Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER November 14, 2016 20 EXECUTIVE SERIES House. "So anticipation of regret is a strong motivator… is is an important point for designing programs." Social context Another important factor in making decision is social con- text, said House, who described a situation in the United Kingdom where the government hoped to reduce the rate at which doctors were prescribing antibiotics. A behavioural insights team sent letters to 20 per cent of those with the highest rates of antibi- otic prescription to inform them where they stood, compared to their peers. " ere were no punishments, no incentives, they were just letting them know," said House. ose let- ters, however, had an immediate impact and resulted in signifi cantly fewer antibiotics prescribed. Social context only works if there's something people can do, relatively easily, to align themselves with their peers, said House. He mentioned a study in which a company sent letters to employees encouraging them to sign up for the pension plan, and noting that the majority of their co-workers had already enrolled. " e letters didn't work," said House. "It was an unfavourable comparison to their peers and demotivating. ey felt like they'd never catch up." While social context can be lev- eraged, as in the antibiotic study, and can backfi re, as in the pension study, it's sometimes helpful to re- move it altogether: ink recruit- ing and interviewing, with all the implicit bias removed. House described a new com- pany using software to strip resu- més of any individual or personal information. " en you conduct an interview over the Internet via VOIP with a voice scrambler that makes every- one sounds the same; everyone sounds either like a woman or a man and most accents are also neutralized," said House. "Instead of being infl uenced by all sorts of irrelevant contextual information — Does this person look and sound like I do? — now you're just focus- ing on the candidate's answers and the resumé that's in front of you." Understanding all the addi- tional, non-rational factors that go into making a decision can be an important tool for HR. "That's the more complete picture that behavioural science paints," said House. "We have not only this slow and deliberate way of coming to decisions, but also these automatic systems that tend to be the majority of how we interact with the world." Melissa Campeau is a Toronto-based freelance writer. Remove social context DECODING < pg. 18 Unlikely bedfellows: HR and economics How people make choices is the focus of a new fi eld of research that marries psychology and economics. Known as behavioural economics, it off ers human resources practitioners an evidence-based framework to design and deliver services. And Julian House is a leading Ca- nadian expert. "Around the world, organiza- tions in the private, public and non-profit sectors are demon- strating the value of a more nu- anced understanding of human behaviour. eir work shows that behaviour is incredibly complex, infl uenced by seemingly small fac- tors in the context surrounding a decision. Adopting a scientific approach to behaviour change is an eff ective way to improve out- comes," he said. e idea that human beings are rational decision-makers con- stantly seeking to advance their self-interest was a powerful idea born of the Age of Enlightenment. It has endured for over 200 years as the foundation of economics and business, even though it's not based on evidence about how people actually make choices. Perhaps unsurprisingly, human beings are not as rational as imag- ined. We often make decisions that are not in our self-interest. For behavioural economists, hu- man beings are better understood as "predictably irrational." We now know the human brain is wired to make decisions using familiar defaults, by taking men- tal short cuts or by adopting the status quo. Our choices are infl u- enced by an assortment of cogni- tive biases and we are sometimes led astray by the context of infor- mation received. It's extremely difficult to re- wire the brain to alter patterns of behaviour that lead to faulty de- cision-making, but by recogniz- ing how choices are infl uenced, we can alter the environment in which decisions are made. It's a phenomenon called "nudging." "Often times, organizations fo- cus on high-level strategic goals and pay relatively little attention to the 'last mile' where those strate- gies will actually interface with the end user," said House. "By focus- ing here, HR can make program improvements at little or no cost." It's precisely at the last mile that the context surrounding a deci- sion can exert outsized infl uence on people's behaviour, he said. His example is an administrative form: Is it easy to complete? What hap- pens if the receiver forgets to fi ll it out? Does the form frame informa- tion in terms of gains or losses? Understanding that informa- tion and motivation are often not suffi cient to help people make the best choices is a crucial insight for HR. Research shows improving choice environments can comple- ment more traditional approaches to program design, such as educa- tion or monetary incentives. Inputs from behavioural eco- nomics have direct business im- plications for HR by off ering evi- dence-based methods to uncover how employee choices impact the outcomes and effi cacy of pro- grams that, until now, have been the purview of marketing. Tracey White is the owner and man- aging director of Strategy in Action in Toronto. She focuses on innovation in organizations, governance and employment. How people make choices is the focus of a new fi eld of research that marries psychology and economics. Known as behavioural economics, it off ers human resources practitioners an evidence-based framework to design Tracey White STRATEGY IN ACTION 2016 Congratulations to All the Winners Canada's Safest Employers recognizes organizations with outstanding workplace safety practices. Canadian Occupational Safety and Thomson Reuters would like to extend warm congratulations to this year's winners on their achievements – you are truly creating a healthier and safer work environment and are an inspiration to all employers. For a full list of winners, visit www.safestemployers.com/winners SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON SAFETY safestemployers.com DIAMOND SPONSOR RECEPTION SPONSOR PLATINUM SPONSOR BRONZE SPONSOR EVENT SPONSOR STRATEGIC PARTNER BRONZE SPONSOR PRESENTED BY

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