges is that it is suited to experimentation and can be tested on smaller groups to fine-tune the results before scaling it up.
Organizations these days invest a lot in employee surveys, in an attempt to find and retain the best talent. However, they make two major mistakes. One, they do not share the results of these surveys with the employees and make decisions behind closed doors without discussing it with the employees. Two, while managers might spend time on creating employee engagement plans, most often, they do not work equally hard on implementing these plans. Until and unless, the managers understand how to change mindset and behavior, something else will always be more important. What managers need is a behavioral nudge or subtle reminders to work on displaying these behaviors to promote employee engagement. Large organizations around the world, even create nudge management teams to deploy these plans.
The question is, how can organizations implement nudge theory in the workplace without spending too much time. With AI and mobile technology, online engines can be used for deploying nudging techniques which gives the option to use e-mail based or phone- based nudges or a combination of both. The best and the most affordable way to nudge the managers is by simply creating separate email distribution lists for the different focus areas of employee engagement. These can be pre-written and then scheduled to nudge the managers. Using personalized nudges is a great way to help managers keep employee experience on top of their mind and also offering them specific ideas that can be applied immediately.
Nudges can be sent as automated notifications or reminders to employees across the organization to reinforce an existing behavior or encourage a new one. For instance, a nudge could be sent to managers over email on a team member completing six months in the organization. It can go along with a prompt to schedule a check-in a meeting with the team member. Minor reminders like these can have a significant impact on employee motivation and retention. With the help of this small nudge, managers can run six-month check-ins with all new hires, detect any persisting issues, work on it and increase the number of successfully on-boarded employees. All of these can be achieved by a nudge at little or no cost.
Evolving technologies in data mining and AI are helping in developing more intelligent nudges at a large scale. Using nudge theory in the workplace can go a long way in changing workplace culture by bringing small behavioral changes in teams that can gradually be scaled up to the entire organization. It can not only increase employee engagement but also improve employee experience drastically.
References:
- Changing the workplace one nudge at a time- Joel Paul, 06 September, 2019
- Five smart nudges for your workplace- Anil Karamchandani, 11 December, 2018
- How to Use Nudges to Improve Employee Engagament- Kevin Kruse, 15 July, 2019
- Can you use ‘nudging’ in HR to drive innovation? | 10 nudges and what HR leaders can learn from them- Charlotte Nicol, 07 August, 2019
- Driving Change with Workplace Nudges- Philip Arkcoll, 18 September, 2019
