What Companies Are Missing About Behavioral Psychology

CEO of Rallyware. getty Heading into 2023, it feels like all that’s certain about the economy is uncertainty itself. Will there be a recession, and if there is, how will it

affect consumer spending? Will the Federal Reserve continue to raise interest rates? Will the job market—with roughly 1.9 job openings for every unemployed worker—cool down?

For the retail industry—which employs about 1 in 10 working-age Americans—this problem has been especially acute. So dependent on consumer sentiment, retail faces a perfect

storm of inflation, leading to depressed customer traffic, stymied supply and workforce shortage. What should they do? Behavioral Psychology, Autonomy And Productivity In addition

to macroeconomic challenges, workforce productivity is on the decline. The Washington Post reports that in the first half of 2022, productivity plunged at its sharpest rate since

1947. This could be due to any number of factors—burnout, stress and even a more worker-friendly labor market. Yet, the good news is that unlike inflation and interest rates,

productivity is something that is in employers’ power to control—the question is how to increase it in a way that responds to the workforce’s real needs, the phenomena that

really are affecting them. Recent research in behavioral psychology points to a potential way forward. The findings of researchers Rebecca Johannsen and Paul J. Zak indicate that

“increased perceived autonomy can significantly improve individual and group productivity.” (Thus, it makes sense that being brought back to the office would lower productivity

beyond mid-pandemic thresholds because it lowers the sense of autonomy.) Retail employees are experiencing such a confluence of factors outside their control—consumer frustration

and higher prices, among others—in addition to the churn of onboarding, overstressed managers and the pain of the holiday season. Through it all, retail associates are a perfect

example of productivity lost through the malaise and chaos of the post-pandemic workplace. How can we make these workers feel more autonomous and thus drive productivity? The

Psychology And Technology Of The "Performance Enablement" Paradigm From the vantage point of technology, how could we increase autonomy—the feeling that retail workers are in

charge of their destiny—and thus productivity? Let’s turn to another industry, one that intersects with retail: the gig economy. Gig companies like Uber and TaskRabbit use

digital technology to help independent contractors provide their services to communities of consumers. The gig economy has been enormously successful, with 16% of Americans having