Organizations are playing a larger role in helping their people get their health and finances on the right track. But this approach is only as effective as the number of people who choose to engage in these programs. Typical engagement strategies focus on providing information about the positive attributes of benefits and how the programs can help improve people's lives. Still, the programs remain underutilized.
Why? In the benefits world, information and education aren’t enough to spur action. Your people know what’s good for them and what isn’t; they don’t need to be told that saving for retirement and exercising are going to benefit their financial and physical well-being. But people can be nudged and guided to make better choices around them.
That’s where we come in.
Any communication firm or agency can write and design materials. But what sets us apart is our consumer marketing approach: an approach that takes irrational human behavior seriously and applies the principles of behavioral science to create communication materials that will smash through the barriers to action and will inspire real behavior change, whether it’s choosing a different medical plan, getting a biometric screening, or contributing more to a retirement plan—whatever your organization wants its people to do.
Drawing on aspects of both psychology and economics, the operating assumption of behavioral economics is that cognitive biases often prevent people from making rational decisions, despite their best efforts.
Ariely, Dan, “The End of Rational Economics,” Harvard Business Review, July–August 2009.