In our last blog, we explained how developing an internal innovation program is the number-one way for health care providers to address disruption. By establishing clear innovation goals and promoting them throughout the company, businesses will see their stagnant company culture morph into a more active culture of innovation. This process can and should be applied by any company in any industry wanting to survive and thrive in their respective (and increasingly competitive) market.
However, if your innovation team itself is ignorant to some of the top practices for workplace innovation, then the purpose of the team is defeated. Business software and services company G2 recognized seven of 2019’s top workplace innovation trends, including instant collaboration and employee mobility. Innovation teams should surely take note of these current trends, but which ones should they implement in 2020?
Here are four workplace and larger tactical innovation practices experts are saying businesses should expect this upcoming year.
Investing in customer intelligence
Whether you’re in B2C or B2B, your business is all about customers. Keep them satisfied and they’ll keep returning, the prevailing wisdom goes. Hearing your customers out and giving them what they want is a sound investment.
Previous methods of retrieving customer data, such as focus groups and surveys, can be effective, but they can also be time-consuming and provide inconclusive results. As analytics technology continue to evolve each year, it’s becoming easier to crunch customer data. And it’s even more accurate.
As such, PwC believes that collecting and analyzing customer data using cutting-edge analytics will be the most important predictor of revenue growth in 2020. This may be a perennial best practice, but really poring over customer data is an investment in your own organizational growth.
Recognizing the influence of the Internet of Things
When we explored the 5 technologies disrupting the insurance industry, the Internet of Things jumped out as particularly disruptive. Think wearables, smartphones—anything with “smart” in its name with access to the internet is part of the Internet of Things, collecting your data as you use them.
By 2020, it’s estimated that over 26 billion devices will be connected. These smart devices are being used for both work and leisure, providing a lot of data to be analyzed in the near future.
Sixty-three percent of insurance CEOs believe these devices will be strategically important for their organization in 2020. We might see the CEOs of other industries saying the same thing.
Prioritizing employee engagement
Here’s another omnipresent workplace innovation practice: prioritizing employee engagement. Just as customers are important to an organization’s growth, so too are its employees. We know how employee disengagement can negatively affect companies (hint: it can cost a company nearly $2,200 per disengaged employee a year), but how does employee engagement positively affect a company?
Organizations with engagement scores of 65% or above outperform those with lower scores in the total stock market index. Engaged employees look forward to their duties at work. In turn, their output is of higher quality and will help grow their organization.
Using or investing in tools that help gauge employee engagement has tangible results currently, and the trend will seemingly continue to 2020.
Encouraging effective collaboration between employees, even remote and short-term ones
Workplaces are becoming more diverse every year. Employees are bringing different skill sets, backgrounds, and ideas to their workplaces, and it’s up to organization champions to recognize these circumstances as benefits.
Along with new skill sets, they’re bringing an inherent talent with technology. As the workforce overall introduces more remote and short-term employees, the next step is to use collaborative technology between all types of employees. Providing instruction on how to use collaborative software and encouraging employees to use it often will bring teams closer, even if they face physical distance.
Idea management software addresses all of these trends. Ideawake’s platform provides the space for employees to share their ideas with their co-workers and organization leaders. Customer-facing employees can share their insight, and their co-workers in other departments can collaborate, whether they’re on-campus or not. Take note of these trends and preemptively start 2020 strong.
If you want to stay ahead of the curve of these trends, book a free demo of Ideawake to hear our approach.