Infographic :: Habit forming in employee communications

HABIT-FORMING IN
EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATIONS
WHY GROWTH IS NOT THE ONLY ANSWER
When you launch a new product or service, all eyes are
on the all-important growth curve. How many people are
buying it? How many people are downloading or signing
up to it? As managers and business-owners, we’re looking
for that perfect rising curve, a ski ramp to success.
USERS, NOT SALES
However, buying, downloading or signing up is not
the same as usage. In an interesting guest blog at
Nir and Far, Abhay Vardhan (founder of blippy.com)
discusses the need to create a habit, so that users
come back time and time again.
While his blog concentrates on building user habits for
commercial apps, the principals are equally useful when
trying to form the habit amongst employees of using a
new communication app or intranet.
Admittedly, with a company-led initiative, there is
usually more motivation involved in forming the
habit, in that employees may be required to use
the app for specific work purposes.
Yet we all know of a new system (or six) that has
floundered in the water because employees simply
haven’t used it.
Many gave up and resorted to old, tried and
tested methods, even if they were less
efficient or even less accessible.
In Vardhan’s case, his company created a new app
that was initially greeted with great enthusiasm.
Users rushed to download the app, and invited
their friends to do the same. However, they didn’t
stick with it. As Vardhan says:
Ardhan decided that a different measure was required to assess who was
using the app, so he turned to two different measures:
BUYERS, NOT EMPLOYEES
DOWNLOADED BY MILLIONS,
USED BY FEW
DOWNLOD
The app was downloaded by
millions, but used by few.
Cohort Analysis:
Retention Rate:
A cohort is a group of people who share a particular characteristic
over a period of time, such as signing up on a particular day. A
cohort analysis follows these users’ actions over a period of time.
The retention rate of a cohort for a period of time is the ratio of
number of active users at the end of the period to the number of
active users at the start of the period. A user is active on a given
day if he or she has visited the product on that day.
Vardhan suggests that, as a rule of thumb, if
retention rates are less than 5% four weeks after
launch, then your app has not established itself
as a new habit. Cohort analysis should be able to
help determine why.
searching...
LESS THAN 5% RETENTION?
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO
ESTABLISH A NEW HABIT?
Vardhan cited a fictitious app with two cohort
group of people who signed up on two
particular days. Each cohort group decayed
over 10 days to a user retention rate of
around 3%. Vardhan defined these remaining
3% of users as “hooked”.
In app-land, a retention rate of 20% is
the baseline for success for a free to
use social media app. An
e-commerce app that can generate
income may well be profitable with
considerably less users.
An analysis by RJMetrics showed that
user retention by Twitter is around 22%,
but is much higher for Pinterest at 45%.
22%
45%
Choose
Vardhan’s statement, of course, assumes
that a habit can be formed in four weeks (or
less). However, there is no concerted
opinion on exactly how long it does take to
form a new habit.
Note the word, “minimum”. Sadly, not
many self-help authors noted that, citing
21 days as an absolute, not a minimum.
If you want to set your expectations appropriately, the truth is that it
will probably take you anywhere from two months to eight months
to build a new behavior into your life — not 21 days.
Subsequent research published in the
European Journal of Social Psychology
showed the timescale was much, much
longer, with an average of 66 days and
up to 254 days. As Clear summarises:
In an interesting blog tracing the history of the
habit-forming timescale, James Clear cites the
plastic surgeon Maxwell Maltz who noted that
it took his patients a minimum of 21 days to
adjust to their new appearance:DAY
21
MONTH
It requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental
image to dissolve and a new one to jell.
NEWS ART DESIGN CULTURE
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CONTEMPORARY ART
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MAGAZINE
CONTEMPORARY ART
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MAGAZINE
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enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris
nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in
reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla
pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in
culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
WEB DESIGN AWARDS
MAGAZINE
CONTEMPORARY ART
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sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore
magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud
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commodo consequat.
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CONTEMPORARY ART
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MAGAZINE
GOOD HABITS TAKE TIME
So, if you’re putting in any new communication or engagement system into your
business, give it time to bed in. Or more to the point, give people time to use it
regularly, and become hooked.
Habits are formed by
regular repetition,
preferably on a daily basis.
So, ensure your new
initiative gives sufficient
incentive for employees to
sign in and participate
every day.
And if it takes over six
months for the habit to
form, so be it; once it’s part
of their working lives,
engaging with your system
will become a habit that’s
very hard to break.
COHORT ANALYSIS AND RETENTION RATE
About TalkFreely
About TalkFreely
TalkFreely is a leading employee communication app that connects and
aligns every employee with what’s important to your business.
Our multi-purpose app provides organisations with a communications
channel that builds employee engagement through Innovation, Recognition,
Collaboration, News, Surveys and more.
Find out how TalkFreely can connect your entire by workforce by signing up
for a free trial at https://talkfreely.com/demo/.
https://talkfreely.com

Infographic :: Habit forming in employee communications

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Infographic :: Habit forming in employee communications