When it comes to running a business, there is a lot to keep track of and keep under control. You need to be sure that you are hiring the right employees, that you are assigning the correct workloads, and that you are utilizing all of the resources available to you. You have to keep customers happy, employees happy, and vendors happy. You likely have to work late at night and then get up early in the morning just to keep your business running smoothly. If you are lucky, you like your work and enjoy each of these things. If you want to really bring your business forward, then it is important that you foster innovation among your employees. There are numerous benefits to creating this kind of atmosphere. Make sure your team knows that you want their ideas, that their ideas are valuable, and that you will try to implement the best ones. Below are some of the benefits of fostering innovation at your business, but remember – there are always more!

#1 – Keeping your employees happy. Happy employees do better work and so a lot of businesses are always looking for ways to keep their employees content. Some pay out big bonuses, others keep the kitchens well stocked with cookies. But one of the simplest ways to keep your employees happy is to value them and their ingenuity. Let them know that their ideas can have a direct impact on your business and they will feel valued and more likely to share them. Even if only a fraction of the employees’ ideas can be used, that is still more than if you hadn’t fostered the innovation at all.

 

#2 – Staying ahead of your competitors. Innovation is necessary to drive your business forward. You cannot compete if you are always staying the same. A business that doesn’t innovate will not survive in today’s hyper competitive business world. But you can’t expect to do all this innovation at the top. You need the help of your employees. After all, they know parts of your business better than you do in most cases. So ask them for ways to make systems operate more efficiently, or ideas for getting more customers, or solutions to any other problem your business faces.

 

#3 – Increasing your employees’ creativity. Creativity is the key to innovation and it is also the key to good work. If your employees are not encouraged to be creative, their work will suffer. Give them the freedom to do things differently – sometimes creativity leads to innovation, which can lead to big changes in your products and business.

 

#4 – Raising your employee retention rates. If you keep your business strong, your employees happy, and your atmosphere of innovation encouraging, then you will almost certainly lose fewer employees along the way. Higher employee retention means you have to spend less money on recruiting and training new hires. It means your company will feel more like a team, and that will also lead to more innovation. Teamwork and innovation go hand-in-hand, and fostering one often fosters both, leading to a better, stronger, more competitive business.

 

All of today’s best companies focus on innovation. Google, Facebook, Twitter – innovation is what drives them. Make it what drives your company, too.

 

 

About the author: Joe Uhll covers trends and news in the marketing and HR fields. He frequently writes for Cloverleaf covering innovation. When he isn’t writing, Joe enjoys watching soccer/football matches and spending time with his wife in Chicago.

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