ASSET LOSS INTERVENTION

Tackling the frequent loss of ID access cards through measurable interventions

Quick Facts

Background

69% of incidents reported were the loss of ID cards. This posed a security risk for a government defence department that wanted to improve personnel's cyber behaviours through the delivery of behavioural interventions. A service design approach was applied to ensure interventions could be deployed easily across different bases.

Skill Areas

User Research
Data analysis
Behavioural science (COM-B)
Ideation facilitation
Stakeholder management
Service Design/Transformation
Creative strategy
Project management
Supplier briefing and purchase order organising

My Deliverables

A fully designed and delivered Intervention package that saw a 66% reduction in the loss of personnel ID cards on the base chosen for intervention through:

Eye-catching signage
Inter-squadron competition to encourage positive behaviours
Gamified poster observation
Email communications

The Details

THE CHALLENGE

With the rise of cyber attacks, a government defence department wanted to improve the cyber resilience across the department. In addition to transformations in cyber systems and processes, a cultural shift was needed by personnel on base.

The loss of ID cards was the highest reported incident. This posed a physical and cyber threat because these cards provide access to computers and confidential information.

CLIENT

Government Defence Department

YEAR

2023 - 4 (1 year)

INDUSTRY

Public Sector

KEY GOAL

Design and deliver scalable behavioural interventions that would tackle the frequent loss of ID access cards.

MY ROLE

I was the end-to-end Design and Delivery Lead in charge of completing a discovery to understand personnel's behaviours/motivations around keeping their ID access cards safe and used this discovery to design and deliver an intervention package that had multiple touch points with personnel on a chosen base for maximum effect.

Some of the key deliverables within my role included:

Running qualitative and quantitative research (surveys, interviews, ethnography)
Facilitation of team ideation sessions
Walkthrough sessions with client stakeholders on intervention ideas
Working with graphic designers to design Informative and gamified signage
Content design of email communications that would be distributed by station executives
Delivery of an inter-squadron competition that rewarded personnel for visible ID cards
Detailed report with approach to implementing and measuring interventions at different bases.

UNDERSTANDING THE TARGET AUDIENCE

There was a strong disciplinary culture of personnel on base. The lack of provided lanyards with access cards had a direct impact on the frequent loss of these cards.

Due to the strong discipline and hierarchical culture in the military, it was important for me to encourage people to put themselves forward for qualitative research discussions. I had to work with station executives so personnel had reassurance that this was not a disciplinary activity, it was purely to help improve this behaviour moving forward.

Qualitative interviews were supported ethnographic research and anonymous surveys. The surveys had a much larger uptake within base as expected with the internal culture. Analysing these results provided context for why personnel were losing their ID cards, we learnt that many of them were storing their ID cards in their wallets because they were not provided lanyards when they received their card. With frequent card movement (having to show ID before accessing different areas), the likelihood of a losing ID cards was high. This was an insight that was interesting to us because policy stated that ID cards should be visible on personnel while on base at all times so ID cards being stored in wallets was not ideal.

Learning about the culture and motivations of personnel helped deliver targeted interventions

Personnel were highly motivated by competition amongst peers and senior recognition. Discovering this was important because motivation is a driver of behaviour change. It was therefore key to including these motivations in the Intervention package that was delivered on base.

BREAKING DOWN THE PROCESS

The COM-B model of behaviour change was used to design and develop an intervention package that would influence the behaviour of personnel positively so that the risk of losing their defence ID cards was reduced.

Interrogated cyber incident reporting data to understand what cyber behaviours were being displayed frequently. This data analysis showed that ID card loss accounted for 69% of reports - the largest proportion.

Quantified the effect of ID card losses through stakeholder conversations to understand the process of replacing a lost card with a focus on the time and financial costs.

Used data analysis to provide a case on why this behaviour required an intervention and client buy in was needed to invest in these activities.

Ran qualitative and quantitative research to understand the drivers of this behaviour from personnel.

Consolidated research outputs using the COM-B behavioural model which provided context for a delivered ideation session to encourage blue-sky thinking on potential interventions.

Evaluated intervention concepts, mapped out intervention touch points and created a final behavioural intervention package:
1. Informative signage in high traffic areas
2. Email communications that would be distributed by station executives
3. An inter-squadron competition that rewarded visible ID cards as lanyards were provided as part of the intervention
4. A gamified poster observation that took the form of a scavenger hunt and rewarded personnel that read through an educational intranet article

Worked with product suppliers and graphic designers to deliver the right branding, messaging, look and feel of campaign assets.

Compared the incident reporting results across the 6 month intervention with data previously interrogated and provided thorough guidance on how this intervention could be ran at other bases.

THE RESULTS

The intervention that I designed and delivered saw a 66% reduction in reports of ID card loss during the trial period compared to the number of reports pre-interventions. This was a huge success because incident reporting data for the two years prior saw barely any improvement.

Ahead of the intervention running, it was agreed that four metrics would be used to measure the effectiveness of the intervention.

Incident Reporting data - These reports were received on a monthly basis and had high data quality because all personnel need to report their ID card as lost before they can progress with the replacement process. There was a 66% decrease in ID loss reports during the 6 month trial period.
A Self Reporting survey - this asked personnel whether they noticed the interventions taking place as well as their general thoughts and feelings on the activities. 90% of survey responses had seen at least 1 element of the intervention package.
Engagement metrics - The intranet article that was part of the gamified poster concept provided engagement metrics. It showed how many views the article had received along with likes and dislikes. By the end of the trial there were 40,000+ views on the article.
Observation of positive behaviour on base - It was clear from initial analysis that personnel didn't tend to have their ID cards visible on base. This was a behaviour we wanted to change as having an ID card visible aligns with policy so we encouraged inter-squadron competition by giving out different colour lanyards to each squadron and tracking which colours we had seen the most in-person.

Overall we saw an improvement in behaviour during the trial period. A key requirement for our intervention package was to ensure it provided positive reinforcement so personnel didn't feel like they were receiving disciplinary action. Understanding the culture of personnel on base and leveraging this led to positive engagement with the interventions.

TITLE OF THE CALLOUT BLOCK

FEEDBACK FROM TEAM MEMBERS THAT WORKED WITH ME

Leonie Lewis, Engagement Lead

Lucia built very strong relationships with stakeholders who were extremely happy with the results of the trial and provided very positive feedback about her involvement and the trial as a whole.

Paul Bailey, Project Manager

Lucia's expertise in design has been particularly impressive and has proved to be highly valuable for her role. Her ability to showcase these skills through mock ups made work move quicker and produced to a higher standard.

Hannah Jenkins, Client

She ensured continual engagement with the trial site, which set the foundations for lasting change and gave the site the motivation to continue the intervention package with little assistance following the trial.

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