How nudges helped 84% of Inditex employees complete training programs faster

Social Proof: Conformity to socially acceptable behavior. As humans, we pick up on social cues that allow us to copy the actions of others around us. This allows us to fit ourselves into a given situation more appropriately, which increases cooperation and social cohesion. 

A multinational retailer with millions of clients

Inditex, a Spanish multinational clothing company, is one of the world’s largest fashion retailers. They control multiple large subsidiaries, such as Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, and many others. Due to the vast extent of their empire, implementing solutions that are both effective and scalable is essential to improving their business model. Operating in 96 markets with over 5000 stores across the globe, Inditex juggles the needs and demands of millions of clients on a daily basis. 

Harvesting talent

Given that customer service is paramount to their business model, Inditex places a large emphasis on developing competent staff who can handle any issue that might arise. Due to this, they must keep their staff motivated and developing within the Inditex ecosystem. Therefore, Inditex developed a talent system that helped build this work culture and developed talented employees. 

Low enthusiasm = low commitment

The program was initially designed in two tiers: the first tier includes the fundamentals of basic store processes, and the second handles specialization once employees move up the corporate ladder. While well-designed, Inditex found that the program wasn’t working as planned. It had low retention rates, employee motivation was waning, and talents struggled to stay committed to the entirety of the program. It was clear that the program needed some tweaking on the behavioral end to improve their employees’ enthusiasm about their own professional development.

Interviewing employees about daily obstacles

As the fashion world is incredibly fast-paced, global, and constantly changing, Kurkow discerned that the employees are likely too overwhelmed by their daily struggles to consider the program a priority. Therefore, inserting the program into their daily routine would be essential to assure completion of the program.

To begin their experiment, Kurkow directly went to the employees and conducted interviews and observational studies at a large Zara store. The goal was to map the everyday routines of the prospective talents and managers, attempting to figure out what daily hurdles and difficulties the employees were facing that prevented them from completing the prescribed talent program. 

Feedback, daily reminders, and social proof

After conducting their research, Kurkow decided to utilize a bevy of behavioral science techniques to improve program adherence. By pairing feedback systems, daily reminders, and a social proof system, Kurkow set out to increase the cognitive awareness of the program and built an environment where program completion was the norm. While Kurkow doesn’t provide much detail about how they specifically used these techniques, this combined approach allowed for employee progress to become evident to everybody in the program, which allowed Inditex to develop an environment where program completion became a social norm. 

90% of talent enthusiastically retained

Social proof proved to be a highly effective method for increasing engagement across the board. At the end of the program, Krukow found that engagement was at record highs, with 90% of the talents feeling motivated to continue on with Zara. The remaining 10% were more ambivalent, implying that this intervention, at worst, had no significant downside.

84% finished the program faster

Furthermore, the increased engagement helped push at least 84% of the participants through the program within the specified 12 week period, as opposed to before the intervention took place when groups would typically take 3-5 months longer. Overall, it seems that this intervention was a highly effective and inexpensive way to strengthen the Inditex family.

• Insufficient information was given by the practitioners, including follow-up, consent, and specifics of the intervention
• The intervention did not force employees to continue the program, but facilitated proper nudging practices

Do High-Potential Employee Programs Work?

Similar to the program Inditex sought to implement, organizations often utilize strategies to improve their talent. One of these strategies is a high-potential employee program, which essentially picks out employees who show promise and devote resources to them. While programs like this are built with good intentions, behavioral self-fulfilling prophecies often rob them of any effectiveness. In this piece, Western’s Natasha Ouslis and gothamCulture’s Zad El-Makkaoui team up to break down how high-potential employees fail to achieve their goals, and what some viable alternatives are.

Why Are Many Americans Checked Out At Work?

If you are interested in further applications of behavioral science regarding issues in the workplace, John Hopkins’ Stacy Post tackles a complex, but important, societal issue. Every day, millions of dollars are lost because of employees lacking passion and being unproductive at work. Post shows how leaders can harness the power of behavioral science to instill pride within a work culture, increase worker engagement, and better prepare managers.