Behavioral Insights
The Behavioral Insights (BI) unit applies behavioral science to help solve complex challenges facing the workforce system. By understanding how people make decisions, we can help improve compliance, reduce improper payments and streamline processes.
Our Approach:
- Innovative: Inspires fresh ideas and approaches
- Iterative: Uses a "try, test and improve" approach
- Informed: Leverages data and research
Featured Resource
UI Overpayment Recovery Guide
*A NASWA member log-in is required to access this resource in the Library.
Why Behavioral Insights?
Behavioral Insights offers a framework for understanding people’s behaviors and choices which underlie the things they do. These insights can be helpful to government programs, as they strive to address behaviors that contribute to program challenges.
Behavioral Insights can address fundamental behavioral problems in programs, such as:
- Helping claimants better understand UI program requirements
- Nudging claimants about expectations when there is still time for them to meet the requirements
- Identifying and reducing obstacles to customer compliance in tax and benefits systems
- Helping claimants plan and execute better work searches
- Supporting staff in communicating program changes to customers
What We Offer
We can help your state with the six areas of support outlined below.
Communications Support
● Plain Language Reviews
● Form Redesign
● Pop-up Messages/ Reminder Messages
● Communication Strategy Development
● Desk Aid Creation
Systems Design
● Business Process Analysis
● Process Audits
● Journey Mapping/ Behavioral Mapping
● Behavioral Diagnosis of Problems and Barriers
Capacity Building
● Intensive Trainings
● One-time Workshops
● Organizational Upskilling
● Plain Language & Evaluation Guides
Measuring Impact
● Surveys
● Data Analysis
● Analysis Plan Development
● Formative & Impact Evaluations
User Experience (UX) Design
● Website/ Portal Redesign
● Prototype Design
Customer Research
● Participatory Research and Design
● Interview & Focus Group Guide Development
● Interviews and Focus Groups
● Usability Testing
Resources
Available to NASWA members only. Login required.
The BI Beat
The BI Beat is our monthly newsletter column, featuring insights, practical examples, and interviews from the field. Check out the most recent editions below, and view past editions here.
If Users Don't Get it, It Doesn't Work
Picture yourself putting together new furniture. The instructions are full of long paragraphs, confusing words, and diagrams that do not match the parts you have. After reading the same step over and over, you end up searching for a video or asking someone for help. The issue is not your skill at assembling furniture. The instructions make the task harder than it should be and leave you to figure out the process on your own. This also happens in public systems. When information is too technical or not well organized, people must figure out the system before they can use it.
Keeping Claimants on the Path with Systems Thinking
For those designing Unemployment Insurance (UI) systems, the Robert Frosts of the world are a problem. When Robert Frost found two paths diverging in the woods, he decided to take the “road less travelled by.” It’s a frustrating systemic phenomenon: given enough time, everything that can go wrong will go wrong. If a path is available, someone will take it, no matter how overgrown. How can we stop the Robert Frosts of the world? By having one path—the correct one.
Behavior is a System Outcome
A claimant forgets to report earnings. Another documents their work search incorrectly. Someone else misses a deadline because they misunderstood a notice. These situations are often treated as individual mistakes. The response is usually to explain the rules again, add another reminder, or strengthen enforcement. But what if these behaviors are telling us something about the system rather than the people using it? That is where systems thinking and behavioral science become a powerful combination.
Meet Our Team
We are available to provide virtual or in-person assistance for your agency.
