The goal of each intervention was to increase participant attendance at an optional informational meeting for Paycheck Plus, an earnings supplement program in which participants had previously enrolled. These meetings gave clients an opportunity to review the program requirements and the incentives for work.

The study found that:

• Behavioral messaging led to a significant and quite large increase in the percentage of participants who attended the meeting.
• Sending text messages in addition to postcards was more effective than sending postcards only.
• Offering the meeting over the phone instead of in person did not have any effect on the participation rate.

These findings demonstrate the promise of using behavioral insights in the design of marketing materials and that using text messages – a low cost communication tool – can be effective at reaching people. Additionally, the surprising finding that reducing the hassle of attending the meeting in person did not increase participation reinforces the importance of testing to see what behavioral insights work in particular contexts.

The Power of Prompts: Using Behavioral Insights to Encourage People to Participate
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Four-Year Effects on Degree Receipt and Employment Outcomes from a Performance-Based Scholarship Program in Ohio

Incentives are among the options available to program administrators looking for innovative strategies to improve job retention and advancement. This paper can help program administrators evaluate whether an incentive program might help them to achieve their program goals and can help them design a program that builds on the experience of the private sector. Specifically, the design steps presented in this paper will help programs develop incentives that encourage certain behaviors identified by program staff as associated with successful job retention and advancement.

Mathematica Policy Research – Using Incentives to Promote Job Retention and Advancement: Guidance from the Performance Improvement Industry Report

Earnings supplements provide a monetary payment to working individuals, usually on a monthly basis, to supplement their earnings and raise their income. Typically targeted to low-income parents who are unemployed and provided when they start working, earnings supplements are designed to encourage employment and increase the payoff of low-wage work. They can also provide an important incentive for individuals to stay employed. While the earnings supplement can be a critical component of programs, it is also generally combined with a range of other employment and support services. This brief presents findings, and lessons for policy and practice, from MDRC-conducted studies of five programs that provided earnings supplements and that have been rigorously evaluated using a random assignment research design: the Canadian Self-Sufficiency Project (SSP), the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP), Milwaukee’s New Hope Project, the Texas Employment Retention and Advancement program (ERA), and the United Kingdom Employment Retention and Advancement program (UK ERA). The evaluations all produced positive impacts on employment and were primarily targeted to single parents.  SSP, MFIP, and New Hope operated some time ago (primarily in the 1990s), but long-run follow-up data are available only recently. In addition, more recent evaluation results are available from Texas ERA and UK ERA programs operated in the early 2000s.

MDRC Brief – Providing Earnings Supplements to Encourage and Sustain Employment