National Fund collaboratives work with employers across the country to implement, scale and measure practices that improve the quality of its jobs and the effectiveness of its operations. While workforce practitioners are great sources for innovation talent development ideas, it is sometimes difficult to convince employers to trust an outside perspective.

As a result, the National Fund is using Behavioral Economics to inform its Job Quality efforts.

Combining insights from psychology and traditional economics, behavioral economics is the study of how people make decisions under uncertainty. 

This report outlines six key insights of behavioral economics and applies them to situations of workforce development and business leaders working together. Specifically, the report outlines four biases—in-group/out-group bias, status quo bias, fundamental attribution error, and the focusing effect—that might affect an employers’ decisions and suggests solutions based on behavioral economics.

This report is a perfect for anyone interested in how decisions are made and what cognitive biases influence our choices.