{"id":4933,"date":"2021-12-05T22:26:21","date_gmt":"2021-12-05T22:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.britopian.com\/?p=4933"},"modified":"2022-10-21T17:29:06","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T17:29:06","slug":"innovative-employee-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britopian.com\/employee-advocacy\/innovative-employee-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovative Employee Solutions is a Key Outcome of Social Organizations"},"content":{"rendered":"
Innovative employee solutions sounds a lot like a buzzword. It isn’t. It’s an outcome of brands that have successfully evolved into a social organization<\/a>.<\/p>\n Let me explain.<\/p>\n A few weeks ago, I presented the concept of a social business model<\/a> at a conference in Orlando to a group of grocery retailers.\u00a0 One retailer in particular told me that he had hired a team of Six Sigma experts to test and optimize new processes that will get customers through the checkout stands more quickly efficiently.<\/p>\n The problem they were facing was extreme growth and they did not have enough space to expand and build more checkout aisles. He also didn\u2019t want to increase his overhead by hiring more cashiers.<\/p>\n This is a good problem to have.<\/strong><\/p>\n The first question I asked was if the cashiers in store were a part of the decision-making process. \u00a0After all, they are the ones dealing with customers daily and are also active participants in the sales\/check out process.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Of course, many front-line employees tend to sit at the lower end of the organizational structure, meaning their perspectives and opinions are often overlooked. \u00a0But if you think about it, some of the best sources of customer research can come from employees who are the front lines of customer interaction \u2013 waiters, flight attendants, sales people and customer support staff.<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t respond.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0But it got me thinking about all the untapped talent and creative thinkers that live behind the firewall that never get discovered because of leadership\u2019s lack of trust.<\/p>\n But a true social organization has to be built on trust not just words.<\/strong>\u00a0 When employees are given the opportunity to collaborate and work together, a multitude of very awesome innovative employee solutions will surely follow:<\/p>\n Employee innovation is smart business.\u00a0 For one, it rallies the troops to work together towards a common goal. There is a sense of ownership and accountability when employees are actively involved in creating something together, as a team.<\/p>\n And, often times, it can give birth to new found motivation and excitement.\u00a0 It also creates personal relationships between colleagues as well as executive management that might not have occurred otherwise outside of the day to day business operations.<\/p>\n One conclusion from the\u00a0IBM Study that was released yesterday are that organizations are beginning to realize the power of tapping into employee innovation; and CEOs are creating more open and collaborative cultures\u2014encouraging employees to connect, innovate, learn from each other and thrive in this fast paced business climate.<\/p>\n Other key findings include that:<\/p>\n It’s clear from this study that employee advocacy programs<\/a> that focus on empowerment can result in innovative employee solutions which is good for all business.<\/p>\n And yes, after I read the IBM study, I sent it over to the grocery retailer.\u00a0 Hopefully he read it.<\/p>\n Note: This post was originally written on May 22, 2012.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I do my best to create content that\u2019s actionable and provides value to the work you do. Please consider subscribing to my\u00a0YouTube channel<\/a>; and be sure to hit the notification button so you can be notified when new videos are uploaded. You can also connect on\u00a0Michael Brito\u2019s social channels<\/a>\u00a0if you like.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Innovative employee solutions sounds a lot like a buzzword. It isn’t. It’s an outcome of brands that have successfully evolved into a social organization. Let me explain. A few weeks ago, I presented the concept of a social business model at a conference in Orlando to a group of grocery retailers.\u00a0 One retailer in particular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ub_ctt_via":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[86,54,74],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.britopian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/marketing-budgets.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Michael Brito","author_link":"https:\/\/www.britopian.com\/author\/michael-brito\/"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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