Automaticity & Employability

Surveys regular indicate that a majority of employers say they are more concerned with employability and behavorial skills than technical skills. It is said that personality and behavior stems from a combination of genes and environment. Unfortunately, too many youth grow up in environments that teach behaviors that ultimately incompatible with the classroom and the workplace. 

Automaticity refers to the ability to react without conscious thought as a result of learning and repetition. Helping young men and women to learn to slow down their thinking to situationally preempt automatic behaviors could help improve their educational outcomes and employability. In fact, three evaluations in Chicago showed exactly that: simple low-cost interventions were able to substantially improve school outcomes and reduce arrests among young men.

With financial support from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation and Overdeck Family Foundation and support from the National Job Corps Association, we’re working with Princeton University and Harvard University to explore whether these results can be replicated at a larger scale and to also test whether cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can be used to improve employability skills and job retention.

Further reading:

• A Remarkably Simple, Low-Cost Way to Reduce Juvenile Crime: Thinking Slow - CityLab

• Preventing Crime for Pennies on the Dollar - Freakonomics Podcast