HR Nudging approach


HR Nudging - Hello change

HR nudging optimises decision-making processes through motivating encouragement. Reassure the applicant in a video interview, improve your new employees’ onboarding experience, promote appreciative treatment among managers and team members or encourage honest expenses.

HR nudging will supplement your problem-solving portfolio 

  • New approach to unsolved problems

  • Easy integration into existing process landscape

  • Based on academic knowledge

  • Fast, cost-effective solutions

Tell us your challenges and we’ll show you whether and how HR nudging can contribute to a solution in a face-to-face meeting.

 

What is HR nudging?

HR nudging is a gentle way to encourage people into changing their behaviour for the better. Whether that’s decreasing costs, increasing motivation or encouraging employees to move more: with subtle modifications, we create an environment that makes meaningful decisions and conscious actions the standard.

Interesting facts about nudging

Over 1,000 academic studies have been published about nudging - and this number is steadily increasing. 

(Source: Web of Science)

Probably the first successful nudging strategy: a sticker in the shape of a fly in a urinal. Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands drastically improved men’s aim with this little trick. 

Nudging wins: in 2002, Daniel Kahneman and Vernon L Smith won the Nobel Prize for their research into how people make decisions and judgements. In 2017, Richard Thaler received the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work looking into how psychology impacts the individual’s behaviour.

(Source: The Nobel Prize, 2019)

Clever nudges generated 30 million pounds more tax income per year in England. 

(Source: Rutter, 2015)

The use of nudging strategies is a largely socially acceptable way to impact behaviour. The more trust in the ‘nudging’ organisation, the more acceptance.

(Source: Sunstein, Reisch & Kaiser, 2019)

The birth of HR nudging

HR nudging dates back to after-work drinks between Mathias and Gilles, and one idea: let’s combine our specialities! After studying psychology together, they both pursued different specialities: HR and behaviour psychology. 

The idea of combining these areas, HR and nudging, immediately sparked a fan base. Anja really started enthusing as she began analysing further opportunities to develop nudging in HR. 

We quickly established that combining these areas unlocked previously unrealised potential. Decisions are made throughout the whole HR process that are not always in the decision-maker’s long-term interests. With HR nudging, we’re saying ‘hello’ or ‘aloha’ to change.

HR Nudging FAQ

  • Nudges animate people to make a decision that is beneficial to them in the long run. No commands are used, benefits are simply highlighted more obviously.
  • Often, decisions have to be made quickly and spontaneously. This makes sense - otherwise even ordering lunch would take an age. Nudges set up decision-making situations so that spontaneous decisions in the desired direction become more probable. A cleverly positioned salad bar, for example, can improve employee health.
  • Even nudges have their limits and may not be more successful than other approaches. Nudges are often used to supplement existing interventions - the dot on the ‘i’ so to speak. But sometimes this final touch is the difference between success and failure.  
  • Nudging influences people, so therefore has a manipulative character. So it’s all the more important, we believe, to use it responsibly and for good.

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