Employee Innovation Survey- Results

24 March 2019 by IdeaSpies

GoodNews

Introduction

The purpose of the Survey was to determine if employees have a voice in helping their organisations succeed. Employee involvement in innovation was specifically researched. Innovation was defined simply as “implementation of ideas that add value”.

Recommendations

Based on these results it is recommended that leaders of organisations:

Acknowledge that innovation is necessary to grow businesses and employees at all levels are a key source of innovation
Recognise that innovation includes ideas that staff have to improve the way they work and how the business operates
Check whether resignations and/or low employee engagement is related to difficulties employees have in contributing ideas at work
Offer employees a way to contribute ideas that provides "psychological safety"
Consider using a simple idea capture tool that all levels of staff can use
Recognise employees who contribute useful ideas
Allocate resources to capture employee ideas and implement selected ideas
Assess outcomes in terms of both business improvements and employee engagement

Detailed results

Many employees doubt whether their leaders want new ideas as much as they say they do

Although 84% of leaders in organisations covered in this survey are talking about the need for innovation, only 69% of employees believe the culture of their organisation actually welcomes new ideas.

This result indicates there is a significant gap in organisations ‘walking the talk’ on innovation.

Employees don't contribute ideas when their boss is not interested

Frustration was expressed when organisations said they wanted innovation but were not resourcing it. The main reason employees don’t contribute ideas is when they believe their boss is not interested.

The best source of innovation is employees

A key finding is that over 90% of employees believe they are the best source of innovation, with 57% strongly agreeing and 34% agreeing.

Employees could contribute many more ideas than they do now

Leaders often don’t recognise that their employees are the best source of innovation and could contribute many more ideas than they do now.

76% said they could contribute more useful ideas than they do now, especially those who are 26-35 years old (89%). Younger people and those in lower level positions find it most difficult to get their ideas up the line and these are the people who are often facing the customer and aware of new trends.

A software tool/digital platform that's easy to use would make it easier for employees to contribute ideas

When asked what would make it easier for them to contribute ideas the top response was 45% wanting a software tool/digital platform that’s easy to use, with lower management particularly in favour at 59% as well as organisations with 5,000 plus employees at 64%.

Only 26% of employees said that their organisations offer a software tool/digital platform to contribute ideas, including 41% of organisations with 5,000 plus employees. When an innovation tool is provided, 75% of employees use it.

Young employees (18-35) would contribute many more ideas with incentives

When asked about incentives being offered for ideas 87% of 18-35 year-olds said they would contribute more ideas if an incentive was offered. Recognition can be a significant incentive.

Employees would be more likely to stay if they could contribute more ideas

Another key finding is that over 90% of employees would be more likely to stay with their organisations if they could contribute more ideas. Losing employees who want to contribute more would be a significant cost to these organisations.

It seems that there is a mismatch in goals between givers and receivers of ideas

Comments showed that employees want more power to implement ideas they suggest. They also want management to be more supportive in testing ideas. Many were annoyed when time was spent developing an idea and either they weren’t empowered to test it, or they received no feedback on why it wouldn’t be accepted. Feedback was shown to be important in building employee engagement.

Givers expect ideas to be implemented while receivers may just be seeking information.

This mismatch can lead employees to overestimate the likelihood that their advice will be taken. As a result they can become disillusioned and less likely to offer advice in future.

Therefore it’s very important that leaders allocate resources to both capturing employee ideas and implementing selected ideas.

Comments on the survey results

David Thodey AO, Chair of CSIRO and Jobs for NSW

“I have a strong view that the best source of innovation is your employees. They know the business and how to improve it better than consultants. The issue has always been how do you provide an open forum for those ideas? I really like the IdeaSpies Enterprise solution.”

Tony Nimac, Partner in charge of KPMG Enterprise NSW

“We trialled IdeaSpies Enterprise last year and have continued to use it. It was very well received by staff. It’s thought provoking, fun and easy to use, with no training needed. People see the tool as an opportunity to suggest ideas that could improve the way they work. In addition to specific ideas, we’ve seen themes coming from the ideas that have led to improvements. We give selected staff the opportunity to implement ideas they suggest and have benefited from improving staff engagement.”

Respondent comments

Great to get this out there. We need to encourage staff in enterprises to bring all their ideas to work.

My organisation’s leader is fixated on innovation however doesn’t have the resources to fund it. It’s extremely frustrating as the health of the business is crumbling.

It’s one thing to contribute ideas to an organisation but it is even more important to know that you have been heard. Many times the act of being asked to contribute is hollow. Management give the illusion of wanting contributions/ideas but then lack the skills to either give feedback or implement or recognise good ideas.

Motto of our Social Enterprise “One individual can make a difference, but it takes a team effort to make it happen”.

