I remember when I first learned about BIT’s work. In 2012, I came across BIT’s report Applying Behavioural Insights to Fraud, Error and Debt. I was working for the Deputy Minister of Government Services in the Ontario government at the time, and the report opened up a whole new way of thinking about the delivery of public services.
Fast forward seven years, and I could not be more thrilled to share the news that BIT will be opening a Canadian office this year in Toronto.
I joined BIT in early 2017. Over the last few years, my colleagues and I in BIT’s New York City office have worked on a wide range of social impact projects with Canadian partners.
We’ve collaborated with all levels of government and nonprofits from coast to coast. Our projects have tackled important policy issues by applying a more nuanced, realistic model of human behaviour. We’ve rigorously evaluated our ideas, and we’ve helped build up behavioural science and evaluation capabilities in our partner organizations.
For example, we worked with the MS Society and Rideau Hall Foundation on increasing charitable giving, and with the Ontario Securities Commission on encouraging retirement planning.
Now, we’re collaborating with the McConnell Foundation’s WellAhead initiative to increase workplace wellbeing in Canada’s K-12 system, and we’re helping the Government of British Columbia’s Behavioural Insights Group achieve its operational excellence goals and ambitious policy priorities.
It’s been exciting and fulfilling work, but we want to do more. There is so much opportunity for applying behavioural science and evaluation to the pressing challenges faced by Canadians and the organizations that serve their needs. In leading our new Canadian office, I hope to be able to bring BIT’s global experience and expertise to bear on priorities from public health, to environmental sustainability, to education, and everything in-between.
If you’re as excited about this as I am, you should consider becoming one of BIT Canada’s very first employees – we’ve just posted our first two jobs. We plan to do much more hiring in the coming months: subscribe to our email updates to make sure you’re the first to hear about new opportunities.
If you work in an organization that is seeking to generate social impact and are interested in partnering with BIT Canada, we’d love to hear from you.
Email: bitcanada@bi.team
