Employee Googlement..
It's all nice and dandy to promote employee innovations in your company, but without engaged personnel you won't get very far. High employee engagement, along with easy employee recruitment and retention,
are some of the perks of being an innovative firm. Furthermore, motivated, engaged and active personnel are the key success factor of
innovative companies since they are involved in all stages.
The most perfect example of employee engagement is Google, so let's take a look at this using the following reportage from CBS.
Warning: Watching this movie too often may lead to envy, resentment, bitterness, and possible severe depression.
The most perfect example of employee engagement is Google, so let's take a look at this using the following reportage from CBS.
Warning: Watching this movie too often may lead to envy, resentment, bitterness, and possible severe depression.
The way Google engages his employees has been remarkable from the start of the company and it is ever expending. One of the reasons that Google became such a huge company with extremely motivated and happy personnel is because of the many perks that the company offers. As can be seen in the movie, the breakfast, lunch and diner are not your average company meals like chicken and rice, but instead they offer the employee steaks, sushi and homemade pizza.. FOR FREE! Other perks are free fitness with personal trainers, a free birthday massage, sleeping pods, volleyball courts, a free on-campus doctor, free laundry and free use of cars during work.
If this is not enough, Google offers their employees so called "20% time", which is an informal methodology that allows the employees to work on something they are really passionate about. This leads to motivated and creative employees that feel empowered and thus work better. According to a Google employee: “just about all the good ideas have bubbled up from 20% time”, like Google News, Google AdSense and Gmail. Another example is the Fiber for Community initiative, which consists of establishing a 1Gb connection for roughly 500,000 people in the first stage of the project. You would think that hundreds of employees work on this project, but the fact is that there are only 3 full-time employees working on it and the other +/-20 people are all 20%-ers.
If this is not enough, Google offers their employees so called "20% time", which is an informal methodology that allows the employees to work on something they are really passionate about. This leads to motivated and creative employees that feel empowered and thus work better. According to a Google employee: “just about all the good ideas have bubbled up from 20% time”, like Google News, Google AdSense and Gmail. Another example is the Fiber for Community initiative, which consists of establishing a 1Gb connection for roughly 500,000 people in the first stage of the project. You would think that hundreds of employees work on this project, but the fact is that there are only 3 full-time employees working on it and the other +/-20 people are all 20%-ers.
Source: Marrissa Mayer, Vice-President of Search Product and User Experience at Google
As a company you need to challenge the individual in order for them to release there creativity.Freedom in the innovative process leads to higher creativity than when the job is narrow. This because people work better and with higher productivity when they are challenged and feel supported. Not the level of creativity of an individual but rather the organizational expectations have a crippling effect on the employee’s innovative drive. Companies that allow employees to judge situations themselves, are more successful than companies that keep their employees on a short leash with little to no leeway. Especially in the service industry, it is almost unavoidable to empower employees to make decision because they constantly need to change their behavior regarding each service encounter, in order to meet the customer’s need. Employee empowerment does not only take pressure off the manager, but also shows trust in the employees, leading to an increase in engagement
As in every business aspect, communication is also of vital importance regarding employee driven innovations and it is one of the key factors in reinforcing employee innovation. An easy way of doing this, is sharing external feedback (customers, suppliers etc.) and the result from new product trials with the employees. Not only communication from manager to employee, but also from employee to employee and department to department is important. Arranging, for example, cross-departmental meetings with both analytic and creative employees may lead to a spark in creative thinking. Technological innovations such as blogs and online creativity communities also enable employees to share their thoughts on company products or services.
Setting up a system where the employees feel that they can contribute to the innovative character of the company is certainly beneficial, and most employees feel valued, trusted and inspired when the management is transparent about its objective and the company's current business situation. This is not only done top-down, but also by involving all stakeholders, since the full potential may not be reached when not supported by all stakeholder. However, A thorough insight in the company’s environment and processes that need change are required. The employees need to know what factors change when certain innovations are made. When you have a company full of intelligent and motivated individuals, and you give them a huge amount of information about the company, their choices will become more relevant and better substantiated. Also, when you give people the freedom to prioritize their own work, because they have access to the necessary information, they feel empowered and independent which they need to be successful.
As in every business aspect, communication is also of vital importance regarding employee driven innovations and it is one of the key factors in reinforcing employee innovation. An easy way of doing this, is sharing external feedback (customers, suppliers etc.) and the result from new product trials with the employees. Not only communication from manager to employee, but also from employee to employee and department to department is important. Arranging, for example, cross-departmental meetings with both analytic and creative employees may lead to a spark in creative thinking. Technological innovations such as blogs and online creativity communities also enable employees to share their thoughts on company products or services.
Setting up a system where the employees feel that they can contribute to the innovative character of the company is certainly beneficial, and most employees feel valued, trusted and inspired when the management is transparent about its objective and the company's current business situation. This is not only done top-down, but also by involving all stakeholders, since the full potential may not be reached when not supported by all stakeholder. However, A thorough insight in the company’s environment and processes that need change are required. The employees need to know what factors change when certain innovations are made. When you have a company full of intelligent and motivated individuals, and you give them a huge amount of information about the company, their choices will become more relevant and better substantiated. Also, when you give people the freedom to prioritize their own work, because they have access to the necessary information, they feel empowered and independent which they need to be successful.
