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- Blog
- 29th May 2020
‘Double nudge’ encourages employers to offer flexibility, in turn boosting job application rates
We discuss an innovative trial we ran last year, showing how employers can reach a wider pool of talent by boosting their offer of flexibility at work.
- Blog
- 26th Jun 2020
The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on ethnic minorities in the UK and what we can do about it
Of the almost 10,000 patients critically ill with COVID-19 in hospitals in England, Wales and Northern Ireland since the start of the outbreak in the UK, 33% were from Black, Asian, Mixed or Other ethnic minorities - even though people from these groups account for 14% of the population (excluding…
- Blog
- 1st Jul 2020
PRIDE reflection blog 🏳️🌈: How defaults impact the LGBTQIA+ community
There are few concepts as renowned or respected in behavioural science as the power of defaults. Defaults refer to the ‘status quo’ or ‘business-as-usual’ option that is pre-selected, by design or by accident, by the architect of choice. Default options can have a profound impact on human decision making. However,…
- Blog
- 17th Nov 2020
Switching the default to advertise part-time working boosts applications from women by 16%
The difference in pay between women and men tends to increase sharply after the birth of a woman’s first child. Women are much more likely than men to move to part-time working, often to balance home and care responsibilities. Once women move to part-time roles, they often fail to progress…
- Blog
- 15th Dec 2020
Unconscious bias and diversity training – the evidence
The corporate buzzwords of the moment: unconscious bias and diversity training. These training programmes have been introduced to organisations across the world over decades, with high hopes that they will make workplaces more inclusive. In the US alone, companies spend $8billion a year on diversity training. But do they work? This…
- Blog
- 6th Jan 2021
BIT Goes to Washington
It’s now one year since BIT set up its office in Washington, DC - we reflect on establishing ourselves in this new market in an exciting but unusual time.
- Blog
- 23rd Feb 2021
What impact does remote working have on workplace sexist and sexually harassing behaviours?
Everyone should be valued and treated as equal regardless of gender. Yet in too many workplaces, sexist behaviours and sexual harassment are still a problem. In Australia, one in three people have been sexually harassed in the workplace in the past 5 years. Reducing sexist behaviours and sexual harassment in…
- Blog
- 4th Mar 2021
BIT’s biggest trial so far encourages more flexible jobs and applications
We wanted to see if we could encourage employers to advertise more jobs with flexible working options. 20 million job applications passed through this RCT - making it one of the biggest experimental social policy trials ever published.
- Blog
- 8th Mar 2021
Who is more likely to apply for flexible jobs - men or women?
Women are twice as likely to work flexibly compared to men - with women with children being the most likely to make use of flexible work arrangements. Consequently, many assumptions are made about part-time and flexible roles. Part-time positions in particular have become conflated with an unhelpful and inaccurate stereotype…
- Blog
- 26th Mar 2021
Why policymakers need Netflix, and why Netflix needs behavioural insights
Mass media interventions have been successful at shifting a variety of behaviours, from encouraging HIV testing in Nigeria through an MTV show Shuga, to reducing inter-ethnic prejudice in Rwanda through radio shows, to increasing reporting of domestic violence using short films at film festivals in Uganda. But understanding how mass media…