Communication and behaviour change
Communication tips
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Alternatives to driving can save money, time, and improve physical and mental health.
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Your efforts won’t work if no one knows about them! Make sure both new and current employees know what’s available.
For greatest impact and follow-up, initiatives should be advertised on the public organisational website in one clear travel page, on any internal intranet, physically around the building and as sheets in new starter packs.
For example, Milton Park has an excellent ‘getting here’ page.
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Employees can always mix and match different transport modes during a journey. For example, cycling from the Park & Ride, walking to the bus stop or lift sharing on the days they don’t have to do the school run. That way, they can have a commute that maximises the things they value.
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A travel survey can help you identify any concerns your employees may have; and then you can tailor your messaging to inform, encourage and reassure.
Language around commuting should focus on the benefits to individuals, not a broad concept such as ‘the environment’ or ‘sustainability’. It is ideal to lead with messages such as:
Convenience – e.g., being able to do other thing while on the bus, not having to find parking
Reliability – e.g., you can be sure how long a journey will take with cycling
Financial savings – e.g., with liftshare or cycling
Health and fitness – e.g., walking or cycling part of the way, or to a liftshare
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Wherever possible, use people-first language, like “people who cycle” instead of “cyclists” to avoid conjuring stereotypes about how a “cyclist” might be. Use “cycling” instead of “biking” to include non-bike cycles such as tricycles, tandems, recumbents, handcycles, and wheelchair tandems. Use diverse imagery so that different kinds of people can envision themselves using transport alternatives.
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Communicate frequently and regularly, especially while changes are new. Use different formats - emails, posters, intranet posts, announcements in staff meetings - to ensure you’re reaching all your employees.
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How people change
Change happens when people feel capable, motivated and that there’s an opportunity. So, to get things moving, think of how you can intervene at these levels.
Capability
Feeling mentally and physically able to do something.
Interventions here focus on building an employee’s ability to do something through education and training, as well as addressing any psychological or emotional hurdles.
In the case of cycling:
Physical: Is the employee physically able to ride a bike? Do they know how?
Possible interventions: Cycle training or accompanied rides
Mental: Is the employee afraid to ride a bike? Do they think people ‘like them’ don’t cycle?
Possible interventions: Have a marketing push about cycling being for everyone, advertise safe cycling routes to work, create a bike user group, host group rides, lead from the top
Motivation
People’s reflective and automatic drives to change their habits.
Interventions here include things that make the undesired habit more difficult to engage in, and incentives that make the desired habit easier to engage in, and so tipping the scales from wanting to change to changing.
In the case of cycling:
Reflective: Does the employee have reasons they want to make a change? Do they have a plan to do so?
Possible interventions: Introduce parking restrictions, run a marketing campaign about benefits of cycling, offer a pool bike employees can borrow, host group rides or other events, create a bike user group
Automatic: Do they want it enough to actually make the change?
Possible interventions: Present the swap to cycling as something that doesn’t have to happen on every journey or the whole of a journey
Opportunity
Outside factors that constrain or enable someone’s behaviour.
Interventions here involve removing barriers and providing the structure that enables behaviour change. It is also important to communicate these changes to employees, lead by example, and incentivise people to try them.
In the case of cycling:
Physical: Does the employee have access to a cycle that is affordable, suitable to their needs and in good repair?
Possible interventions: Offer discounts and loans to purchase or rent a cycle and gear, host bike repair days at the workplace, provide secure bike storage on site
Social: Is the work culture supportive of cycling? Does the employee know other people who cycle in their workplace?
Possible interventions: Create a bike user group, host group rides or other events, lead from the top, give incentives for trying out biking to work such as challenges and prizes
The COM-B behaviour change framework was developed by Susan Michie, Maartje van Stralen, and Robert West.
Updated February 2025