In our latest class, rewarding employee contributions and cultivating a strong company culture has been an intriguing discussion. Among the companies brought up was: 3M – and more interestingly, their emphasis on employee innovation. It’s always encouraged that companies listen to their employees and maximize their potential by tasking them with the jobs that brings out the most productivity based on assessments of employees’ skills. 3M raises the bar on encouraging employee innovation by making it an actual requirement.
Official sources say that “technical employees are tasked with spending 15% of their time on projects of their own choosing and initiative”. Additionally, they also offer employee grants on promising project ideas voiced through company forums created solely for harvesting innovation. I believe that 3M is straying from conventional methods of cultivating employee innovation by mandating it. Here, they immediately set “innovation” as a criteria for its employees rather than concentrating on novel projects proposed by executives and just setting employees specific tasks to carry out which don’t involve a lot of creativity. What I mean is that the job itself requires “creativity” which is generated on the employee level – as opposed to employees following a company set method to achieving certain goals. This type of requirement really challenges employees to think and take risks which strengthens the connection the employee feels for the job/position. It’s a great deal because employees receive massive financial and social benefits if their inventions begin to take off after being launched in the market. Having opportunities for growth in a job is a key part of employee retention and serves to reduce employee turnover rates. These are valuable traits in the long run as replacing, hiring, and training new employees require further expenses and time, as well as a grace period while the employee begins to familiarize themselves with the job and are not as productive as can be initially. Overall, I applaud 3M’s long standing methodology which maximizes employees’ potential and gives them a chance to share their innovations with the world.