How Can We Encourage Employee-Driven Innovations in HR Practices? Seeking PCMM Insights

Team,

It's seen very often in the corporate world that great innovations have always come from the employees and not just from the boardrooms. How do we make our employees come up with innovative suggestions that will improve our people practices? Can anyone who has implemented PCMM tell me how you have implemented CWI (Continuous Workforce Innovation) in your organization?

Thanks,
Sree

I don't know that there is a way to "make" employees come up with innovative suggestions. Although I can't claim to be an expert in the area, it seems to me that the culture and climate of an organization is the key to a whole lot of innovative "goodies" and productivity.

For the most part, people are able to identify issues and gaps and to problem-solve creatively. However, unless the culture of a workplace actively welcomes questioning, trial and error (including the error part of the equation) and constructive criticism, people will keep their insights to themselves.

All too often, I see management (speaking as one with extensive management experience) squashing ideas because they are too costly or effort-intensive. No matter how "nicely" this is done, it doesn't take long for employees to wonder if it's even worth bothering to share ideas.

Often, creative input is incremental - one small idea for improvement at a time. Given some encouragement and support, innovation can be quite contagious. I love to see work environments where a bit of risk-taking is valued, and failures are seen as signposts to better ways of doing things.

Progress Enterprise