Thomas Carey is WINCan’s Co-Principal Catalyst for Academic Partnerships and a former Professor and Associate Vice-President at the University of Waterloo
Adam Frye is Director of Operations & Partnerships for WEtech Alliance, the Ontario Regional Innovation Centre for Windsor/Essex, and the creator of WEtech’s Innovation Catalysts program.
A decade of European research on Workplace Innovation has provided extensive evidence that the social process of employee-led Workplace Innovation can improve both the quality of work for employees and organizational performance. Many European governments now view Workplace Innovation as a Competitive Edge for economic and social success. For example, the government of Finland has a national policy goal to be the international leader in quality of work life by 2030.
These research-driven practices and policies are not yet widely understood or applied outside of Europe. Canada is well-positioned to become the North American leader in leveraging employee-led Workplace Innovation for quality of work life and organizational performance. Adapting and applying European research to advance Workplace Innovation for Quality of Work in Canada can lead to more innovative workplaces and organizations (as well as more attractive opportunities for European companies seeking to invest in manufacturing and R&D facilities within North America).
We’ll describe in this post our new partnership of experts in Workplace Innovation and four leading organizations who are advancing Workplace Practice and Policy (one pan-Canadian, three regional). With support from Canada’s Future Skills Centre, we will analyze and adapt the research base on Workplace Innovation for Quality of Work – mainly from Europe– to support more innovative, engaging and inclusive workplaces in Canada. We will be assisted throughout by Dr. Peter Totterdill, one of the world’s foremost experts in Workplace Innovation for Quality of Work and Founding Director of Workplace Innovation Europe.
Our four Field Test sites will engage their regional and pan-Canadian workplace partners in proof-of-concept evaluation of the scope, relevance and applicability of this initial Research Synthesis and Adaptation Guidelines for Canada. The Research team will then revise and expand the Research Synthesis and Adaptation Guidelines for wider dissemination, while our organizational partners apply the results with regional and sector stakeholders and share with peers in their networks of innovation centres, Human Resources councils and higher education institutions.
What is an Applied Research Synthesis?
We’re calling our first project Deliverable an Applied Research Synthesis. Note to our academic colleagues: this is not the same as a traditional “literature survey”. Our two primary audiences are practitioners and policy makers, for whom “the conclusions reached in the Research Review…serve as a basis for decision-making in terms of how to meet the needs of different stakeholders [i] in Workplace Innovation for Quality of Work.
As examples, our four Field Test partners (listed below) are all engaged with a range of workplaces in their regions and sectors, for whom they seek to be catalysts to advance innovation capability and quality of work. They need to understand relevant evidence from leading-edge research on developing employee innovation capability – Knowledge, Skills, Mindsets and Experiences – and how to adapt those exemplary practices for their own regional and sectoral contexts. Framed as Research Questions, these needs are reflected as
How can Canada’s workplaces and workforce adapt research advances from Europe to:
Empower our workforce with the skills and mindsets for successful Workplace Innovation?
Enable Canada’s workplaces to apply Workplace Innovation capability for Quality of Work?
At a broader level, policymakers must integrate this knowledge about workforce capability with evidence about policy initiatives to support discovery, incubation and scale-up. The Research Question of interest to these stakeholders is
What European approaches can we adapt in Canadian policy and program initiatives to encourage, support and scale-up Employee Workplace Innovation for Quality of Work?
From Applied Research Studies to an Action Agenda
In the second stage of our project, we will assess and refine the scope, relevance and applicability of the Applied Research Synthesis through Field Tests with our organizational partners in workplace centres of excellence:
WEtech Alliance is a Regional Innovation Centre supporting prosperity and growth in the Windsor/Essex region, including an Innovation Catalyst program to develop workplace innovation leaders across industry, public and social sectors. Adam is WEtech’s project catalyst, in collaboration with WEtech’s Tech Talent Strategist, Victoria Aboud.
B.C. Institute of Technology is Canada’s premier polytechnic institute, excelling in developing work-ready graduates and in applied research collaboration with workplaces. BCIT’s project catalysts are Steve Wilson, Director of the Centre for Digital Transformation, and Janet Zlotnik, Project Manager in Academic Affairs (Supported by Dr. Tom Roemer, Vice-President Academic).
Electricity Human Resources Canada is a non-profit organization supporting the human resources needs of Canada’s electricity and renewable energy sector. Mark Chapeskie, EHRC’s Vice-President of Program Development, is EHRC’s project catalyst in collaboration with Kim MacLaren, EHRC’s Project Manager for National Occupational Standards.
The Newfoundland & Labrador Workforce Innovation Centre (NLWIC) has a provincial mandate to provide a coordinated, central point of access to engage labour market stakeholders about challenges, opportunities and best practices. The Centre’s goal is to promote and support the research, testing and sharing of ideas and models of innovation in workforce development that will positively impact employability, employment and entrepreneurship. NLWIC’s co-catalysts for this project are Joanne Kendrick, Research and Innovation Coordinator, and Susanne Dawe, Stakeholder Engagement Coordinator (supported by NLWIC Director Sharon McLennon).
There’s a more detailed description of each site’s anticipated focus in this companion post. Our Research Team will prepare prototype Use Case Scenarios and/or Context-Specific Learning Resources to be tested with representative workplaces engaged with each of these partners.
Where Next in Adaptation and Policy Research in Workplace Innovation and Quality of Work?
Based on the Field Test results, the Research Team will revise and expand the Research Synthesis with Guidelines for Adaptation and engage wider dissemination in collaboration with the Future Skills Centre. Our Field Test partners will continue to apply the results with their regional and sector stakeholders. We will also work with all Field Test partners to create Case Studies of their experiences in Research Adaptation and to develop plans for sharing results with peers in other regional innovation centres, sector Human Resources councils and higher education institutions.
Finally, we hope to outline a Research Agenda to address knowledge gaps identified in the project, including both research and adaptation knowledge required to advance Workplace Innovation for Quality of Work in Canadian contexts. This could include an overview of national and regional policies for Workplace Innovation in Europe and possible follow-up policy research for Canada.
Our project Workplace Innovation for Quality of Work: Research Synthesis and Recommendations on Adaptation for Canadian Contexts is funded in part by the Government of Canada under the Future Skills program”; Innovation en milieu de travail pour la qualité du travail : Synthèse de la recherche et recommandations sur l'adaptation pour les contextes Canadiens est financé en partie par le gouvernement du Canada dans le cadre du programme Compétences futures.
[i] Li, S., & Wang, H. (2018). Traditional literature review versus research synthesis. The Palgrave handbook of applied linguistics research methodology, p. 123.