No matter what sector or industry you operate in, you will always come up against competition for your customers and clients – for this reason it is necessary to innovate and improve your products and services over time. The best companies strive to incorporate the latest and greatest technology solutions into their workplaces in order to encourage progress, actively pursuing innovation rather than taking a reactive role. Coming up with innovative ideas for sales pitches, products, advertising and more will get your company noticed and help it to expand over time, yet so many companies fail to prioritise innovation. If you think your company might be struggling due to lack of innovation in the workplace, here’s how you can start to encourage it.

You can’t expect your talented team to come up with new and exciting ideas for your company if they are stuck in an uninspiring office space or meeting room – they’ll lack motivation and soon grow tired of jotting down mediocre ideas. If you want them to come up with something truly unique and interesting, you’ll need to provide them with an environment that gets their creative juices flowing and inspires them. Can you provide staff with an area by a window in which they can work inspired by the view? Consider ways in which you can make their meeting point totally different from their workstation – why not change the furniture, wall colours or lighting?

While you might be keen on keeping your employees working together in one place, a number of employers find that by allowing their staff to work remotely on certain days of the month, they are able to produce work that is more creative. Working in the same office day after day can not only become tiring but may also cause a lack of motivation amongst employees. By giving them the chance to choose where they work on occasion, you might be surprised by the work they are able to produce when they are surrounded by new sources of inspiration. You’ll find everything you need here to set your employees up to work remotely.

If you’ve spoken about innovation in meetings but your staff members seem unwilling to participate, you should try introducing an element of competition. Offering a reward for the most innovative idea of the week or month will encourage your staff members to pull out all the stops and to start searching for inspiration. You’ll find that your reward doesn’t even need to be particularly luxurious, as the sense of competition alone will be enough to motivate most.

Don’t just challenge your employees by adding to their workload – challenge the way they work instead. See if they can find alternative ways to approach their work, reorganise their schedule or find new partners to work with. You could even establish days when you switch employees’ roles to bring fresh eyes and minds to projects that might have stagnated under established teams. Your employees might find that they benefit significantly from any suggestions made and as an employer you will benefit from your team interacting and stepping up to the challenges you set.

If you’re keen to promote innovation in your workplace please contact us and let us provide the facilities you need to begin.

August 12th 2014 | Back to Industry Insights