Publications from ODSW Social Insights: Letters by DSW (Vol 2) | Page 106

Practice Issues
be harder to address. Drawing upon lessons from various disciplines, we
need to focus beyond economic growth and continue to advocate for more
inclusive social policies.

1. Designing job search (Office of Planning,
Research and Evaluation, 2014)
So what can social work draw from behavioural economics to help job
applicants in job search? Programme administrators and clients have shared
that there are three psychological barriers that are worth paying attention
to.
Firstly, clients share that schemes, which are meant to help them, often come
across as uncaring and even punitive. Behavioural insights have shown us
that our emotional associations can powerfully shape our actions. Messages
that come off as uncaring puts the start of the job search on a poor footing
as the clients enter the search with negative beliefs and feelings about
the agencies and these shape their interactions with them. As a whole,
telling clients that they must meet the rules or they will face termination
from a scheme is different from telling them that it is important to meet
the requirements so that they can work towards their goal of finding full
time employment. The former message is more likely to engender negative
feelings among clients about their job search.
Secondly, clients share that they could end up seeing job search as a passive
activity and not expect a successful outcome. The process of job search is
in fact an active, purposeful process that involves developing application
materials, seeking out job opportunities, and submitting applications.
Clients must understand this throughout the process. The idea of saliency in
behavioural economics tells us that our attention is often drawn to what is
novel to us and thereby influencing our behaviour. If clients see job search
as an extension of previous experiences that did not work for them, they
may expect to fail again.
Thirdly, clients share that they are often overwhelmed and do not have
the mental energy to fully take in all the information presented during an
orientation. All human beings have a limited capacity to process, understand
and recall information, especially if it is conveyed in complex ways. Even if
clients understand the information as presented, they may not remember it
all or they may not recall it when they need it.

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