The Illusion of Time as a barrier to Volunteering
Is lack of time always to blame for why your employees don’t volunteer, or is the perception of time a bigger culprit?
“I’m too busy to volunteer.” “Sorry, this quarter is jam packed!” “I would love to help, but if I took time off to volunteer, what would my team think of me?”
These are some of the responses you might have received as a CSR Manager when asking employees why they didn’t register to volunteer at the company wide event. You might even hear “If I go and volunteer, it will appear as if I have too much free time.”
Is time the problem?
We all have the same 24 hours in a day. The issue is not a lack of time as compared to others, but rather our perception of time as the problem when considering our immediate priorities. Someone may encourage me to watch a new HBO series and I may respond with “Who has the time?" Well, we all do. But in this case, my priorities are different, and I have not allocated any of my day or evening to watch HBO. Why? Because I don't want to watch HBO - or rather, because watching HBO does not address a felt need. If I did - if I felt like I needed to watch HBO - I would “make” time.
Ideally, your volunteer and giving activities are designed to address the felt needs of your employees while prioritizing the needs of the community. Once employees participate for the first time, they’ll be hooked! But how do you get them to show up in the first place? You have to address the perception of time as the problem.
So, how do we address this perception?
The Nudge the Good team at RW Institute set out to answer this question in one of our recent projects.
For one of the companies we partnered with, “time” was the most frequently cited barrier. Nudge the Good takes partners through a 6-step process to choose the “nudges” that best address their problems. Step two of the process is the Problem Definition. Together with the company’s nudge unit, we developed a decision map to explore current behaviors, focusing on both explicit and implicit factors in decision-making.
The Problem Definition
The objective of this phase is to identify potential implicit or explicit factors that may be used to achieve desired behaviors, or alternatively, may hamper the adoption of the desired behavior. Explicit factors are those triggers or barriers which the employee is aware of and are typically “friction points” in the process. Examples of these are “the form was too complicated, so I gave up” or “I don’t have enough time to volunteer.”
Implicit triggers and barriers are heuristics - a form of unconscious decision-making. One example of a heuristic is called Social Proof, which is when we make a decision based on what someone else we know or respect is doing.
Consider and Decision
Here are a few notes from our partner’s behavioral map that were identified as perceived barriers during our “consideration” and “decision” stages:
“I’m burnt out. Does this add value or help me?“
“Do I have time? Will I make a difference?“
“I have (perceived) better things to do.“
“I’m worried that taking time away from work will look bad.“
“I don't have time to do this; I can't take time away from the office.”
“What if a client has an unexpected need?“
The key to successful engagement, and the benefit of using Nudge Theory in this new approach to corporate citizenship, is to apply the right Nudges to the right people to meet them where they are. We consider several factors, such as their lived experiences, their type of work, and the context of when & where they receive the communication. This is what Nudge the Good is all about!
For one of the internal audiences that we identified as “logical thinkers”, we applied more practical Nudges to their invitation to participate by focusing on securing time to register and volunteer (Using Pessimism Bias, Planning Fallacy, and more).
Time to read in the Subject line: By communicating upfront that engaging with this email will take less than 5 minutes of their time, it lessens the apprehension to open the email and see what the program entails (Decision Fatigue).
Provide auto-response email template: By taking the guesswork out of how to communicate that you’ll be away from your desk to volunteer, you remove one more barrier of engagement
Forward a calendar invite to block time in their calendars.
Include two specific actions that can be completed in less than two minutes: Having two quick actions will give your employees some easy wins that will encourage them to continue to the other actions detailed in the email
While this approach worked for some, for other employees we identified that an emotional element that was missing. To appeal to them, we collected testimonials from their colleagues who have already participated in the past, to serve as a source of motivation (Using Social Norms and Dunning-Kruger Effect). We also emphasized the impact they will make in the announcement email (IKEA Effect, Noble Edge Effect).
After the adoption of these simple nudges, we saw a substantial increase in the number of employees who created an account on the volunteer portal and in registrations for volunteer engagements.
Just remember, it doesn’t work the same for everyone! Different people respond to nudges differently. Here are two tips to keep in mind:
When creating a game plan to increase employee engagement, test several nudges to improve the chances of engaging a larger pool of people.
In addition, it’s not the number of reminders that make the difference; it’s how they are framed. Reframing the same information, such as putting the action steps at the top of the page in bold, makes a world of a difference because you are presenting information in a way that the mind readily receives.
So, the next time you are developing strategies to increase employee volunteerism, ask yourself this key question: How do I decrease the perception of time as the problem?
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If you are interested in hacking your processes and programs to increase engagement, please contact us at nudgethegood@rw.institute.