Behavioural Insights Unit

We improve outcomes for Victorians by applying behavioural insights to policy, service design, and internal processes in the Victorian public sector.

We are a multidisciplinary team of behavioural science experts, quantitative and qualitative researchers, and policy officers who have worked with partners across government since 2016 to develop behaviourally informed solutions.

What are behavioural insights?

Behavioural insights draws on research into human behaviour and decision making based on psychology, economics, and social sciences. It recognises that people’s behaviour can change moment to moment, that we don't always do what we plan to do, and that surprising things can affect our decisions.

The aim of behavioural insights is to develop a better understanding of what drives people’s actions and choices, so that we can reduce barriers to change and design better services, communications, and policies for Victorians.

How do we work?

We use a range of research methods and tools to help areas of government understand their users, identify problems, and develop innovative solutions. We are available to work with all Victorian government departments and agencies. We also collaborate with other behavioural insights units in Australia and overseas.

Work with us

If you work within the Victorian Public Service and have a behaviour change project or would like to use more behavioural insights in your work, feel free to get in contact with us at behavioural.insights@dpc.vic.gov.au.

Download our report: Applying Behavioural Insights in Victoria

Applying Behavioural Insights in Victoria: an update
PDF 19.49 MB
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First page of the BIU update report

Examples of our work

  • Education

    We helped design the PlayLearnGrow program to give parents practical advice and activities to improve their parenting skills by text message. 12,000 parents participated in the program with 85% reading all messages and 42% saying they tried most of the ideas provided. Read our case study on the PlayLearnGrow program.

  • Justice

    We helped simplify the court summons form to make it easier for people to show up to court, and reduce the number of missed court proceedings.

  • Health

    We created an online decision tool to help people navigate COVID-19 exposure. The tool was used 23,000 times in the first 10 weeks. Read our case study on the COVID-19 decision tool.

    We used a simplified letter to increase the likelihood of a parent or guardian returning a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination consent form by 3.5 percentage points and increased the likelihood of the student receiving the HPV vaccine by 1.7 percentage points, bringing the share of unvaccinated students down from 21.1% to 19.4%. Read our case study on the HPV consent form.

    We increased the likelihood of patients attending their hospital appointments by introducing text message reminders. Read our case study on hospital text reminders.

    We helped VicRoads and the Department of Health understand what kind of behaviourally-informed messages would increase organ donation registration. Read our case study on organ donor registration.

  • Service Delivery

    We supported Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) staff by transitioning queries to the CAV website (away from phone calls) using behaviourally-informed messaging in the helpline hold message. The new message increased the number of callers who go online for their query by 54% and is estimated to be moving approximately 13,600 people from telephone help to the website every year. Read our case study on moving enquiries online.

    We increased the proportion of Victorians paying land tax via BPAY by 34% by redesigning the Land Tax Assessment Notice. Read our case study on increasing the use of BPAY for land tax.

  • Family Violence Prevention

    We supported the implementation of the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) Framework by designing new decision tools and training sessions for staff. Read our case study on the MARAM Framework.

    We supported better family violence information sharing by simplifying the number of issues workers must consider in deciding whether to share information from 47 down to 13. Read our case study on family violence information sharing.

  • Environment

    We helped design a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) so that Sustainability Victoria could measure the health and wellbeing impacts of the Healthy Homes energy efficiency upgrades.

  • Workforce

    We helped Energy Safe Victoria engage with electrical apprentices and employers about getting licensed. Read our case study on apprentice licensing.

    We worked with the Wage Inspectorate Victoria to develop a decision tool and user journey for people with questions about long service leave. Read our case study about our work with the Wage Inspectorate Victoria. 

Join the team

If you are currently employed with the Victorian Public Service, you can sign up for job alerts for the BIU through the Jobs and Skills Exchange or through the Innovation Network’s Behavioural Insights Group.

For those external to the VPS, all jobs open to non-VPS applicants are advertised at www.careers.vic.gov.au.

Want to learn more?

For those working in the VPS, we regularly publish research articles and reports about work we do on the Behavioural Insights in the VPS Innovation Network page, as well as host workshops and share insights in our discussion group.

If you are not in the VPS, feel free to email us to ask about past projects or collaborations at behavioural.insights@dpc.vic.gov.au.

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Contact email: behavioural.insights@dpc.vic.gov.au

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