Inclusion, more often than not, is about the small things: the seemingly small acts of courage, the small tweaks to routines and the willingness to shift thinking beyond the status quo. In today’s polarizing climate for inclusion work, just-in-time inclusion efforts are seeing big results.
MoreThanNow was founded to apply scientific principles to all sorts of thorny challenges in the workplace. That leads us to new ways of thinking, but also higher standards of evaluation. In an interview with their founder, James Elfer, he underscored the importance of data-driven workplace inclusion strategies. “Practically speaking,” Elfer said, “We want to know what impact we’re having and share that knowledge for others to build on.” Data is hard to argue with, even in a contentious space like inclusion work nowadays.
In my interview with Katryn Wright, behavioral scientist at a behavioral science research firm, she conducted new research confirming the importance of just-in-time inclusion efforts. In the study, they offered reminders about the importance of diversity during the hiring process, which successfully led to 12% more women being shortlisted, a 13% increase in non-nationals, and a 20% lift in non-nationals being hired overall. To ensure objectivity, they had a test group that received messages about the importance of diversity explicitly on hiring outcomes, another group received prompting about less overt factors that make up the most effective teams, and a control group without any messaging. Both prompted groups did better on hiring inclusively than the group without a message prior.
The beauty of just-in-time inclusion efforts is that it’s more likely to be effective and impactful because it’s integrated into existing processes and everyday experiences, and it doesn’t draw unnecessary attention from conservative activists. Wright says the key is to be “boringly specific.” These activities rarely get people’s attention the way a big training, goals, or a statement do. Wright recommends starting with asking: “What’s the problem you are trying to solve for and getting behaviorally specific? Ask what behavior is most critical, at what moment and why before crafting the message and communication plan.”
Based on this research, Wright outlines four key ingredients to just-in-time inclusion efforts: the right people, at the right time, with the right message and from the right messenger.
Right People
Once you have a specific problem, such as the lack of diverse hiring outcomes as in the research, Wright recommends starting with the right people. As with any process change, people are the ones to implement the change. Who are the people that need to be bought in to help solve this problem? They are also the ones that need to carry out the change. By listening to the problem from different perspectives it can be more clearly defined and leaders will be more likely to facilitate change.
Right Time
Timing is critical to any inclusion nudge. With the diversity in hiring research, it was critical that the just-in-time inclusion effort happened as close as possible to key activities in the hiring process like resume screening, job postings, and interviews. In a busy world filled with distractions, the reminder, the communication or the training needs to meet people where they are in the process, not just at the beginning of the year or in onboarding when they are more likely to forget how to use the information when they need it most.
Right Message
The specificity of the message is pivotal. Many times, language around inclusion uses metaphors or academic references that do not land on the intended audience. Everyday leaders need to be able to understand the message without having to decode it or think deeply about it. There should be few barriers to the task.
“We knew that with the evidence that we researched there, we knew that training alone was unlikely to work,” Wright said. In the hiring example, that might be to broaden your pool of candidates with specific strategies, update your job descriptions with more inclusive language with examples, or in the interview process to remind people about commitments to building diverse teams.”
Right Messenger
Wright was surprised that the most effective messengers were from the corporate headquarters. With communications from corporate, they saw a 32% increase in the likelihood to hire women and 51% non-nationals.
For organizations that want to adopt just-in-time inclusion, Wright recommends combing through the employee experience from hiring, promotions, pay, succession planning, meetings and one-on-one meetings, and finding potential problems to solve with just-in-time interventions.
“These little nudges, though, add up. People notice the promotions are different. They cannot quite pinpoint it, but they notice the decision felt different. If we can get the right message, the right message to the right people at the right time, we can have these really outsized effects,” Wright summarizes.
Just-in-time inclusion efforts, such as providing reminders about diversity during hiring, can lead to significant increases in diverse representation. The key ingredients to effective just-in-time inclusion efforts are the right people, at the right time, with the right message, and from the right messenger.