Improving Sign-up Rates for Temasek Polytechnics iFIT Fitness Programme

Year Submitted: 2025
Published Date: 03 November 2025

Tags: Health Promotion, Care Continuum, Preventive Care, Organisational Leadership, Change Management, Behavioural Change

About this Content

Aims

The aim of the project was to improve TPs IPPT passing rates. However, rather than target the IPPT attendance and passing rates in and of themselves, it was deemed more appropriate to influence students health behaviours in a more holistic manner. Hence, the decision was made to target sign-up rates for iFIT. It was hoped that attending iFIT would not only help students pass their IPPT, but encourage a more healthy lifestyle as well.

Background

The iFIT programme comprised eight one-hour sessions over four weeks of training (two sessions per week). SDAAs statistics showed that slightly over 50% of students
who attended iFIT would subsequently pass their IPPT. This passing rate was higher than TPs IPPT passing rate, signalling the effectiveness of the iFIT programme. This
was especially so, given that many students who attended iFIT were those who had failed their IPPT in the first place. In 2017, ENG used mass email to encourage students to sign up for iFIT. The resulting sign-ups were sufficient for SDAA to start one iFIT class, and it was felt that this sign-up rate could be increased further using BI
nudges. Through interviews with SDAA staff as well as students taking their IPPT, it became apparent that students faced many distractions in their everyday lives, which
they prioritised over and above fitness and passing IPPT. These included their classes, CCA, homework, social activities and part-time work. The key challenge was
therefore to ge

Methods

Through naturalistic observation of students taking their IPPT, it was determined that the best time to influence them to sign up for iFIT would be the point when they had
just taken and failed their IPPT. This would be the time when their minds would be most focused on the issue of their physical fitness, and how to pass IPPT. Hence, a promotional pitch for iFIT was timed for this juncture. The promotional pitch was accompanied by a poster (Figure 1), which incorporated elements of a social norm (majority who join iFIT pass IPPT), incentive (a signup reward and CCA points), and a social nudge (sign up with a friend to get more than one signup reward). The decision
was made to offer the reward at the point of signup, so that a reciprocity effect could be triggered when students received a reminder SMS before their first iFIT session,
compelling them to attend the session that they had signed up for. In terms of the signup process, friction costs were reduced by having students receive an email, which the

Results

The 2018 iFIT signup rate showed a 61% increase over the 2017 signup rate.

Lessons Learnt

Close partnership with stakeholders is instrumental to the success of BI projects. In this case, close collaboration with SDAA enabled the smooth execution of this project. SDAA colleagues were instrumental in delivering the promotional pitch for iFIT, printing the posters, and administering the sign-up process. Additionally, it was important to protect the ego of students who failed IPPT. The deliberate decision was made for students to receive their IPPT results anonymously in email format via BCC, rather than be verbally informed in the presence of other students. The sign-up process (over the students own mobile device) was also devised such that it could be done in a private and discreet manner, if the student did not want others to know that he had failed.

Keywords

IPPT, Behavioural Insights, BI project, fitness programme

Innovators' Details

Connect with this contributor!

Tan Wah Pheow - TAN_Wah_Pheow@tp.edu.sg

Gabrielle Lai - Gabrielle_LAI@tp.edu.sg

Project Attachment

168_TP_TPCABS_Improving_Sign-up_Rates_for_Temasek_Polytechnic_iFIT_Fitness_Programme.pdf