Behavioural insights in employers’ choice of recruitment services for domestic work

The ILO launched a campaign based on behavioural science, in a bid to influence the market in Hong Kong towards greater demand for fair recruitment practices. This report presents the results of the randomised control trial that was designed and used to identify the most effective message frame to trigger the behaviour of employers of domestic workers in Hong Kong (China) and influence their choice of private recruitment agencies when hiring foreign domestic workers.

Domestic work represents the largest share (24 per cent) of the 16 million people estimated to be in forced labour in the private economy. Many domestic workers who find work abroad fall prey to intermediaries who charge them high fees for recruitment. Research by ILO partners in Hong Kong (China) has shown that foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong are at risk of being charged excessive fees and of other abusive practices by Private Employment Agencies that contravene the industry Code of Practice.

Through the Integrated Programme on Fair Recruitment (FAIR, phase II) supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the ILO developed a strategy for engaging employers of domestic workers and increasing their awareness of recruitment-related abuses. In 2020, FAIR II initiated a behavioural science approach in a bid to influence the market in Hong Kong towards greater demand for fair recruitment practices. A randomised control trial (RCT) was designed to test what message frame can best influence employers of domestic workers in their choice of an agency. This set of behavioural levers then informed the content of a campaign targeting employers of domestic workers.

The key milestone of the campaign was the launch of an online gamified website www.thehiringchallenge.org that places the viewer in the shoes of an employer of domestic workers in Hong Kong produced in collaboration with Rights Exposure.

This report presents the RCT that was used to identify the most effective message frame to trigger a behaviour change. The study was designed through a collaboration between the ILO and the University of Geneva (UNIGE), and the research implemented by UNIGE and ILO in collaboration with the Federation of Asian Domestic Workers Union (FADWU), the marketing research firm (PORI), and the communications consultancy Rights Exposure.