As a company that seeks growth, you would need to learn how to encourage innovation in the workplace.
This is because innovation in the workplace would help grow your brand, make your staff feel among, and also bring in more profits for your brand.
In this article, you will learn how to encourage innovation in the workplace, and why you need to encourage innovation in the workplace, amongst other interesting details.
What is Innovation
According to Wikipedia, 2020, innovation comes from the word “innovare”, which translates to the word “renew.”
Hence, innovation can simply be defined as the act of implementing new ideas that will bring about the introduction of new goods or services, or an improved form of the goods or service.
In summary, anything that is called innovation has to either be new or create value for people
Why You Need to Encourage Innovation in the Workplace
The reason why you need to encourage innovation in the workplace is that it leads to increased competition, improved retention of staff, more efficient uses of resources, etc.
To make it clearer:
1. Increased competitiveness:
When you learn how to encourage innovation in the workplace and your workers imbibe it, there would be increased competition among your staff and hence better production at the workplace.
2. Improved staff retention:
Every human being loves a place where they are allowed to grow, and their efforts are appreciated by the management.
This would in turn increase staff retention, and increased staff retention leads to a continuous workflow. And this is why you need to learn how to encourage innovation in the workplace.
3. Proactive approach to business:
A proactive approach to business is key to the development of any industry. When you learn how to encourage innovation in the workplace, your staff would be able to discover new business trends.
Furthermore, when your staffs discover this new business trend, they can easily incorporate the model into your brand and thereby grow your brand.
4. More customers:
It is a given that when one customer is angry, there are thousands that are angry too. But when one customer is happy, millions will be happy too.
So when you learn how to encourage innovation in the workplace, you will be able to motivate your staff, and they would be more accommodating to clients.
And when clients sense this feeling of an accommodating environment, they would spread the word, leading to a good PR for your brand.
How to Encourage Innovation in the Workplace
To encourage innovation in the workplace, you will need to
1. Instill the mindset of innovativeness in your employees
The first step on how to encourage innovation in the workplace is to instill the mindset of innovation in your workers.
And to do this, you need to show that you are an honest and open person, you should also share ideas with them, and allow them to contribute.
2. Hire individuals with creative ideas
The second step in how to encourage innovation in the workplace is that you should hire people with a radical mindset, but still target a particular goal.
For example, if you need to employ the services of a content writer, you can employ one with SEO content writing experience, a content writer with experience in copywriting, etc.
By doing so, they would all bring their innovative ideas to the field, and by so doing, you would have a broad field of content writers.
3. Allow employees to freely reach out with their innovations by giving them the time and space:
A working environment that limits people with time and space can hamper their creativity. So if you really want to learn how to encourage innovation in the workplace, then you need to take this seriously.
For example, when an employee reaches out with an innovation that they think makes sense, even if you don’t understand it, try not to discourage them.
If possible, you can tell them to work on it better, so that you and other employees can get a clearer picture of it, and this is also how to encourage innovation in the workplace.
4. Promote collaboration in the workplace:
When you employ various individuals in a place, they tend to think that they need to shine individually.
But for you to perfect how to encourage innovation in the workplace, then you should learn to make them see that they can only make better progress as a team, and not individually.
Though some workers may be introverted and may not know how to share, you can encourage them too to find a means to share.
5. Create a feedback process:
In the above headings, you have seen that if you seek how to encourage innovation in the workplace, you need to allow your employees easily reach out to you.
And when they reach out to you with an idea, you should do well to acknowledge the reception of the idea, and also send them a message, stating what you think about the idea.
6. Implement their ideas as soon as you can:
It is not enough that you learn how to encourage innovation in the workplace without implementing the ideas of your employees.
In cases where the idea is not implementable, then you should state it clearly so that your employee does not feel their idea is been neglected.
7. Create a reward system for employee ideas:
The next step to learn concerning how to encourage innovation in the workplace is for you to create a reward system for every innovative idea brought to life.
This would help them feel the sense to create more innovative ideas, and then this becomes a win-win for all.
8. Train them:
“Whom you want to see in a better field, you train”. Hence, this article on how to encourage innovation in the workplace cannot be complete without letting you know that training is very important.
Furthermore, the training should be in line with the core goal that you wish to achieve, and also do a follow-up to ascertain how they are coping with the learning. And if possible, there should be a reward for whoever completes their training with distinction.
9. Staff well-being:
This is a very vital and sensitive issue that you should never neglect when seeking how to encourage innovation in the workplace.
Most companies have lost some of their good staff over the years due to this, and it can also hamper optimal performance at the workplace.
