OVERVIEW:
The Singapore government embarked on a massive policy reform to improve employment outcomes and conditions of low-wage workers in the aftermath of COVID-19.
As the sole User Researcher on this national initiative, I was responsible for research design, vendor management, synthesis and reporting of 6 large-scale surveys, 23 focus groups, 30 remote interviews, and 2 behavioral field experiments. I directly informed policy roadmaps, communication strategies, and community programs benefitting over 234,000 workers and 6,000 businesses.
This case study highlights on one of three concurrent research work streams I was overseeing, focusing on raising awareness, understanding, and attitudes towards the proposed policy reform.
METHODS:
- Multi-wave surveys
- Statistical analysis
- Time series
- Segmentation
- t-tests
- Regression
- Latent class
- Survey experiments
- Focus groups
DURATION:
12 MONTHS
2021.01 - 2021.12
ROLE:
Sole user researcher in a cross-functional task force with policy, communications, and operations counterparts
DELIVERABLES:
Quantitative and qualitative insights reports
HOW THE PROJECT STARTED
In the aftermath of the pandemic, the Singapore government embarked on a massive policy reform to improve employment outcomes and conditions for low-wage workers. However, these processes and the policy outcomes were often complex and difficult to explain to the public.
This complexity and barrier to understanding leads to two undesired outcomes:
Low-wage workers may not fully understand the benefits they are entitled to, leading to some falling through the cracks.
The general public may feel that that government bodies are not doing enough to support those who need it most, eroding public trust.
WHAT I DID
As the sole User Researcher on this national initiative, I championed the lived experiences of workers and stakeholders in a process that historically only utilized administrative data.
Using multi-wave surveys, statistical modelling, A/B testing and focus groups, I shaped data-driven communications strategies that led to a significant improvement in comprehension and perception of the policies at hand on a national scale.
Apart from communications strategies…
Policy impact
I led focus groups and polls that translated into 7 of 18 policy recommendations for the reform.
Community impact
I facilitated a 6-month participatory design program with 54 participants that launched 8 community programs.
I collaborated closely with counterparts in policy and communications departments, and directly reported findings to cross-functional leaders and political leadership.
METHODS OVERVIEW
so the story here is - my earlier exploratory work showed that people dont understand this policy, people are more likely to support this policy if they know the govt is also doing work - so the plan was to roll out a marketing communications campaign to help people understand parts of the policy more + ramp up awareness for the announcement of the new policy in August - talk about tracking surveys to design and evaluate assets - concurrent managing this with other projects, each wave had a 6 week turnaround time from planning, fieldwork, to insights delivery, worked with a vendor for fieldwork, needed to do Door to Door cos the target sample we were looking at had a low presence on online panels - talk about message testing before announcement - rapid research, started procurement process early, once i got the policy announcement it was a week to prep discussion guide for FGDs a week to run FGDs and a week to synthesize - bosses also wanted some surveys so i ran a quick A/B test in 2 weeks. - bonus: cluster analysis for quant personas - outcomes
Bonus: Are there consumer archetypes?
We uncovered 4 archetypes that were used by policy colleagues to scope an accreditation program for progressive employers (external link) after my departure from the Ministry.
Outcomes
The policy reform uplifted the employment outcomes of 234,000 workers.
The workgroup subsequently presented 18 policy recommendations, of which 8 were derived from insights from my research, that impact 234,000 workers in total - these included :
Establishing an accreditation system to encourage consumers to shop from progressive businesses Establishing standards for protecting workers’ well-being Providing transitional support for employers to ensure that their businesses stay viable
The recommendations have been gradually implemented since 2021.
Pillar 2: Community
Methods
Co-design
- Design facilitation for a 6-month program to co-design community initiatives
Participants were recruited by colleagues on the citizen engagement team.
Discoveries
We brought together 54 community leaders, employers, and union representatives to co-design community initiatives that would complement top-down policy changes.
Over 6-months, they developed 8 pilot initiatives that addressed 4 challenge areas derived from the focus groups:
Employment opportunities
Employer-employee relationships
Public appreciation
Workers’ well-being
The team I facilitated launched Makan&Shine (makan means “to eat” in Malay) - an initiative that brings together lower-income workers for microlearning brown bags over casual meals to help them access new job opportunities and connections.
Outcomes
This project transformed the way we work with citizens.
The first run of this co-design program was so successful that it was renewed for a second run in 2022 - the only governmental co-design program to be extended. Several project teams from 2021 are still carrying on with their projects!
It was also awarded the Public Sector Transformation Award for its innovative approach to citizen engagement.
Pillar 3: Communications
Methods
Inform communications planning for the reform and quantify impact on policy perception
Dec 2020 - Nov 2021
Quantitative
- 3 waves of surveys (n=1,000 each; pre-, during, and post-campaign) to evaluate the impact of the public communications campaign
Qualitative
- 5 focus groups with workers and consumers to concept test the framing of the policy reform announcement
Participants were recruited by vendors, using screening criteria I provided.
Discoveries
Low awareness of the wage protection policies impacted the public’s perception of government efforts to support lower-income workers.
At a general population level, awareness of the wage protection policy was particularly low, as tracked in the recurring monthly survey our team managed.
The pre-campaign survey helped to us identify specific parts of the policies that were causing confusion and misconceptions, and the insights informed the design of publicity assets.
Outcomes
Awareness and perception of these policies improved significantly post-campaign.
There was a statistically significant improvement in awareness and perception of the policies among people (both general public and lower-income workers) who have seen the campaign assets.
This research also helped to showcase the value of a data-driven communications strategy to colleagues and management.
Our team had previously assisted the communications teams on ad-hoc concept tests and small A/B tests of assets. This project forged greater trust between our teams and built communications colleagues’ confidence in using more data in their day-to-day work. It also increased budgetary support on future communications projects to incorporate more research into the strategy planning and performance tracking.
The impact that user research had on this project led to a researcher being tagged to each major policy review that the Ministry took on after.
Prior to this project, our research team had only contributed to ad-hoc research requests and managing a monthly perception tracking survey. After I demonstrated the value that user research could bring to the policy formulation, our team gained the trust of our inter-departmental colleagues and leadership, and have been able to direct research efforts more proactively in subsequent policy reviews.
I was eventually able to expand my team when I became manager, doubling in size from 2 to 4 researchers, to support the expanded responsibilities.
Reflections
Process
Code-switching for impactful research
I quickly became adept at “code switching” and data storytelling as I was working in a cross-functional workgroup with colleagues from policy and communications departments. I had to translate their deeply technical business questions into research questions and then back into actionable insights. I also had to present the insights differently to different leaders to best align with their respective thinking styles.
Missed opportunity for contextual inquiry
That said, as a junior researcher running the study during the pandemic, I was not able to introduce more methods into the studies. A contextual inquiry would have been most suitable to understand the day-to-day experiences of the workers we were trying to support.
Personal
Where passion, purpose and persistence intersected
This remains my largest and most challenging project to date. There were many moments where juggling the multiple workstreams on this project, managing junior researchers, and fielding ad-hoc requests got overwhelming, but I pushed through with a strong belief in the purpose of the work. Being able to use a bunch of different methods in this project brought me a lot of pure, nerd joy too!