Money matters

Keeping people’s attention by asking less of it

One seemingly counter-intuitive approach proposed by a financial company called Hellowallet may increase levels of engagement by engaging with people less often, demanding less of their time and cognitive energy.

Hellowallet is a relatively young company based in the US, which puts behavioural economics at the heart of what they do. It provides a web and mobile platform to Fortune 100 companies, which brings together each employee’s financial accounts into one place for them to access. It also provides personalised financial guidance to enable better money management and to increase financial well-being.
Using the Hellowallet platform, they recently tested this theory in a series of randomised controlled trials with thousands of their clients’ employees.
Their standard approach had been to send platform users a weekly Friday email containing a summary of their finances, aimed at encouraging them to control their spending, build their financial literacy, begin to understand compound interest, build a budget, set up regular savings debits, etc. Yet, they wondered whether they might increase engagement if they expected less of users and contacted them on a less frequent basis. To test this hypothesis, they selected one group of employees registered to use the Hellowallet platform to receive the summary email every other week. 
They found that asking for employees’ attention on a less frequent basis resulted in greater engagement over the long term. After 90 days, the open rate for bi-monthly emails was 65% compared to 58% for weekly emails, a 7 percentage point lift. Click-through rates also increased from 23% to 29%. Their strategy of not inundating and overwhelming employees with communications paid off, with higher levels of sustained engagement in the long run. Whilst it’s a small step, tiny adjustments like this can start to add up to increased engagement over time.
Effective communication can also be just about finding a good moment to engage with people. Talk to them when you might be able to get their undivided attention and fit learning around the time that people have. Samsung have been working with Nudge Global - a financial education company - to improve financial wellness among their employees. One of their initiatives has been ‘Learn in the loo’ - putting simple financial education content in the staff toilets where there is a greater opportunity to get someone’s attention.