As organizations adapt to remote work and reimagine the future workplace, employees are having to abandon existing habits and form new ones. According to The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, almost 40% of our actions each day are the result of habits, not decisions. So the question is: “How do we go about developing productive habits for the workplace?”

During these rapidly shifting times, HR leaders can play a pivotal role by helping managers develop new habits that will enable them to become stronger leaders and increase engagement on their teams.

Why managers aren’t taking action

Developing successful habits is challenging, and our natural tendencies can often get in the way. For example, managers know that giving feedback and taking action are critical to improving employee engagement and development. While managers intend to take action, it is all too common for actions to fall by the wayside in the face of other competing priorities. Managers need support converting one-off behaviors into actions that are collaborative, simple, and continuous.

Unfortunately, engagement solutions today are often not designed with the manager in mind to view feedback, have conversations with their teams, and take action to improve. Action taking today is: 

Disconnected from everyday workflow systems

Engagement isn’t a screen that managers log into regularly in their flow of work, so it’s often not top of mind for them. Dashboards and tools have not been integrated into everyday productivity apps, making it difficult for managers to prioritize their commitments to providing better experiences for their teams. 

A solo burden

Managers lack visibility into what their peers are doing to improve engagement. They don’t know if their peers are also viewing feedback, discussing it with their teams, or committing to action items. Without this support, action-taking feels like an isolated activity left entirely to the manager, which makes the process feel demotivating and difficult.  

Not supported on an ongoing basis

And finally, even if managers begin taking action, there are no effective reminders or ongoing guidance to help and encourage them to continue to make progress. As a result, momentum gradually fades away until the next round of feedback.

In short, taking action on engagement results is easy to forget and easy to de-prioritize. The result is an organization where managers take sporadic action rather than develop successful habits to improve team engagement and development. So how do we help managers and guide them towards developing successful practices and habits?

Introducing Glint Nudges, guiding your people towards sustainable habits

The concept of behavioral nudges, made popular by behavioral economist Richard Thaler, suggests that the way to drive sustainable practices is to subtly nudge people in the right direction so they form the productive habits and instincts they want. Even small, incremental changes can add up over time to make a big impact on behavior.

That’s why we’re excited to announce Glint’s new nudges system, which leverages behavioral science to help guide your teams towards sustainable habits. When applied at a larger scale, these actions at the local level compound, driving meaningful improvements to culture across your organization.

Glint Nudges provide managers with intelligent recommendations that are responsive to where they are in the feedback process (i.e., viewing results, having team conversations, taking collaborative action to improve, etc.). As managers interpret their results and determine which areas they’d like to focus on, Glint’s Nudges provide tailored guidance to make the process easier and encourage ongoing action. HR administrators can also select focus areas for employees to be nudged on, an optional feature that involves employees in taking action on organization-wide engagement initiatives. When your managers and employees receive timely, bite-sized guidance enhanced by behavioral science, they take incremental steps that add up to real impact.

Let’s look at how Nudges in Microsoft Teams and emails work.

Reach managers in their preferred channels 

The first step in guiding managers towards better habits is reducing hurdles to taking action. By bringing Glint suggestions and nudges into managers’ natural flow of work, we meet managers where they are in — email and productivity apps like Microsoft Teams. These nudges reach managers and employees in the systems they use most, surfacing effective cues to help them drive their teams’ engagement and development.

Leverage peer influence and transparent action taking

Social proof is a behavioral science concept more commonly known as peer influence. To inspire managers to take action and help them understand they’re not alone, we leverage the proven power of peer influence and highlight other managers who are working on similar opportunities to improve their teams’ engagement. This “social proof” gives managers the extra motivation, recognition, and support they need to take effective action.

Deliver actionable guidance on a regular basis

Finally, action items written by Glint’s People Science experts across all of Glint’s engagement and development products are distilled into bite-sized recommendations to help your people understand exactly what to do next. These simple steps are delivered to your people on a regular basis, helping transform one-time actions into ingrained habits.

When managers and employees receive timely, actionable guidance on the right steps to take, they make incremental changes that add up over time. By guiding your people to seek and receive feedback, have ongoing conversations, and take action and learn from that feedback, you can help them develop the productive habits needed for People Success.

If you’d like to learn more about Glint Nudges or request a demo, reach out to us.