Employee Ideation Programs

An Employee Ideation Program (EIP) can elevate ideas and concerns from your workforce, and help leaders to implement ideas that have support and buy-in.

Ideation programs use crowdsourcing, brainstorming, or ideation tools to collect innovative ideas, and teams of experts can review and respond to suggestions. These tools often allow employees to rate and comment on each others’ ideas, so the best ideas rise to the top.

How to Manage an Employee Ideation Program

Plan

1. Decide if your organization needs an EIP
2. Develop an implementation strategy
3. Determine the resources you'll need
4. Choose an ideation tool
5. Develop policies
6. Create processes to ensure success
7. Identify success metrics

Implement

1. Generate ideas
2. Evaluate ideas
3. Put ideas into action

Improve

1. Regularly assess progress
2. Incorporate employee feedback
3. Learn from others and replicate good ideas

Examples

• TSA’s IdeaFactory (MS Word, 30.5 KB, 2 pages, June 2011) helps to build community at TSA
• State Department’s Sounding Board uses a decentralized model to engage an entire Department
• OpenGov Citizen Engagement Tool (public-facing program)

Resource

Electronic Management Tools for New Idea Generation in the Federal Workplace (PDF, 1.67 MB, 70 pages, September 2009)

Content Lead: Justin Herman
Page Reviewed/Updated: August 1, 2012