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.
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.
Warning! Checkmarks Matter
No doubt you have a lot of unread promotional emails in your inbox. It’s behavioral science’s fault. Here’s what’s happening. At the bottom of many online purchasing forms, you can find a pre-checked box next to the phrase, “Yes, I would like to receive promotional emails.” Email marketers count on our tendency to miss the message or avoid unchecking the box due to our uncertainty or distractibility. This small oversight results in much of the junk mail clogging your inbox. The lesson here is that small design defaults—whether a box is checked or unchecked—have real impact.
Good Forms Build Better Systems
Five Web Form Design Practices Unemployment Insurance Systems Should Prioritize
Picture yourself trying to schedule a doctor’s appointment online. It sounds simple enough. Pick a provider, choose a date, fill out a few forms, and then done. But the page asks for information you don’t understand. The required fields seem endless. Error messages appeared without explanation. The process takes too long, so you eventually just give up. That experience captures something important about web-based forms: people rarely stop because they do not want to complete the task. More often, they stop because the process becomes mentally exhausting, they run out of time and forget, or delay in getting back to the task.
Meet Our Team
We are available to provide virtual or in-person assistance for your agency.
