Featured Project
Does receiving rental assistance improve housing stability among vulnerable populations?
In collaboration with HOST, we co-designed a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of Denver County’s rental assistance program.
Featured Project
What can we learn from public servants about the state of local government work?
The People Lab is conducting an annual survey of city employees across the US to better understand their experiences, perceptions, and beliefs.
Featured Project
How can we leverage LLM chatbots to support policymakers’ in understanding and using evidence?
The People Lab is working with a team of researchers and developers to create an AI-driven “PolicyBot” designed to support policymakers’ in understanding, translating, and using evidence.
Featured Project
How do public service fellowship programs impact fellows’ career trajectories?
Findings from quasi-experimental research suggest that participation in public sector fellowship programs significantly increases future employment in government, with effects persisting up to eight years.
All Projects
How can we support wellbeing and prevent burnout in public safety professionals?
The People Lab is working with Public Safety departments in the the City of Durham, NC to co-design and evaluate an employee wellness intervention aimed at reducing burnout and turnover.
Can sharing positive feedback for public workers improve residents’ views of the public sector and public servants’ wellbeing?
The People Lab is designing a series of studies to better understand whether soliciting and sharing positive feedback with public servants affects wellbeing, as well as residents’ perceptions.
How do firefighter perceptions of their role and of the community they serve evolve during their first year on the job?
We piloted sending pulse surveys to new classes of firefighter recruits over their first year on the job to track changes in their perceptions about their job and about the residents they are called to serve.
How do we reduce burnout for 911 dispatchers?
A low-cost program aimed at increasing dispatchers’ perceptions of social support and belonging at work reduced burnout and turnover.
How can we reduce burnout among correctional officers?
A pilot program aimed at increasing feelings of peer support improved officers’ wellbeing and changed attitudes toward incarcerated people.
Does simplifying application processes improve recruitment efforts in the public sector?
We analyze factors impacting candidate persistence in a large police department’s recruitment and selection process and show that light-touch nudges can cut lengthy hiring times.
Publications
Search our database of peer-reviewed papers, policy briefs, and reports.