Snap polls reflect questions posed by members of the Celent Executive Research Panel, a group of C level executives in the insurance industry. This question came about from a member who wanted insights around how other members generate and manage innovative ideas. Twenty insurers responded to this survey over the course of three days, August 16-18, 2021.
The question that was posed was:
Background:
The insurer is looking for information about how other insurers share, collaborate on, respond to and make decisions on ideas.
Questions:
Does your company encourage all employees to share, collaborate and discuss innovative ideas? How do you ensure that employees at all levels have an opportunity to share and collaborate on ideas?
How do leaders at your company ensure that employees feel like their ideas are listened to and taken seriously?
Do you have a formal process for employees to submit ideas for improvement? If yes, then please answer the following:
- Provide a short description of the process.
- Can employees submit ideas anonymously?
- Can other employees see and/or vote on the ideas they think would be most beneficial?
- Does your process work on an enterprise level, or does it work for specific teams?
- Does your process use specific software? Are team leaders empowered to make decisions about implementing or declining ideas?
Are team leaders empowered to make decisions about implementing or declining ideas?
- If yes, how does the company ensure clarity in the decision process and support for leader decisions?
How do leaders communicate with employees on decisions made about implementing or declining ideas?
Google’s “20 percent time” policy encourages employees to spend 20% of their time working on ideas that they think will most benefit Google. Do you formally provide time for employees to dedicate to generating and testing new ideas? If so, how much? Do you provide additional resources (e.g., software, funding, etc.) for these projects?
