Cooking up innovation: when it comes to helping employees create new products and services, HR's efforts are a key ingredient

HR Magazine, Nov, 2004 by Ann Pomeroy

Bill Reina, director of global talent supply and employee relations at Procter & Gamble (P & G), says his HR department led a project last year to identify P & G's core competencies. One of the competencies identified was innovation, and P & G looks for this capability when recruiting new employees.

Before applicants are selected for interviews, they must pass a battery of cognitive tests, including problem-solving tests that help recruiters find out which candidates can look at things in new ways, Reina says. Also, all interviewers are trained to identify innovative candidates, he says.

Sutton cautions, however, that employers should not go overboard with innovation. Help employees understand that "there are times to be creative," he says, "and times when routine work is needed."

Critical Support

At Whirlpool, HR plays a crucial and fundamental role in supporting the company's approach to spurring innovation.

"All our HR systems--pay, spot awards, the long-term incentive plan, the balanced scorecard objectives--are 'hard wired' into Whirlpool's innovation strategy," says Binkley. For example, employees complete personal development plans in preparation for their performance evaluations, he says, in which they explain how and when they will complete their required training. Employees are rated on the quality of their plan and whether they implement it.

Further, since innovation is a core competency at the company, all employees are required to be trained and certified by the company at the basic level of proficiency in innovation. Depending on their job, some employees must attain the proficient level and others the top, or mastery, level. Binkley says this training is built into HR planning. Snyder says HR also works to help leaders understand their role in leading innovation. "This has HR all over it," she says.

Binkley says the company also works to track progress in innovation. "The health of our idea pipeline is determined by the number and quality of ideas, which we capture by revenue numbers," he says.

As part of the push to bring in lots of ideas to the company's online idea pipeline, or "i-pipe," all employees are encouraged to submit their ideas; innovation from "everywhere and everyone" is the goal.

And to ensure the quality of those ideas--and that they move quickly through the pipeline--the company devotes internal resources to helping employees develop their brainchildren. For example, training is designed to cascade from one employee to another. "I-consultants" and "i-mentors" help train other employees and serve as resources for innovation teams.

Mara Villanueva, an innovation consultant for Whirlpool's KitchenAid brand, says, "My job is to drive projects by helping people put some structure to an idea." Villanueva may work with focus groups, help develop surveys and business plans, or even serve as a project manager on an innovation team.

She also may lead a brainstorming session as a team begins its work. A "migration path" is identified for the best ideas, research begins, and the ideas are developed. A second team may work to nurture and develop an idea, she says, and a third team may handle the execution phase.