Original post from the Daily Targum
By Akash Nattamai
Researchers at the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development recently published a report regarding the effectiveness of motivational text messaging on reintroducing people in the statewide Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) program to return to work.
RESEA investigates unemployed individuals in New Jersey and aims to help them to return to work quickly. New Jersey residents that are considered at high risk of exhausting their unemployment insurance benefits based on characteristics of their past are invited to participate. The program is required to maintain an inflow of benefits, and allows participants to meet with job counselors to identify job skills and provide support for reemployment.
The report was penned by four Rutgers-affiliated authors: Heldrich Center Research Project Manager Khudodod Khudododov, Heldrich Center Assistant Director Stephanie Walsh, Rutgers—Newark School of Public Affairs and Administration Ph.D. candidate Jinah Yoo and Heldrich Center Associate Director and professor in the Department of Public Policy Andrea Hetling.
Researchers evaluated behavioral motivators that caused people to engage with the RESEA program. Walsh said that it is common for people to drop off of reemployment programs, so researchers focused on key indicators that kept people committed. Specifically, they examined motivational text messaging that RESEA implemented as a reminder system.
“Motivational text messages are stored texts that (are) usually (one to three sentences) that would be sent to participants’ phone numbers … to motivate them to engage in the program,” Khudododov said.
Researchers created messages based on a theoretical framework that outlines administrative burdens from participating in public services. According to Walsh, the group designed one text message per “cost,” or hurdles citizens experience when accessing these services. One message addresses learning costs or issues with finding out about the services and what they offer. Another message addresses compliance costs, encouraging participants to fully engage with the requirements of the program. The third message addresses psychological costs, including the stigma involved with receiving public support
Khudodov said the research was done in collaboration with the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL). The study was a randomized control trial among participants who opted and consented into text messages. These participants were then randomly assigned into a treatment and control group. The treatment group received the text messages, and the control received no text messages. The study gathered a quantitative measure between both groups’ engagement in the RESEA program.
The study found no statistically significant difference between both groups. Walsh said that this largely had to do with reminder texts that NJDOL already implemented. These messages increased appointment attendance from approximately 70 percent to 90 percent before the Heldrich Center study began.
The study concluded that the few who weren’t completing the program, despite the efforts of both the Heldrich Center’s and the NJDOL’s messaging systems, may require different routes of encouragement than text messaging. Walsh also considered additional barriers, such as having another job lined up and then opting out of the program.
Walsh said that further research can delve into the more qualitative elements of text messaging, surveying participants on the difference they felt the messages made in committing to RESEA and reemployment.
“This is a group that’s experiencing real life hardship — this period of unemployment, of having to receive unemployment insurance benefits, not knowing what their future looks like. I would love to see that qualitative component … Maybe it did make a little bit of difference in how they felt about their experience knowing that they had a little more motivation,” Walsh said.