Innovation by frontline staff can do a lot to offset the impact of budgetary cuts. A new generation of local authority 'intrapreneurs' is showing the way
Council employees who provide services to communities on a daily basis have the detailed, local knowledge that can help make those services more efficient and effective. And local authorities that are capturing ideas developed by frontline staff during the course of their day to day work are seeing the benefits.
Yet attention to frontline innovation is too often down to individual managers or one-off events, when it needs to be an ongoing process that is embedded into organisational culture.
New research, undertaken in partnership between APSE and IPPR North, looks at ways in which local government can encourage innovative ideas from its workforce and apply them to service design and delivery. It shows how a new breed of ‘intrapreneurs’ are bringing improvements, increased productivity and enhanced job satisfaction to daily working practices in councils around the country.
The report Innovation on the Frontline: How engagement with the local government workforce can improve service delivery in austere times features examples of best practice from authorities that are reaping rewards from engaging their workforce in innovation.
One such example is Monmouthshire County Council, which has developed an Intrapreneurship School and an Intrapreneurship ‘Cookbook’ among other measures, as methods for encouraging its workforce to think about innovation in the services for which they are responsible. Another is South Lanarkshire Council, which has encouraged innovation through a variety of processes, including a matrix for scoring ideas, resulting in a number of innovative projects to reorganise services.
More than 80% of respondents in a survey on frontline innovation conducted as part of the APSE/IPPR research said their council regards it as important. Activities to encourage frontline innovation described in the survey include: award nights; one-to-one innovation sessions; suggestion schemes; regular briefing sessions; and, in some cases, financial rewards. The survey also found, however, that support for frontline innovation was patchy in some authorities and dependent upon individual managers.
Encouraging innovation on the frontline therefore cannot be simply a one-off event. The research identified common factors key to creating an environment in which frontline innovation can flourish, including culture and leadership, workforce development, and procedures to connect frontline staff with management. This will require a comprehensive strategy and a package of incentives, such as: involving innovation within the regular workload; using innovation as part of employee development through explicit training; and using innovation as part of the appraisal process. It may involve financial incentives if appropriate.
Our researchers found that top-down management structures can be a barrier to encouraging 'on the job innovation' and managers must be accessible to frontline staff to discuss potential improvements to services. At a minimum, councils need to establish methods for formally and informally sourcing ideas from their staff.
This new piece of research follows on from APSE's study of 'municipal entrepreneurship', which showed that innovation is alive and well in the UK's town halls. Innovation on its own is clearly not enough to respond to the sheer scale of fiscal pressure local government is under. But this research shows that, against a tough financial backdrop, unleashing the ideas of frontline staff can be a tremendous tool in local government's armoury within a broader strategy for future services.
Paul O'Brien is chief executive of the Association for Public Service Excellence. For copies of the report, contact: [email protected]
