Designing workplaces people love: A behavioural economics view of employee engagement

After 10 years working in reward and recognition and another decade in marketing, I’ve always been fascinated by the same question: why do people do what they do? Whether influencing customer behaviour or shaping employee experience, I’ve seen first-hand that motivation isn’t driven purely by logic or financial incentives. It’s emotional, social and deeply human.

That curiosity led me to behavioural economics — a discipline that helps explain how people actually make decisions in real life, not how we assume they should. It offers a powerful framework for understanding what makes people tick and, crucially, how organisations can design environments that bring out the best in them. Applied thoughtfully, behavioural economics becomes a tool for creating employee engagement that feels personal, authentic and human — the kind that makes people genuinely love where they work.

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Why Engagement Is a Behavioural Challenge, Not an HR One

Employee engagement is often approached through surveys, platforms and policies. But behavioural economics encourages us to look deeper. Engagement is shaped by daily experiences and micro-interactions that influence how people feel about their work, their colleagues and their organisation.

Pioneers such as Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler have shown that humans are not rational decision-makers. We are influenced by emotion, habit, social norms and cognitive bias. In the workplace, this means people engage not because a strategy tells them to, but because the environment consistently reinforces feelings of belonging, purpose, autonomy and fairness.

Understanding these behavioural drivers allows organisations to move from measuring engagement to designing for it.

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Using Behavioural Economics to Build Engagement People Feel

1. Belonging Is Built Through Human Connection

One of the strongest behavioural drivers is the need to belong. People are more engaged when they feel known, welcomed and supported — particularly in increasingly hybrid and fragmented workplaces.

This is where onsite, in-person employee support, such as a concierge or employee ambassador, plays a powerful role. Having a visible, approachable human presence creates social connection and psychological safety. These roles act as a bridge between the organisation and the individual, turning abstract culture into something people can experience.

Behavioural economics tells us that social interaction reinforces trust — and trust is foundational to engagement.

2. Meaning Comes From Being Seen

People are more engaged when they believe their presence matters, not just their output. Behavioural science shows that acknowledgement — even in small, informal moments — strengthens emotional commitment.

An onsite concierge or ambassador provides opportunities for these moments: remembering names, noticing changes, offering help without being asked. These seemingly small interactions have an outsized behavioural impact because they affirm identity and belonging — two drivers that strongly influence how people feel about work.

3. Reducing Friction Increases Emotional Energy

Another key principle of behavioural economics is friction — the small obstacles that drain motivation and create frustration. When everyday tasks feel harder than they should, engagement suffers.

Onsite employee support helps remove friction by solving problems quickly, answering questions in real time and guiding people through moments of uncertainty. When employees feel supported rather than stuck, they retain emotional energy for meaningful work — which directly affects engagement and satisfaction.

4. Autonomy and Confidence Through Human Guidance

Autonomy is a core engagement driver, but autonomy doesn’t mean isolation. Behavioural economics shows that people feel more confident making decisions when they have access to trusted human guidance.

An employee ambassador provides that reassurance — someone to sense-check decisions, offer direction or simply listen. This human support increases confidence and trust, reinforcing the perception that the organisation cares not just about performance, but about people.

5. Consistency Creates Fairness and Trust

Fairness isn’t only about policy — it’s about how consistently people experience support and treatment. Behavioural research shows that perceived fairness strongly influences engagement and loyalty.

A visible onsite support presence helps create consistency. Employees know where to go, who to speak to and what to expect. That predictability reduces anxiety and builds psychological safety — both critical to loving where you work.

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Modern Engagement Trends: High-Tech, High-Touch

As workplaces become more digital, the value of human interaction increases rather than diminishes. Behavioural economics helps explain why: technology solves efficiency problems, but humans solve emotional ones.

Modern engagement strategies are therefore combining:

• High-tech platforms for scale and flexibility
• High-touch roles, like concierges and ambassadors, to deliver empathy, connection and trust

This balance recognises that while work may be changing, human behaviour hasn’t.

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Conclusion: Engagement Is Designed in Human Moments

People don’t love where they work because of tools or policies alone. They love it because of how work feels. Behavioural economics teaches us that feelings are shaped through consistent, human experiences — moments of connection, support and understanding.

Onsite, in-person employee support brings these principles to life. It transforms behavioural insight into lived experience, reinforcing belonging, trust and meaning every day.

When organisations design engagement with humans in mind — not just systems — they don’t just create better workplaces. They create places people want to be.

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