14 Apr
4 ways to unlock innovative culture with digital workplace ideation.
The pandemic has continued to wreak havoc on the global economy for more than a year. It is also driving forced incredible innovation across a variety of industries. Many organizations have been pushed to develop an innovative approach to respond to new demands at record speed. While most of us look forward to the world reverting to what will be the new normal, many businesses will want to stick to this way of thinking. Every business needs a dedicated space for workers, clients, and executives to collaborate and exchange ideas and suggestions, and your digital workplace is the right place to provide that experience.
“According to company leaders, 40 percent of innovation in the last five years had a favourable influence on their business bottom line.”
GE-Global-Innovation-Barometer-2018
Employees are one of the important assets that come up with innovative ideas. Frontline workers or the employees working closely with the clients/ consumers have a keen understanding of their business requirements. They need a platform to share their valuable insights.
Digital workplace ideation hub
The idea management hub makes it convenient for employees to foster their ideas and innovation. This idea management tool will help to gather ideas from the distributed workforce that naturally picks up on discussions and interactions. Also, colleagues have an opportunity to provide additional input or take their ideas forward. Crowdsourcing is done on the ideas that are available in the portal due to which the existing idea is modified and polished in the best possible way.
The infusion of Artificial intelligence technology in the digital workplace has fueled the evolution of innovation management systems. If an employee wishes to seed an idea in the idea management tool, AI will help find a similar idea to the contributors. This way, duplicate ideas are avoided. Also, people will be able to easily search for relevant and the right ideas quickly. It lets employees easily track down the status of the submitted idea-if it is approved or rejected.
Ways to bring out the innovation culture with intranets
1. Discussion forums
Corporate communication and collaboration ensure that employees can securely share their ideas and suggestions. The Remote/ Hybrid workforce can benefit the most out of the social forums. Working together isn’t the only thing that a collaborative process entails. It refers to the opportunity to collaborate and act on a particular topic.
The traditional strategic process is not a model required to transform our innovative culture. Rather, these digital forums let the employees easily express their thoughts and suggestions, which allows them to build discussions on any topic. Discussion with peers can progress the ideas in multiple directions. It can lead to a whole new idea that is unique and invaluable. The ideas generated can be forwarded for further analysis, which will be fruitful for meeting company goals.
2. Virtual water coolers
Employees are familiar with in-person collaboration in a break room, lobby, tea breaks, post meetings, etc. These conversations happen between co-workers on both work and non-work-related activities. Post pandemic, in-person conversations got shifted to virtual meetings. Casual interactions deliver a social and collaborative mechanism among the hybrid workforce, increasing innovation, engagement, and employee experience. Virtual water cooler moments result in collaborative innovation, which requires new ways of working for all the team members across the organization. People from different teams can participate and exchange thoughts that lead to innovative ideas.
3. Idea management
Let your business innovation spark by a fantastic idea. A suggestion box was a medium used to promote idea-sharing that has been around for decades. However, technological advancements have made it simpler for employees to get their creative juices flowing and their ideas acknowledged. With the idea management tools available 24/7, the fleeting moments of brilliance can be captured whenever and wherever they occur. Encourage and share ideas across the organization as part of your company’s knowledge management strategy. They have the potential to have a higher impact on profitability, productivity, and employee engagement.
The innovation management portal facilitates employees to put forward their ideas and see if there is any similar idea existing. It enables the workforce to upvote, comment, and crowdsource the existing ideas. Employees can track down the status of the idea, post their submission.
Click to know about idea management in SharePoint intranet.
4. Rewards and recognition
Leaders are very well aware that only their employees have the potential to unlock the creativity and innovation in their organization. CEOs ranked innovation and human capital as their top two priorities in a recent survey conducted by The Conference Board–they understand that innovation and human capital go hand in hand. The problem is figuring out how to connect the two and foster a culture of innovation and creativity.
The digital workplace is the right place where we can connect the two and foster ideas from the employees for the organization’s growth. Creating an innovative environment with rewards and recognition will motivate the employees in coming forward and share their ideas across the platform. It will encourage them to enhance creativity in their fields. Maintaining scoreboards will energize the employees, and also, everyone else will be aware of who has topped the leaderboard. These activities will motivate the entire team to begin sharing ideas and maintain an innovative culture throughout.
Ready to set an innovative culture?
Businesses nowadays wish to have a vibrant and innovative environment where every employee is boosted enough to participate and contribute their ideas across a common platform. A digital workplace empowers the employees to share business ideas and suggestions actively. The discussion forums, virtual water coolers, a common forum to discuss shared interests, Gamification, rewards and, an idea management portal are a perfect combination that an intranet should have to set an innovative culture.
Acuvate’s digital workplace accelerator- Mesh has all the features imbibed to foster a system of innovation.
Click to know about the Mesh idea management portal that unlocks ideation to the next level.
To know more about this topic, please feel free to get in touch with our consultants to get a personalized demonstration.
Poonam Chug is AVP - SaaS Strategy & Business. She has worked in various areas, right from designing and executing sales & account management strategies to reengineering digital workplace solutions. With her determined focus on our mission and progressive approach, she has achieved customer delight in the space of AI, Knowledge Mining, Content & Collaboration, Virtual Assistants, RPA and more. Backed with a deep understanding of customer needs and technology, she leads the SaaS business unit with an upshot of maximizing revenue while ensuring customer satisfaction.
Poonam Chug