Introduction
We began in 1997 because there were too few spaces where enterprises, employers’ organisations, trade unions, policymakers, professional bodies and researchers could come together, both to explore the future of work and organisations and to address the persistent “long tail” of those not making use of workplace practices that engage and develop the full talent and creativity of employees at all levels.
Since our foundation we have created a series of joint initiatives and projects involving diverse stakeholders, held regular pro bono events to share evidence and good practice, and has been a persistent advocate for national government and EU policies to promote better ways of working.
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Research and Evidence
Firstly there is a vast and growing body of evidence to show that workplace innovation practices
which empower employees to make day-to-day-decisions, challenge established practices,
contribute ideas and be heard at the most senior levels of an organisation lead to better business
results as well as enhanced workforce health and engagement.
Secondly it is equally clear that most businesses are either unaware of this evidence, or that they are
unable or unwilling to act on it. Successive surveys demonstrate a substantial gap between research
evidence of “what works” and common workplace practice.
We work with diverse stakeholders to:
- Undertake high quality research into leading practice and emerging challenges relating to
work and organisations. Current and Past Projects
- Build bridges between research and practice through publications, events and the creation
of the EUWIN Knowledge Bank as the leading European source of case studies, articles and
other learning resources on workplace innovation.
We have also established Workplace Innovation Limited as a consultancy arm to help
companies and public sector organisations create new and better ways of working which build on a
vast body of research.
Explore the site to learn more about our surprising range of
activities.
Contact Us
Workplace Innovation helps improve performance and working lives by releasing the full range of
talent, knowledge and creativity from employees at every level.
Organisational Health Check
A springboard to innovation
Our Health Checks are not about us telling you what is wrong or right with your organisation. They are about your people telling us what is wrong or right, what can be done better, what works really well and what doesn’t.
An Organisational Health Check acts as a springboard with the potential to release innovative behaviour, improve performance, enhance employee well-being and stimulate growth.
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Insight
We know the importance of listening to employees at every level in order to understand what
is working and what needs to be improved.
Our reports based on employees’ own accounts of experiences at work provide boards and
senior management teams with a powerful stimulus for change, and help to define priorities
for action.
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Facilitating Change and Innovation
Breaking down walls and ceilings
Workplace Innovation is at the heart of performance, growth and employee well-being. Many see it but don’t know how to implement it.
We help organizations review improvement and innovation practices by breaking down walls and ceilings and creating dialogue across hierarchies and functions so that the better argument always wins.
Workplace Innovation’s facilitators work closely with leaders, managers and employees at every level, understanding their aspirations and strengths as well as what holds them back. We seek solutions co-created by all of the main stakeholders in an issue to ensure buy-in and to minimise resistance to change.
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Working with Boards and Senior Teams
Horizon-scanning, thought leadership and rehearsing the future
What will your business look like in 2024 and what will your role be in leading it?
Seeing the world in a different way should be on the job description of Directors. Change is happening and it can’t be controlled but it can be anticipated.
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Developing Emerging Leaders
From transactional to transformational
The demands of leadership are changing. At a time of significant challenge and opportunity, leaders and managers must drive improvement and innovation while motivation and energising employees. Emerging leaders must migrate from purely transactional management to proactive, transformational behaviour while current leaders must address the question of succession.
But where are the next leaders coming from and what skills and competences will they actually need?
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Interactive Theatre
Using drama to provoke thought and motivate change
Interactive theatre in the workplace is a real eye-opener. It helps to unlock employee engagement and creativity, one of the key challenges in securing successful organisational change, improving performance and enhancing working life – but it does it very differently.
You’ll see your organisations in a completely different and thought-provoking light.
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Presentations, Facilitation and Masterclasses
Stimulating, informing and resourcing innovation and change
Expert facilitation, engaging presentations, creative thinking and interactive theatre are just some of the ways we enhance and enliven conferences, time-out sessions, in-house training and team development workshops.
We can also deliver masterclasses and provide internationally recognised expert speakers covering all aspects of people centres change, employee engagement, high involvement innovation and leadership development.
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Transformational Coaching
Achieving a new culture
We know how to coach – we do it for a living. However, we are also on a mission to help managers and leaders become inspired coaches in their own right and to introduce a coaching culture to their organisations that will achieve sustainable benefits.
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Networking and Knowledge Sharing
Remember, you are not alone
Networking, knowledge sharing, the pooling of ideas and intellectual capital are the dynamics that underpin a sustainable movement of workplace innovation and provide all organisations looking to change and to challenge the future with access to the choices open to them and the experiences of others.
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Flexible ILM Leadership & Coaching Courses
In-house and Distance Learning
Flexibility in learning is becoming increasingly important in employee development. We are experiencing a significant increase in clients needing a more flexible approach to the delivery of our ILM programmes.
Releasing staff to attend off-site public courses can cause problems for organisations, despite the obvious benefits of individuals from different backgrounds and industries sharing their experiences as they learn together. It is not always convenient for managers to block out days in their diary to attend sessions off-site, on dates that tend to be inflexible.
We recognise this and in addition to our public courses we are able to offer a range of flexible options to make it easier for organisations and individuals to access our ILM Leadership, Management and Coaching programme.
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Scotland leads the way
Workplace Innovation Limited is proud to support Scotland’s pioneering initiatives to promote better, more productive workplaces.
Since the beginning of 2016 we have been working with Scottish Enterprise, Skills Development Scotland and Highlands & Islands Enterprise to promote and resource workplace innovation in a diverse range of companies.
