Supervisor-Reinforced Reminders
RCTReview
Incentives and weekly targets provided directly to frontline employees often fail to eliminate procrastination when workers lack active operational structure and temporal feedback. Without direct supervisory reinforcement and regular performance updates, employees easily lose focus on early-period deadlines.
Picture this
Think of a long-distance runner who performs better when a coach stands on the track edge calling out lap times every 200 meters, compared to merely having a digital clock at the stadium finish line. When a branch manager holds mid-week check-ins and personally shows progress tracking reports, a distant deadline is converted into an immediate, top-of-mind priority.
What the evidence says
Target achievement increased by 70.0 percentage points (coefficient = 0.698, p < 0.10; with controls coefficient = 0.854, p < 0.05) and the workload gap index decreased by 9.58 points (p < 0.05) during Phase 2 when branch managers provided weekly reminders, whereas Phase 1 showed no statistically significant effect (coefficient = -0.081, p > 0.10).
- Who was studied
- N = 61 bank branches (31 treatment branches, 30 control branches) and 388 loan officers in Colombia (256 loan officers tracked through baseline and endline surveys).
- How
- Randomized controlled trial (RCT) with field implementation across two consecutive 3-month phases (Phase 1: incentives to loan officers only; Phase 2: incentives extended to branch managers).
What to do
Mandate direct supervisors to conduct mid-week 5-minute performance check-ins using visual progress tracking reports to remind employees of short-term weekly milestones.
From the source
"Giving incentives only to loan officers without the reinforcement and encouragement of the branch managers seems to have no significant effects. This result supports the interpretation that our intervention changed loan officer behavior mainly through the positive encouragement through prizes coupled with weekly reminders and public recognition."
Fighting Procrastination in the Workplace- An Experiment.pdf