Incentive - March 2008 - (Page 30)

To get employees thinking creatively, try building a better suggestion box ood ideas are big business. The success of high-performing, headline-grabbing companies like Apple and Google has found many executives wishing for an entrepreneurial corporate culture of their own. In an annual survey released in October, The Conference Board lists “stimulating innovation” as one of the top 10 challenges facing management today, identified by 19 percent of CEOs globally as being of the “greatest concern.” But creating an innovative workforce takes more than putting a pool table in the break room or designing an open workspace, and this is where many businesses are falling short. “If you talk to companies, innovation is still not actively part of their business agenda,” says Jennifer Rosenzweig, senior director of enterprise engagement at Carlson Marketing Group in Minneapolis. “They say they value it, but they don’t do a lot about it.” Companies that want to be truly innovative need to change at the core, and to do so, many are looking into using traditional reward and recognition systems to encourage and direct G employee-generated improvements. Jeffrey Phillips, vice president of sales and marketing for Raleigh, N.C., consulting firm OVO Innovation, writes about idea generation programs for the blog Innovate on Purpose. He says that developing creativity within a company requires buy-in from senior executives and managers, who should model the kind of behavior they want workers to display. Training employees in creative methods and processes is another key component, especially in companies where the management approach has been more rigid. Companies also have to have a tolerance for failure: “If you’re innovative, you’re going to fail a lot,” says Phillips. Employees should be recognized for trying out an idea, even if it falls short of expectations, and encouraged to keep thinking. Results of innovation programs often can seem subjective, but there are ways to quantify a program’s effectiveness, whether by tallying the total number of suggestions received or by calculating the value of ideas submitted. Companies can run internal promotions that focus employees’ creative skills on particular By A.E. Smith What’s the Big Idea? 30 | Incentive | March 2008 | incentivemag.com http://incentivemag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Incentive - March 2008

Incentive - March 2008 Contents Editor’s Note: Delivering on Diversity In The News Cover Story: Leveraging Diversity in the Workplace Incentive Interview: Paul Levesque on Why Awards Fail Case Study: AEIS’ Max!-imum Incentive Program Mine Employees’ Creativity with Innovation Incentives Incentive Must-Reads The Third Annual Gift Card Roundtable My Turn: Motivation or Bribery? Everybody Get Together In Her Shoes: Why Bosses Should Be Flexible Incentive Primer: Passport Problem-Solving potentials Here and Now Is CES Electronics Heaven? China and Crystal: More Than a Pretty Face Travel News Florida: What’s New on the Beach? Smooth Sailing for Incentive Cruising Come To Hawaii And Take It Fast Last Word: But Enough About You

Incentive - March 2008

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