The Friction Tax
Adding one extra step to a process cuts completion rates by 20%. Most HR programs have five extra steps baked in.
Here's a number that should haunt every HR program designer:
Each additional step in a process reduces completion by roughly 20%.
That's the friction tax. And it compounds.
A five-step feedback form that could be two steps? You've lost 67% of responses before anyone gets annoyed or busy. They just... don't finish.
BJ Fogg's behavior research makes this painfully clear: motivation is unreliable, but friction is predictable. When you make something slightly harder, fewer people do it. Every time.
The fix isn't better reminders or more training. It's removing steps.
Count the clicks in your most important program. The recognition flow. The pulse survey. The feedback request. Now ask: which steps exist because "we've always done it that way"?
The nudge: Pick one program this week. Remove one step. Measure what happens.
