BEHAVES-in-action
Nudging, Not Nagging: Helping Literal Humans Love Timesheets (sort of)
BEHAVES-in-action
Nudging, Not Nagging: Helping Literal Humans Love Timesheets (sort of)
Did you know…
….that there are almost 30,000 creative agencies in the UK?
Well, there are. And they range from small, niche, web design agencies to large, full-service marketing companies, offering the full spectrum of branding-related services.
Did you know…
….that there are almost 30,000 creative agencies in the UK?
Well, there are. And they range from small, niche, web design agencies to large, full-service marketing companies, offering the full spectrum of branding-related services.
The Behaviour
Whether these agencies have table tennis tables in the receptions of their huge, glamorous offices, or the CEO is also the accountant (and responsible for buying the tea bags), they all have at least one thing in common: timesheets.
In case you don’t know, timesheets are where hours spent on certain projects are logged. They are crucial to an agency’s resource planning and profitability. But they aren’t very…fun.
And this is what our client, Literal Humans, wanted help with.
Literal Humans are a London-based digital marketing agency who focus on content marketing, branding and strategy. When we first met with them, we bonded over timesheet-angst – because our consultancy team at SBC knows as well as anyone else: getting your team to complete them really is a universal conquest.
Could we help them achieve it?
The Approach
We were excited to apply the BEHAVES process to this familiar problem and couldn’t wait to see what would happen!
We started by rolling out the 6 e-learning modules across a 6-week period, engaging the team in a facilitated live session after each module, to help them to start thinking about how to apply what they had learned.
Once we’d been through that process, we finished with an action-planning workshop and worked together (using our pre-created templates) to apply all the juicy Behavioural Science they had learned to their timesheet problem.
In the final workshop, we:
- Identified numerous hurdles that were stopping the team from correctly using their tool
- Came up with some creative ideas to overcome these hurdles
- Placed the ideas into the different categories (leadership actions, changes to the tool and environment / cultural actions) so that different stakeholders could take responsibility for them
The Outcome
In the end, going through the BEHAVES process helped the Literal Humans team come to three main conclusions.
They realised…
The tool they had chosen did not meet their user requirements very well.
They responded by…
Getting rid of the selected tool and choosing a new one better suited to their teams’ needs!
02.
They realised…
The Leadership team had not explained the purpose (and multifaceted benefits) of gathering timesheet information in the business.
They responded by…
Working on their messaging and induction training, to explain all the ways that the timesheet data supports both the business’s profitability AND the team’s well-being (through improved resource planning).
03.
They realised…
Team members didn’t realise how much their behaviour impacted on and added stress to their fellow team members’ lives.
They responded by…
Suggesting cultural initiatives – such as end of the week drinks combined with group timesheet clean-up meetings, to help make sure the work doesn’t all fall on just one or two people on the team.
The Outcome
In the end, going through the BEHAVES process helped the Literal Humans team come to three main conclusions.
They realised...
They responded by....
01.
The tool they had chosen did not meet their user requirements very well.
Getting rid of the selected tool and choosing a new one better suited to their teams' needs!
02.
The Leadership team had not explained the purpose (and multifaceted benefits) of gathering timesheet information in the business.
Working on their messaging and induction training, to explain all the ways that the timesheet data supports both the business's profitability AND the team's well-being (through improved resource planning).
03.
Team members didn't realise how much their behaviour impacted on and added stress to their fellow team
members' lives.
members' lives.
Suggesting cultural initiatives - such as end of the week drinks combined with group timesheet clean-up meetings, to help make sure the work doesn't all fall on just one or two people on the team.
“The BEHAVES process really helped us to get out of our own way, if you know what I mean. It helped us hold the issue at arm's length, and put us all on the same side against the problem. Having this new perspective and lense to look at an old topic through was enormously helpful to coming up with fresh, actionable suggestions that we were actually able to feel energised about! We liked it so much that we're planning to apply the framework to other projects."
Paul David,
Founder and CEO of Literal Humans
Founder and CEO of Literal Humans
Would you like us to help you use the BEHAVES Academy to change a specific behaviour on your team?
Would you like us to help you use the BEHAVES Academy to change a specific behaviour on your team?
Get in touch for an informal chat to discuss.