Engaging staff - PowerPoint Presentation

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Engaging staff- the why, the what and the why not of behaviour change?

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Why?Staff behaviours and the ability to change them is a powerful tool in our armoury to reduce our impacts:

3rd of energy savings in UK carbon budgets can come from individuals taking action (UK Energy research centre)

Engaged employees

try: harder, perform better, are happier and are less likely to leave an organisationOrganisational change programmes can be very ineffective without staff engagement:Can cause unnecessary tensionsNot making the most of successesSome of the best ideas come from the staffBenefits around organisational reputation

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How?3Slide4

Showing commitment is important….Its important that your policy is signed off from the top of the organisation

It gives people a mandate to act on

Important for leadership too

Staff understand how their actions fit into wider strategyGives space for people to act and give ideasThrough policies and certifications4Slide5

Keep people in the loop…Really important to keep people up to date with changesAgenda item on team meetings

Green updates or inclusion on staff newsletter

Give people a forum to discuss ideas

Training where ever necessary Join up with other local organisations, or piggy-bag existing networks5Slide6

Connect to Values6Slide7

People might get involved in an energy saving campaign for different reasons. E.g. an enhanced

company reputations, financial savings, tips to use at home, opportunity to support a charity through savings

achieved, the social aspect of getting to know other members of staff

Be positive about the difference you can make, so that people believe that change can be meaningful and effectiveSimply spelling out the facts of negative environmental impacts and climate change, even if they seem compelling, are not always effectiveMake the link between environmental issues at work, global issues and people’s home and personal lifeIf you put a campaign in place, please make sure you will be able to monitor the impact of people’s actions in increasing recycling and communicating this7Slide8

Green teamsConduct a staff survey to understand who will be interested in engaging with environmental initiatives

Good to get representatives from across the organisation

Identify any funds that you can use for the green team

Can be used as social occasions too – e.g. lunch clubs, might want to also consider volunteering too8Slide9

Campaigns

Chose your focus area

Consider any resource requirements e.g. posters, prizes to incentivise staff participation

Create an easily identifiable brand for your campaign e.g. SwitchOff and create associated promotional materialsCreate a realistic goal e.g. reducing elec by 10%Communicate goal and baselineProvide simple actions and instructions for staff in order to achieve goalProvide incentives for involvement e.g. prizes, professional recognitionThink holistically: For example if you do a campaign on cycling to work, raise awareness on transport impacts and organise a bike repair workshop

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Celebrate success!Evaluate and measure where-ever possible Measuring and monitoring will ensure that you’re in a strong position to communicate internally and externally about successes

Always refer back to your audience to understand how to communicate on this success (Carbon, Money etc.)

Think of ways this can be communicated

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Make it funConnect with national and international environmental days. E.g. Earth Hour, or Walk to Work weekHelp people connect with volunteering

Volunteering, gardening. Fits into wider staff well-being too

Educational, create conversations

Social aspect e.g. Lunch clubs?11Slide12

Why not?12

So, if engaging staff is the answer, why isn’t everyone doing it?

Answer:

- it can be a lot like herding cats! - People don’t always do what they say they are going to doSlide13

Psychology of behavioural change?

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“Psychology is the study of human beliefs and behaviours”Slide14

How can we apply it to the problem of people taking action on climate change?

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Psychologically distant in time and space

Involves uncertainty and multiple possible outcomesRequires co-operation at local, national and international levelsCannot be seen or touched or smelledSlide15

Some common assumptions for making people change behaviours

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Provide people with the information you think they need and their will change their behaviour accordingly

Make the problem sound scary enough and people will take action (fear framing)Past behaviour is a strong indicator of future behaviourPeriods of transition provide opportunities to introduce changeSlide16

The attitude-behaviour gap16

Aka why we sometimes say one thing and do something completely different:

Social norms

Perceived control over behaviourDirect versus indirect experienceInterviewer biasSlide17

Individual barriers to engagement & action17

Lack of knowledge

Uncertainty & scepticism

Distrust in information sourcesExternalisation of responsibility & blameBelief in technology to sort it outBelief climate change is a distant threat

Low prioritisation amongst competing prioritiesReluctance to change lifestyles

Fatalism

Drop in the ocean feelingSlide18

Building blocks to engagement & action18

Knowledge of issue

Understanding what action you can take

Understanding level of personal controlAttitude and inner beliefs in line with behaviourVerbal commitmentPublic commitment

Build level of the individual’s sense of responsibilitySlide19

Techniques to encourage people to change behaviours19

Catalyst

effect

Key behaviours that may lead to the adoption of other behaviours with a similar underlying ideology (e.g. micro-generation)Halo effectGiving public praise and enthusiasm to an employee is likely to encourage them to do more in future

Virtuous EscalatorGet people to make any step, no matter how small

Social norms

make it the normSlide20

Any questions?

support@juliesbicycle.com

www.juliesbicycle.com

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