Nudge unit: civil servants should turn behavioural insights on themselves

Nov 28, 2013

Nudge unit: civil servants should turn behavioural insights on themselves

November 28, 2013

Canadian academics say behavioural insights are an effective tool to drive civil service reform.

Toronto university’s Mowat centre has taken the lens of behavioural insight and turned it inward—on the public service itself. The government’s behavioural insights team, known as the nudge unit, is at the forefront of global efforts to apply lessons from the behavioural sciences to public policy. What the insights show is that when governments better understand the way citizens think, the more effective they can be when encouraging us to act in the public interest.

For instance, because few of us feel comfortable deviating from what is considered normal, tax repayment rates have been shown to improve when people are told the majority of their neighbours have already paid. Likewise, because people generally choose the path of least resistance, pension coverage increases when workers are automatically enrolled in a scheme and given the choice to opt out. Such small prompts or changes in the way options are presented to people can have a large-scale impact.

In a new twist on this approach, the Mowat centre at the University of Toronto has taken the lens of behavioural insight and turned it inward – on the public service itself. In a new report, we argue that behavioural insights represent an effective but overlooked policy tool in driving public sector reform.

Governments around the world are grappling with ambitious transformation agendas. Against a backdrop of high-profile austerity measures, governments are making sweeping changes to back office operations and frontline service delivery.

But reforms will not stick without changing internal working cultures. In order to meet the overwhelming demands being placed on it, the civil service reform plan of 2012 called for a workforce that is – among other things – more innovative, results-driven, collaborative and transparent. The same sentiments are reflected in policy strategy documents the world over.

Generally, governments have had mixed results when it comes to reforming civil service bureaucracies. You only have to look at staff engagement surveys in both the UK and overseas to understand how far we have to go. Civil servants express frustration with existing work environments where information flows are restricted by rigid hierarchies, innovation is a low priority and few see the impact of their work.

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The focus of efforts to drive culture change in civil services has been on regulation, performance pay and even outsourcing. Behavioural insights represent an alternative, lower-cost approach.

A new-look civil service: how change can be achieved

Our report suggests:
• Disclosure by default: Civil servants should have more freedom to share information. Greater internal transparency is possible if units actively have to make a case for withholding documents or datasets from other departments. Again, this is applying a principle based on the path of least resistance. This will promote greater collaboration and integration.
• Clawing back unspent evaluation funds: The threat of losing resources is a far greater incentive than the prospect of gaining them. A small portion of departmental budgets should be earmarked for rigorous programme evaluation – and clawed back if unused. This will promote evidence-based policy and a clear focus on results.

As governments continue to forge ahead with reforms, they should make greater use of the behavioural insights expertise at their disposal. Using small, simple incentives to promote positive behaviours can only increase the chance that broader public sector reforms will be successful.

Jennifer Gold is practice lead for government transformation at the Mowat Centre, an independent public policy research centre in the school of public policy and governance at the University of Toronto. Sunil Johal is the Mowat Centre’s director of policy.

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