Many companies struggle with innovation. A recent McKinsey Global Survey found 6% of executives find their innovation efforts gratifying.
Vancouver’s Sunshine Coast Credit Union serves over 17,000 members. This Canadian full-service financial institution used innovation management to become top performers on the McKinsey Organization Health Index (OHI).
Who is Sunshine Coast Credit Union?
Sunshine Coast Credit Union offers services in three locations. Using the McKinsey OHI, they were able to measure employee feedback.
Sunshine Coast’s lowest score referred to innovation from the bottom up. This demonstrated that employees were given minimal opportunities for contribution.
Sunshine Coast Credit Union decided to implement an IdeaScale community. It enabled employees to share ideas for improving processes and increasing innovation.
Through this effort, they engaged 95% of employees. Within the first year, 20% of new ideas were executed. This improved both their OHI score and overall organizational culture.
“We have made it not just an innovation tool, but a communication and community building tool as well,” explains Alex Costenko, Director of Strategy and Innovation for Sunshine Coast Credit Union.
Sunshine Coast gives back to the local community by investing in its businesses. They offer mobile services, expanding their customer base.
How did Sunshine Coast increase their OHI score?
After measuring feedback from employees in 2018, Sunshine Coast determined they needed to engage employees. In 2019, they used their IdeaScale community to increase innovation capacity. They created a slogan for their community to provide incentives for innovating.
The slogan, “Better Every Day,” recognized employees organization-wide for achieving significant participation during the first month. They received thankyou cards and stickers containing the slogan as a token of appreciation.
The Sunshine Coast leadership supported the new IdeaScale community. They showed their appreciation by voting on ideas.
Their “Better Every Day” campaign is an open topic, making it possible for everyone to express ideas. It’s always available so that ideas can be shared at any time.
In addition, Sunshine Coast’s leaders launch campaigns each month. These are time-sensitive and must align with organizational plans.
The campaigns include a broad range of topics. These include:
- Career development initiatives
- Finance tips
- Ideas for improving processes
Organization leaders select the best ones based on criteria. The “Better Every Day” campaign invites managers from each area to meet quarterly. Ideas are reviewed and assigned for future development.
Departments prioritize the ideas, then conduct relevant research. They measure the impact of each idea on the financial well-being of members, customer loyalty, and social impact. How ideas are implemented is also evaluated.
What are the outcomes?
On average, one idea is submitted per employee. Also, around one-fifth of submitted ideas are realized in under one year.
As a result, leadership scores saw improvement. Initiatives such as mentoring employees during the onboarding process were adopted. Sunshine Coast now holds morning huddles and workshops on financial advising. Most notably, their Bottoms-Up Innovation score is now on top, improving organizational culture across the board.
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