Our recent Masterclass, chaired by Professor Colin Lindsay, explores theory and practice on the key role of line managers in encouraging workplace innovation and employee engagement. Colin is joined by Dr Anna Bos Nehles from the University of Twente and Liz Reilly and Suzanne Thomas from the Scottish Government/ NHSScotland who provide actionable takeaways from the latest research and lived experience.
Part 1
Anna starts by outlining the concept of workplace innovation and why it is so crucial for businesses in driving growth. She emphasises that with the right tools and techniques, any organisation can innovate to address a problem or seize an opportunity and improve their competitiveness.
She sets out the essential stages of the workplace innovation process, from idea generation to idea realisation, and highlights the need for supporters and investors within the organisation to provide momentum.
Anna provides an overview of different HRM levers and their effectiveness in encouraging innovative workplace behaviour. She also cautions on common pitfalls in implementation. Anna then stresses the important role of line managers in the implementation of HRM policies and practices and innovative ideas within an organisation.
Part 2
Liz grounds the theory set out by Anna in lived experience as she shares her work to develop and implement the iMatter Staff Experience Continuous Improvement Model, a transformative staff engagement journey.
She shares lessons learned from working with over 176,000 staff across the NHS and Health & Social Care Partnership (HSCP) to arrive at an innovative and highly effective model of engaging with employees. Liz emphasises the importance of placing employees at the heart of the process and using line managers to drive real change within an organisation.
Looking forward, Suzanne sets out the plans for conducting the Everyone Matters Pulse Survey this year. She discusses how it has been adapted in light of the Covid-19 pandemic and increased homeworking to ensure meaningful and actionable data can be collected.
Part 3
In the Q&A session, the panel provide guidance on building a business case in your organisation for implementing policies and practices associated with workplace innovation.
Liz Reilly is National iMatter Programme Lead for the Scottish Government/ NHSScotland and Suzanne Thomas is Staff Governance Associate for the Scottish Government.
More information and resources on iMatter can be found at https://www.staffgovernance.scot.nhs.uk/monitoring-employee-experience/imatter/
Anna Bos-Nehles is an Assistant Professor of Human Resource Management at the University of Twente.
For more from Anna check out: https://people.utwente.nl/a.c.nehles
