Give People Fewer Choices
More options feel generous. They actually reduce satisfaction and action. The best HR programs offer less, not more.
HR loves options. More learning paths. More benefit choices. More ways to give feedback. It feels generous.
It's not. It's paralyzing.
The research is clear: when people face too many choices, they make worse decisions (or none at all). Sheena Iyengar's famous jam study found that offering 24 options instead of 6 dropped purchases by 90%.
Your benefits enrollment has the same problem. So does your LMS. So does your "flexible" recognition program with 47 badge types.
The instinct to add options comes from a good place: autonomy matters. But autonomy isn't the same as unlimited choice. People feel more autonomous when they can actually decide, not when they're overwhelmed.
Want to improve your programs? Remove 60% of the options. Make the remaining ones meaningfully different. Watch participation climb.
The nudge: Find your most complex program. Ask: what if this had three choices instead of twelve?