Organisations are too wrapped and comfortable in the way they do things. I often hear ‘don’t go re-inventing the wheel’ or ‘that’s the way we have always done things’. What innovation can people expect when organisations are afraid of change no matter how prepared they think they are.

Innovation in Government is such a challenge when there are cut backs like in WA. Any suggestions are piecemeal. Culturally Australia is a long way behind places such as Scandinavia and the UK.

Innovation is a continuous process and should be part of the organisation culture.

It’s hard to pilot innovations in a nonprofit due to resource constraints. There is often just not enough time on top of your day job to get these new ideas across the line.

In Asia the companies are mainly managed in a restricted and dictatorship way rather than as a place to encourage new ideas.

Teams that are diverse and inclusive will drive and support innovation.

How can you dig in more to understand how companies use data to support idea generation or execution, especially if they don’t use a specific innovation tool?

I would argue that being heard and when appropriate, having ideas implemented is a much bigger incentive than any extrinsic inducement.

Biggest barrier to innovation is not carving out time for i. Second barrier for new ideas – people keep thinking it has to be a big idea. Incremental changes can have a big impact

The issue is not about gathering ideas, the problem is the boys club and factions that have vested interest in their own ideas or existing empires.

Dictatorial senior management not interested in innovation or including others’ ideas.

Innovation is difficult if not impossible when the mindset is cost cutting – it takes leadership and investment to make it work in this environment.

My experience is that in most organisations if you generate a good idea, you have to be prepared to get involved in doing the work to implement it. Too often ideas are thrown around, but the idea doesn’t get implemented because no-one will take the next step to actually work on it. I have never had a good idea knocked back but I always take part in the implementation and I think that’s a key difference.

Our biggest barrier to innovation is time.

Innovation is everyone’s business, at every level of the organisation. It must be able to be implemented and it must improve outcomes to be true innovation. Otherwise, it’s just an interesting (or not so interesting) idea.

I responded yes to offering more ideas if incentives were provided however what I think would be a great incentive is a place where ideas are accepted and encouraged rather than barred and dismissed. An encouraging and receptive manager would be a great incentive.

Incentives are the way to get ideas out of employees.

I think innovation is a topic that is often given lip service by senior management, however due to lack of incentives/organisational structure, it is often overlooked by the average worker as they seek to complete daily tasks. I do have the ability to affect changes in my smaller team and drive process improvement etc however not on a broader organisation level.

This survey is an excellent way of raising awareness of the importance of innovation.

February 2019

Distribution

Over 1,000 employees have responded.

Contact

Lynn Wood
Founder and Chief Idea Spy

IdeaSpies Enterprise

lynn.wood@IdeaSpies.com

What do you think?

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Comments

Jaqui @ 2019.02.16 7:14 AM
Interesting article. Reminds me of the importance of companies promoting and supporting their employees and executives to have an open and flexible mindset..so they can 'see' new ideas and their potential and then act on them

scott-simmerman @ 2019.02.17 7:14 AM
This is really interesting food for thought, and it shows how many different things people in an organization might do to better involve and actively engage their people for workplace improvement. Some of these represent things that companies should do more of. Some of these represent things that need to be removed or stopped. Some of these anchor to issues of perceptions and organisational culture. ALL of these CAN be addressed, generally in pretty straightforward and simple ways. As my friend Frank Navran said, "Trust is the residue of promises fulfilled." We need to start making some promises to our people and act in congruence with what is important.

IdeaSpies @ 2019.02.19 7:14 AM
Great point Jaqui- you need to be able to "see" ideas for them to become real. Lynn

lynnwood @ 2019.02.19 7:14 AM
Thanks for your reflections Scott. Trust is increasingly important in the digital age when we are being bombarded with information. I have very much appreciated your support from the beginning of this research project when you helped design the survey. Lynn

scott-simmerman @ 2019.02.20 7:14 AM
Lynn - This is really USEFUL data when it comes to showing managers the reality of the workplace. Changes CAN be straightforward and what I like about the questions is that they are actionable and straightforward. My view is that the managers are the driving forces in an organisation and that ALL of the work is actually done by the workers, that the managers SHOULD be there to support quality and productivity and, yes, even innovation. From the bottoms up. I frame this as Disruptive because it is not driven from the tops-down. Perspectives at the front and the back of the wagon are quite different. John LeCarre said in a novel, "A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world." -- And I think that this data somewhat proves that assertion. People WANT to contribute more. Why don't we let them? Too disruptive? Or, too motivating??

IdeaSpies @ 2019.02.22 7:14 AM
I totally agree Scott. And another interesting point is that it's younger people who particularly want to contribute more, and they are often at lower levels so they are not heard. An idea capture tool, like IdeaSpies Enterprise, that invites ideas from all levels of an organisation solves this problem. Lynn