Just Give 'em a Nudge!
No Need to Push!
Do you want to encourage positive employee behaviours in your workplace environments? Of course you do! All it takes is a nudge, no need to push!
The ‘nudge’ concept, popularized by behavioral economists Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, involves using positive reinforcement and indirect suggestions to influence behaviours and decision-making and subtly guiding desirable behaviors without restricting choice.
In the workplace, nudges can improve health, productivity, engagement, inclusion, wellbeing and even aid in culture shifting. Here are a few small ways to get you started, and if you are already doing some of these, you are well on your way! See video vibes below!
1. Promote Health and Wellness
Place healthy snacks at eye level in the break room to promote better eating habits. Encourage remote employees to take regular breaks by integrating stretch or mindfulness reminders on their desktops, calendars, or project management tools.
2. Enhance Productivity
Set up in-person or hybrid meeting lengths to 25 or 50 minutes to prevent meeting overruns and to leave a few minutes for notes, recharging, and preparing for the next activity. Same goes for remote workers, include meeting software with break prompts, end meetings with a positive suggestion for the day, or provide a countdown for the last five-ten minutes as 'me' or 'you' time, allowing for calmer transitions and to ward off meeting fatigue.
3. Increase Employee Engagement
Send reminders for employees to participate in feedback surveys or training programs, and keep the content in small fun doses to encourage participation. Stay far far away from 30 page surveys ... really, just stop! Use team collaboration platforms to send notifications for virtual and real-time feedback, pulse-checks, or quick opinion sharing opportunities--think e-check-in!
4. Encourage Continuous Learning
Send personalized email suggestions or setup system auto-notifications for relevant training courses available based on employee roles, interests, or desired career paths. Incorporate desktop pop-up messages or system broadcasts to announce new learning opprtunities avaiable and to share helpful links. Psst! Managers: encourage your staff to attend!
5. Promote Sustainability
Add positive prompts to remind employees to turn off lights or equipment when not in use, or place recycling bins in convenient office locations. Even an effectively displayed, and creative, poster can produce positive results. Encourage sustainable home practices by providing tips or newsletters on energy-saving habits and offering incentives for using eco-friendly home office setups. Tell them what's in it for them.
6. Boost Collaboration
Create open office layouts and outside ‘retreats’ with communal spaces to encourage spontaneous interactions, lower stress, provide work setting options, and promote teamwork. Go for a meeting walk! For your remotes, incorporate themes, virtual collaboration tools, creative communication features, and introduce variety into team-building activities, informal interactions, meetings, and brainstorming sessions.
7. Enhance Compliance
Provide short and entertaining reminders for upcoming deadlines or policy changes to ensure employees stay compliant with regulations and update forms on time. Alerts, desktop pop-ups, broadcast messaging, eye-catching banner announcements on employee self-service sites, and fun or humorous countdown tickers … They all work!
8. Support Mental Health
Offer easy access to mental health resources in rest areas, common spaces, reception areas, and promote their availability through regular office communications and displays. Again: encourage ‘walking’ meetings outside when possible. Provide online mental health resources and productivity tools, and promote their availability via newsletters, virtual town halls, shared links, phone apps, intranet posts, or reminders. For your remotes, have regular engagement and support check-ins. Mabe a good idea to bring them into the office from time to time to ensure they have not turned into zombies ;)
9. Facilitate Goal Setting
Encourage employees to set regularly personal and professional goals through interactive goal-setting platforms, regular performance updates, one-to-one meetings, or apps, and follow-up, provide feedback, advice, and encouragement. If possible, gamify for rewards, and celebrate accomplishments. Writing goals and reviewing them daily is like a personal roadmap to stay on track. Same goes for your remotes; provide virtual coaching or mentorship sessions and utilize goal-setting platforms, communications, checklists, or apps. Offer cookies and they may show at the office!
10. Improve Workplace Inclusion and Culture
This is a topic on its own, but you can check out the links below for more. Implement diverse representation in your internal communications and visual materials to promote inclusivity. Incorporate this imagery in your newsletters, training and recruiting material, and highlight diverse voices during in-person meetings. Up your game further by nudging your employees to nudge other employees and employee leaders!
Design virtual platforms and communication tools to highlight diverse perspectives and ensure that all team members have equal opportunities to contribute. This could include rotating leadership or chairing roles in virtual meetings, setting up channels for diverse voices, and using nudges to encourage inclusive language and practices in written communications.
Take away ...
With small positive suggestions and tools that promote nudging strategies, organizations can create subtle, supportive, inclusive, and productive environments. Encourage positive behaviors. It will improve engagement and enhances well-being. It's a win-win!
All they need is a little nudge!
Further discovery
Here's How to Nudge Your Way Toward a More Inclusive Organization