Are you finding it difficult to feel supported by your employer when you come up with new ideas and they appear not to listen? Does this drive you crazy even when the idea may be an incredible one? Guess what? You’re not alone.
Employees Need A Voice And A Platform
Recently I read a great article regarding employee innovation. It shared some thoughts about why employees need to have a voice and platform to get their ideas out and heard. As Gijs V. references in his article, called Free Employees to Experiment with Big Ideas, many employees have incredible ideas but they do not feel supported by the company. Business leaders, pay close attention to this. You may not see evidence of this yet because you haven’t had time to notice it. Most likely the employee stress is already there. Don’t forget, your employees are your greatest assets. The employees that are the greatest culture fit and also have a passion for the business could be the ones with the biggest and brightest ideas.
Most employees have lots of ideas and would be thrilled to see them used. They take pride in contributing to the organization’s success. So the most effective form of idea recognition is to implement the ideas rapidly and to give credit to the employees involved. – Harvard Business Review
Who’s Innovating At The Employee Level?
There are companies that are not shy about letting others know they are innovating at the employee level. In fact, here are just a few that have internal accelerator programs or employee incentivized innovation programs, all aimed at generating new ideas. (3M, Apple, Amazon, Google, IBM, LinkedIn, Nike and Proctor and Gamble to name a few). What do you think? Are these companies innovators?
A Listening Ear
If businesses want highly productive employees and also want them to be happy, a listening ear must be aligned to an employee channel. I think we may be surprised that many companies don’t understand their employees need to be heard to feel valued, or the company may soon lose them. It’s sad there are so many companies that are not using their internal resources wisely — those are the ones that will probably never see innovation.
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Scott MacFarland
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Sources:
Free Employees to Experiment with Big Ideas
HBR
http://blogs.hbr.org/2008/02/getting-the-best-employee-idea/