Highlights include the Workplace Innovation Engagement Programme, a series of Workshops, and a Workplace Innovation Toolkit.
Latest news
Inclusive and devolved decision making at DS Smith
DS Smith Lockerbie believes in open, inclusive and devolved decision-making.
As part of the company’s commitment to workplace innovation, morning meetings in the Operations Room were introduced to improve communication and enable joint planning and problem-solving amongst employees. Front line representatives from each work area take part in these meetings and use a series of visual management boards to record their daily discussions. Participants take turns in leading the meeting and are encouraged to keep the tone optimistic and collaborative.
Read more and watch the film
Creating Fair and Innovative Workplaces – An Industrial Strategy Perspective from Scotland
This policy-focused event identified the levers that make a difference in delivering inclusive growth and competitiveness. Senior representatives of UK government departments, companies and trade unions took advantage of an opportunity to hear about Scotland’s practical approach to supporting progressive people practices, and how it leads to enhanced productivity and the reduction of inequality. The workplace is facing unprecedented change as it faces the digital revolution as well as an increasingly volatile business environment.
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Workplace Innovation Limited helps to build a very special relationship between Scotland and the Basque Country
Workplace Innovation Limited has been supporting Scottish Enterprise and the Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa in the Spanish Basque Country as each develops its own approach to promoting the uptake of workplace innovation by companies.
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Workplace Innovation facilitates an in-company Mini-FabLab session at DS Smith
DS Smith is a European leading packaging company of customer-specific packaging, based in Lockerbie, Scotland. Operations Manager David Murdoch asked Peter and Rosemary from Workplace Innovation Europe, as part of the Scottish Enterprise Workplace Innovation Engagement Programme, to help involve his staff in innovative ways to improve the business.
A facilitated Mini-Fab-Lab session, with front line staff representing each area across the workforce, was a new experience for DS Smith.
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Unleashing Workforce ideas at Liberty Steel
Liberty Steel is one of ten companies taking part in the Scottish Enterprise Workplace Innovation Engagement Programme led by Workplace Innovation Europe. As a market-leading steel plate mill, Liberty Steel Dalzell has an established history of engineering outstanding heavy steel plate. Through their action plan, Willie and Peter recognised the need for openness, transparency, team working, visible and supportive leadership, and, above all, engaging the workforce. They designed an ambitious framework of regular meetings and forums involving all levels of the workforce.
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Innovative workshop will explain Industry 4.0 and the opportunities it creates for businesses
The potential of digital technologies to remove routine work and automate the production of goods and services is to be discussed at an innovative workshop to be held in Irvine, Scotland, next month.
Hosted by Booth Welsh, a leading provider of integrated engineering services, the workshop will focus on ‘digitisation and the people centre workplace’ and will bring together leading European experts with companies keen to share their experiences of their journey to Industry 4.0.
The event is being facilitated by Workplace Innovation Europe Limited (WIE) who aim to draw on international experience to create an Industry 4.0 roadmap which will help to blend the power of digital technologies with an upskilled workforce driving continuous improvement and innovation. Speakers include senior representatives from GSK, Siemens and Decos (Netherlands) on the journey to In..
More than 60 Portuguese company representatives took part in an interactive workshop held in Porto where the experiences of two Scottish businesses were used to demonstrate the beneficial outcomes of workplace innovation and employee-led change.
The workshop was facilitated by UK based Workplace Innovation Europe Limited who introduced Doug Johnston, General Manager at DS Smith’s Lockerbie operation and Dundee based David O’Byrne from animal pharmaceutical business, Argenta.
Both companies have recently participated in Scottish Enterprise’s Workplace Innovation Engagement Programme (WIEP) (http://www.goodworkplaces.net/Workplace-Innovation-Engagement-Programme) which sought to help Scottish businesses introduce people centred change and action planning based on a novel combination of individual learning and development, peer-to-peer exchange of knowledge and experience, and on-site coaching and facilitation.
The workshop marked the launched of a &..
“Leadership starts from the top, but it’s easy to forget that it has to start from the frontline too.”
Creating a culture of innovation and improvement requires tenacity. It means challenging deeply embedded attitudes and behaviours, asking difficult questions, and being open to experiences from a diverse range of other organisations.
Good things happen when we learn from each other. You begin to realise that you’re not alone, that different organisations are on the same journey, working towards comparable visions and tackling the same challenges on the way. And, above all, that there are different and sometimes complementary ways of reaching the same goal. Nowhere is this illustrated better than in the two days of discussion which took place when twenty-five participants from several European countries took part in Fresh Thinking Labs (http://www.freshthinkinglabs.com/)’ Engaging Everyone in Innovation event last week.
Leo Pharma&rs..
Introducing Multi-Disciplinary Teamworking to Maternity Services
The evidence has been around for a long time. Multi-Disciplinary Teamworking in healthcare leads to better clinical outcomes and experience for patients, and better quality of working life for staff.
Yet it is far from universal. Multi-Disciplinary Teamworking challenges traditional professional roles and demarcations, and can be hard to achieve. While the general principles that characterise good clinical teams are well understood, their translation into specific clinical settings involves open dialogue, experimentation, learning from failure, and persistence. All of this must take place without any relaxation of day-to-day clinical pressures.
This case study offers practitioners fresh insights into how Multi-Disciplinary Teamwork principles can be translated into practice. It is based on an eighteen month change programme led by Workplace Innovation in partnership with Southern Health and Social Care ..
