Your staff already know where the time and money go. Whether they tell you depends on how easy you make it, and whether they see something happen as a result.
This guide explains how to encourage employees to submit ideas for AI and process improvement: why engagement is hard, and six practical ways to keep ideas coming.
Get this right and your pipeline keeps growing long after launch, rather than drying up after the first round. Keep submitting simple, appeal to what motivates people, run regular sessions, and always tell people what happened to their idea.
Why engagement is hard #
Staff are busy and some are wary of anything labelled “automation”. In larger organisations motivations vary a lot from team to team. If the first ideas people submit disappear without a reply, they won’t submit a second one. Most ideation programmes don’t fail for lack of ideas. They fail because nobody comes back after the first round.
Make it simple #
If submitting an idea takes longer than describing it to a colleague, most people won’t bother. In SilkFlo, anyone can describe a problem in plain words on their Personal Dashboard and the AI drafts the idea for them. They don’t need to know about ROI or technology. See Submitting an Innovation Idea.
Solution Blueprints on the Personal Dashboard help people who aren’t sure where to start: they show the kinds of ideas that suit your organisation. See Getting Started as a Standard User.
Use intrinsic motivation #
Prizes and vouchers get attention but don’t last. Lasting engagement comes from what people care about:
- Meaning: show how an idea links to a goal people recognise, such as fewer backlogs or faster service for residents or customers.
- Choice: let people pick the problems they want to solve.
- Competence: ask people for ideas in the areas they know best, and say so when you use their knowledge.
- Progress: share milestones and name the people whose ideas got there.
Extrinsic rewards still help to kick off a campaign or mark a milestone. Use them alongside intrinsic motivation, not instead of it.
Run active sessions #
Mix formats so different people can take part:
- Workshops: show real examples of AI and automation in your organisation’s own processes. Share a SilkFlo invite link in the meeting chat so attendees can sign up and submit while the ideas are fresh. See Invite your Team.
- Brainstorming: use structured techniques such as mind mapping or SCAMPER to get past the obvious ideas.
- Idea challenges: set a theme or a specific problem for a fixed period. Tag every idea from the challenge so you can see what it produced. See Mastering tags.
- Collaboration: let people browse, comment on and build on each other’s ideas in Explore. See Explore module.
Close the loop #
This matters most. Every idea gets a response, whether it goes ahead or not. Tell people why an idea was paused or rejected, and what would change the answer. Hold regular review sessions so contributors know when their idea will be looked at.
Keep a rhythm #
Engagement fades after a launch. Put workshops and challenges in the calendar in advance (for example, one per quarter per directorate) so ideation becomes part of normal work, not a one-off campaign.
Adapt to your people #
What motivates one team won’t work for another. Try different approaches, ask staff what works, and track which sessions produce the most ideas that get approved.
FAQs #
How do I get employees to submit improvement ideas? #
Make submitting quick, show people their ideas lead somewhere, run regular workshops and challenges, and always give feedback on every idea, including the ones that don’t go ahead.
Should we offer rewards for ideas? #
Rewards help launch a campaign, but they don’t keep people engaged. Recognition, visible progress and seeing their idea used do more over time.
How can I tell which engagement activities work? #
Tag ideas by where they came from, such as a workshop or a challenge, and compare how many ideas each one produced and how many were approved. See Mastering tags.
