Great Place to Work Survey Reveals Employee Innovation Drives Company Success

Great Place to Work, an analytics and consulting firm, recently published the results of a survey of about 500,000 U.S. employees from 792 companies in 25 different industries.
 
The results come in the form of a report entitled “Innovation By All,” which states that companies who encourage widespread employee participation in the idea-generation process see increased value across a range of metrics.
 
“Companies that build an Innovation By All culture,” says the report, “generate more high-quality ideas, realize greater speed in implementation, and achieve greater agility, resulting in 5.5 times the revenue growth of peers with a less inclusive approach to innovation.”
 
The report characterizes an “Innovation By All” culture as one in which a high ratio of employees are willing and allowed to innovate, or bring news ideas to the table and explore them.
 
The report points out Nvidia as a company that exemplifies the Innovation By All culture. “We don’t really have divisions in the company,” says Rev Lebaredian, vice president in charge of next-generation video game products at Nvidia. “There’s actually no place in the company you can go to find the org chart.”
 
This leads, the report says, to a culture in which “innovations come from throughout the organization.”
 
“Companies grow much faster when more of their employees experience a climate that encourages innovation,” the report states.
 
Organizations that excel in the creation of this employee culture (i.e., those in the top quartile) see a 26 percent median year-over-year revenue growth, compared to 11.6 percent in the second quartile, 8.4 percent in the third, and 4.7 in the bottom.
 
Furthermore, the report identifies three levels of success in harnessing, mobilizing, and responding to new ideas (from the outside environment or from internal insights and suggestions).
 
Those companies that perform at the lowest level of success, what the report terms the friction state, have three employees out of five that actively try to innovate and generate new ideas, while two out of five do not. Companies performing at the second level, the functional state, have five employees who innovate for every two who don’t. The ratio at the highest level of success, the accelerated state, is 11 to 2.
 
“Companies in the Accelerated state share an ability to rapidly adapt to disruptions, quickly create new and better ways of doing things, and generate high quality ideas,” says the report.
 
“Employees across the business can be counted on to bring their best ideas and effort in the service of the company’s best interest.” Those in the functional and friction states do not operate as efficiently.
 
In addition, the report states that at accelerated companies, 91 percent of employees say they look forward to coming to work, compared to 80 percent at functional companies and 69 percent at friction companies.
 
The report also says that 89 percent say they adapt quickly to changes at accelerated companies, 79 percent at functional ones, and 67 percent at friction ones. Lastly, 93 percent of employees at accelerated companies say they would recommend their company as a great place to work, 85 percent at functional companies, and 77 percent at friction companies.
 
The first step toward a more innovative employee culture, the report says, “is getting a better handle on where your organization is today.” It continues, “If your company is like most, it still has an opportunity to get even better at maximizing the full potential of each and every one of its employees.” Results suggest that doing so will greatly improve revenue.
 

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