10. Engage in some outside fun:
The last step in encouraging innovation in the workplace is that you should always engage in fun activities with your employees. And this fun activity can either be inside or outside the office.
Skills That Are Needed For an Innovative Workplace
Asides from learning how to encourage innovation in the workplace, you need to know that your employees will need the following skills to sharpen their innovative minds:
1. Creativity
2. Problem-solving
3. Critical thinking
4. Risk-taking
5. Curiosity
1. Creativity:
This is a very important criterion that breeds innovation. And it would help to make your employees tap into their creative sides at intervals.
If you really seek how to encourage innovation in the workplace, you should engage your employees in games such as word riddles, Rubik’s cube, etc.
2. Problem-solving:
What brings about innovation is the need to solve an existing problem, or prevent a problem that could arise in the future.
As you have seen how to encourage innovation in the workplace, you should also spur your employees to seek out problems, generate solutions, and share them with you for review and application to the business.
3. Critical thinking:
This skill is very critical to innovation. Just as you have seen in how to encourage innovation in the workplace (employing individuals with a different perspective), you should seek these ones and encourage them to share with others what they think.
Nevertheless, critical thinking is very vital for all to have, and you can encourage those who seem weak on it to engage in critical thinking.
4. Risk-taking:
This is a very important skill that you as an employer should have. And this is because as you encourage innovation in the working place, employees can come up with good but risky ideas.
And for one who seeks how to encourage innovation in the workplace, you should be ready to take risks.
5. Curiosity:
If you seek employers that are curious, you can easily find out when they apply for a position in your company.
Well, you do seek how to encourage innovation in the workplace, you need to be mentally prepared for it too.
Some Examples of Innovation in the Workplace?
It is not enough to know how to encourage innovation in the workplace, without a dogmatic example. And they include:
- Constructing a new digital platform that optimizes the online operations or processes of your business.
- Creating a product that prioritizes sustainability in all of your company’s operations.
- Establishing connections with younger generations to learn new things and increase your audience.
- Utilizing social media and technology to reposition the business as a desirable, cutting-edge choice.
- Streamlining existing procedures to execute jobs faster and more reliably.
- Customers should be involved in the creation of new goods and services to meet their demands.
- Combining two or more already-existing components to produce better possibilities for the business.
Types of Innovation Strategies
Now that you know how to encourage innovation in the workplace, you should also see the types of innovation strategies that you can employ, based on what suits your brand. And they are:
1. Proactive
2. Active
3. Reactive
4. Passive
Proactive
Companies with proactive innovation strategies typically have a strong focus on research, first mover advantage, and are market leaders in technology.
As a proactive innovator, you will engage in high-risk activities and learn from a range of sources.
Furthermore, in a proactive innovation approach, the following sorts of technical innovation are employed:
Radical:
You would create innovations that alter the characteristics of the goods and services your company produces.
Incremental:
This is an ongoing process of technological innovations that improve the performance of the goods and services of your company.
A good example of such a company is CHURCHGATE. At Churchgate, we study trends and inculcate them into our goods and services.
Our proactiveness is what has kept us in business for decades, and we don’t intend to drop the pace too.
Active
The defense of current markets and technologies is a key component of active innovation plans, as is being ready to act rapidly once markets and technologies are validated.
Businesses that adopt this strategy tend to hedge their bets and have access to a wide range of expertise and medium-to-low risk exposure are usually termed active. For example Microsoft.
These businesses mostly use applicable applied research and development conducted internally
Reactive
This strategy is usually used by companies that use other companies as a standard, concentrate on operations, watch what happens and look for low-risk possibilities.
Furthermore, most reactive companies employ only incremental innovators and imitate tried-and-true innovations.
Passive
Companies with passive innovation strategies hold off on making changes to their goods or services until their customers want it.
Examples include automobile supply businesses, which delay applying modifications to specifications until their clients want them.
After going through the strategies, which do you think your company fits in? And how do you intend to make a change?
Conclusion
In this article, you have seen how to encourage innovation in the workplace, and not just how to encourage innovation in the workplace, but other key things that would help your brand.
Knowing all these, you can also decide to work with a brand such as CHURCHGATE, so as to get a first-hand experience of a proactive business.
FAQs About How to Encourage Innovation in the Workplace
How do I encourage innovation in the workplace without looking strict?
In the above article on how to encourage innovation in the workplace, you would see that if you allow games, and take welfare important, then you wouldn’t look strict.
What are the 5 C’s of innovation?
The 5 C’s of innovation are competition, collaboration, culture, catalysts, and constraints.
