Boston – September 12, 2026
For years, HR teams have operated under a simple assumption: make benefits enrollment as easy as possible. Remove the barriers. Reduce the clicks. Let people sign up in one or two taps.
New research from Harvard Business School challenges that approach—for a specific class of benefits. When the goal is not just enrollment but sustained use, adding a small amount of friction at sign-up can actually increase participation.
The Buy-In Effect
The study, forthcoming in the journal Management Science, was led by Harvard Business School professor Ashley Whillans alongside Holly Dykstra of the University of Konstanz and Shibeal O'Flaherty of the U.S. Office of Evaluation Sciences. The researchers tracked more than 27,000 workers signing up for a state-run carpool platform. Half received one-click registration. The other half had to re-enter their commute details, a deliberate extra step.
The harder sign-up reduced overall registrations by 25%. But among those who did enroll, the high-effort group logged 1.6 times more carpool trips per week and completed roughly 50% more total work overall.
"The target behavior feels more valuable when we've invested time in it."
The researchers call this the buy-in effect: a modest, goal-relevant amount of effort at the start builds a sense of ownership that a frictionless click does not.
When Friction Helps—and When It Doesn't
The findings don't suggest that all benefits enrollment should become harder. Rather, they point to a design choice that depends on what employers want to measure.
For one-time elections—plan selection, retirement contribution defaults, life insurance beneficiary forms—simplification remains the right strategy. These actions require no follow-through.
For benefits that deliver value only through repeated use, the math changes:
- Employee assistance programs
- Mental health apps
- Chronic disease management tools
- Financial coaching subscriptions
- Fitness or wellness platforms
In each case, enrollment is only the first step. The benefit delivers value when employees book sessions, open the app, or attend gym classes regularly.
Study Design and Key Data
The researchers ran two separate experiments to confirm the findings.
Experiment 1: Carpool Program (27,227 workers)
| Group | Sign-up Process | Weekly Trips | Total Trips (4 months) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low-effort | One-click | baseline | 32,000 |
| High-effort | Re-enter commute details | 1.6x baseline | 32,800 |
Experiment 2: Transcription Task
| Group | Sign-up Process | Return Rate (Day 2) | Total Work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low-effort | One-click | baseline | 5,598 letters |
| High-effort | 15-question survey | +37% | 8,438 letters |
The second study asked participants to complete a deliberately unpleasant task—deciphering blurry Greek letters—before choosing whether to return for a second session. Those in the high-effort group were 37% more likely to come back and completed half again as much work.
Practical Applications for HR Teams
For benefit administrators preparing for open enrollment, the research suggests a segmented approach:
Add modest friction when:
- The target behavior requires ongoing follow-through
- The initial effort connects meaningfully to the benefit goal
- Access is not the primary barrier
Examples from the research include asking employees to answer a few questions about their goals before matching with a service, or requiring attendance at a brief coaching call before therapy sessions rather than a single scheduling click.
Remove friction when:
- Enrollment is a one-time action
- Access itself remains the main challenge
- The benefit is already under-enrolled due to awareness gaps
The authors emphasize that friction should never feel arbitrary. The extra step should help people reflect on their goals, preferences, or commitment level in a way that builds psychological ownership.
Industry Context
The findings arrive at an awkward moment for benefits brokers. A March 2026 survey of 170 brokers by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Lincoln Financial found that administrative complexity and gaps in employee education—not disinterest or cost—are the main obstacles standing between voluntary benefits and actual usage.
The natural response to that finding is to simplify everything. But the new research suggests the fix may depend on the benefit type. Simplification helps get people in the door. It may do little for benefits that depend on employees showing up again and again, and in some cases could work against that goal.
Limitations and Considerations
The researchers caution that the buy-in effect only applies under specific conditions:
- The target behavior requires follow-through
- Initial effort and target behavior are voluntary
- Friction is modest and relevant to the goal
If employees aren't using a benefit because they don't know it exists or can't find the enrollment link, adding friction will only shrink the pool further with nothing gained.
Bottom Line
For HR leaders measuring benefit success by signup rate alone, the research points to a different metric: sustained utilization. Whether that means making sign-up harder or easier depends entirely on what comes next.
Source: Management Science (forthcoming), September 2026. Harvard Business Review, August 26, 2026. Employee Benefit Research Institute and Lincoln Financial survey, March 2026.
FIRAT Editorial Board
Institutional Research Desk · Foresight Institute of Research and Translation
The collective editorial and research translation board of FIRAT, synthesising peer-reviewed evidence, policy briefs, and division milestones across our seven foundational research pillars.
