Survey reveals that businesses are not encouraging a culture of innovation and idea generation within their workforce

The Voucher Shop, a specialist provider of employee reward and benefits, has released findings from a new UK survey which shows that 8 out of 10 employees (80 percent) are not rewarded for good ideas.

The survey which was conducted across 52 different organisations indicates that 42 percent of staff did not know who to contact within their organisation if they had an idea or suggestion on how to improve the business.

Kuljit Kaur, Head of Business Development at The Voucher Shop, explains, “Employers must facilitate idea generation by formalising a system for submitting ideas. This doesn’t need to be a complex or bureaucratic process. Employers should also demonstrate that they are acting on staff ideas and proactively reward individuals who make improvements as a result. The lack of communications within an organisation also begs the question, how many great ideas are being lost in every day?”

According to The Voucher Shop there are a few simple steps that organisations can take to encourage a culture of idea generation and these include:

Set up a formal process for submitting and evaluating ideas so that every person within your organisation knows about it and how it works.
Use technology to collect information – make it easy for staff to register their suggestions either through an online recognition portal, company intranet or email.
No idea is a bad idea. Allow staff to submit as many ideas as they wish. Co-workers can always build on the detail if they are not fully formed.
Acknowledge staff when they have submitted ideas and keep them up to date – report back if a specific idea is being implemented and if not, why not.
Reward individuals. Acknowledge staff through public presentations, halls of fame or other communications tools (whatever is most likely to be utilised by your target audience). Rewards do not need to be high in value, a gift card, points towards merchandise or experience days are all memorable and cost effective rewards, but steer clear of cash as that will be sucked up with day to day expenses.