Natasha Castela Lopes and Thomas Carey
Context: In a previous blog post reporting the Results of our research project on Workplace Innovation and Quality of Work, we noted several recommendations regarding Future Directions where further work is needed (beyond the Research-to-Practice knowledge translation processes which were our focus with the individual workplace partners in that project). In forming those recommendations, we also analyzed research insights and exemplary practices from Europe on public policy and programs to advance workplace innovation – that is, we were ourselves engaged in research-to-practice adaptations for our Canadian context. In this post we review some of the experiences from Europe we found to be most relevant.
We begin with a summary of the Rationale for public investment in developing capability in employee-led workplace innovation. A summary of some key regional initiatives follows, with an example of how we adapted some of these ideas for a Canadian context. We conclude with quick notes about two new developments with implications for Canadian policy and programs. (You can find more information and other topics – e.g., on more EU-wide and national policies – in Annex 3 of our full report on Workplace Innovation and Quality of Work.)
The Rationale for Public Support and Programs in Workplace Innovation
Various agencies within the European Community have contributed to shared definitions and measurements of employee workplace innovation [e.g., EU 2014] and analysis of the impacts on economic and social progress, e.g., the links between workplace practices and employee innovation [Eurofound 2019]. Here are two example conclusions – and excerpts from the underlying research – which we applied in our own research:
Workplace Innovation for Quality of Work leads to Social Benefits beyond the workplace
“Evidence shows that workplace innovation leads to significant and sustainable improvements in firm performance…Workplace innovation also increases employee motivation and well-being, playing an important role in reducing stress, enhancing job satisfaction and mental health, and improving retention.” (Totterdill et al 2016).
“There is a growing body of evidence that the enhanced quality of working life associated with workplace innovation can play a decisive role in the achievement of multiple social and economic challenges facing Europe, including…closing the EU’s productivity gap, increasing the rate of new product and service creation, improving the retention of older workers, and improving occupational safety and mental health” (Pot et al 2023).
Market Mechanisms based solely on economic goals have not proved successful
“Workplace innovation connects different policy agendas such as productivity, innovation, skills, digitalization, quality jobs, social dialogue and the European Pillar of Social Rights. Policy interventions will be required to achieve these win-win benefits.” (Pot et al 2023)
“The evident shortfall in ‘good jobs’ can be viewed as a massive market failure. The market mechanism is not going to provide a ‘good jobs economy’ on its own without focused interventions by social partners and public authorities.” (Rodrik & Sabel 2020)
Innovation is viewed as particularly critical now, as Europe transitions to a green and digital economy. “Businesses have to develop processes, products and business models that are compatible with a climate-neutral future. They will have to digitize across their operations and outputs, and do so fast to stay abreast of the competition” (Eurofound 2021)
European Research on Policy/Program interventions: National and Regional
Given this “why” rationale for workplace innovation policy with both economic and social goals, we looked for insights on the “how” of successful program interventions. At the national level, that included an in-depth look at Finland and shorter analyses from Germany and the Netherlands. Each of these countries aimed to integrate economic and social goals for innovation in different ways. For example, in the Netherlands the most recent initiative builds on economic focus on nine Top Sectors where the country seeks to be “among the world’s best” (Netherlands 2022).
One of these is Logistics, which was selected for special attention to boost workplace innovation. A focused research effort involving firms in the Logistics sector and the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) has been fostering advances in workplace innovation across the sector (Putnik et al 2019; Oeij et al 2020; Oeij et al 2022). As the impacts of this research become clearer, this sector-targeting approach may serve as a model for targeted support in other Top Sectors in the Netherlands and for adaptation in other countries.
In contrast, Finland’s most recent national program – WorkLife2030 – also included extensive support for “Regional projects… in co-operation with regional Economic Development Centres …that create services to meet the needs of the region’s workplaces.” (Alasoini et al 2023). They are aimed at promoting work life reform within the companies and organizations of the region, strengthening regional competence and co-operation between work life actors as well as creating a development model applicable to other regions.” (Finland Ministry of Social Affairs and Health 2023).
Our study of other regional initiatives also revealed the potential value of focusing on regional workforce development partnerships, and included the Workplace Innovation Engagement Program in Scotland (Totterdill & Exton 2021) and the Flanders Synergy program in the Flemish region of Belgium (Pot et al 2023). As noted in the next section – and articulated further in our full Project Report – we found this emphasis to be aligned with current developments and issues in Canada, and our recommended Future Directions were centred on Regional Workplace Development agencies in Canada with a long-term focus on both economic and social well-being and successful track records of garnering support across all levels of government.
Adapting Research Insights on Policy and Programs for Canadian Contexts
The European policy initiatives above have highlighted the connection between quality of work and employee innovation at the workplace level and well-being – both social and economic – at the national and regional levels. This has been less evident in Canadian policy to date, at either the national or provincial levels. Some recent work has begun to connect more of these elements.
As one example, research on employers’ roles in addressing “persistent social and economic challenges” in Atlantic Canada (Pascoe-Deslauriers 2020) advocates for integrating “the role of employers and businesses and the quality of jobs available in addressing these challenges. Decent jobs have implications for individual, societal and organizational outcomes, including innovative work behaviours…we need to consider job quality and how good quality jobs can support organizational and business innovation outcomes, as part of policy debates for local economic development.”
Some of these integrative goals are being realized in Newfoundland and Labrador through a network of Regional Workforce Development Committees whose goals include “to create and retain a diverse and inclusive, innovative, and productive workforce” to address “the health, well-being and economic prosperity of all of our regions” (NLWIC 2021). This initiative is being led by our Network partner NL Workforce Development Centre, and includes engagement with employers, social sector partners and equity-seeking groups, local governments and numerous public agencies at both provincial and national levels.
(A complementary innovation is underway in the southwestern Ontario region served by our Network Hub Partner WEtech Alliance and Workforce WindsorEssex. For example, WEtech Alliance has also been instrumental in fostering Scalability by developing a community of practice for Workplace Innovation Catalysts across the regional innovation ecosystem, bringing together cohorts from the automotive, healthcare and energy industry sectors in addition to public and social sector partners (WEtech n.d.).
Two new European public policy and program research initiatives of note
Finally, two recent pan-European initiatives demonstrate the potential to strengthen our own innovation policy and programming via Canadian participation in such collaborations.
Innovating through Experimentation: The European Commission’s new project promoting more experimental innovation policy (launched January 2023)
This activity follows up on previous efforts to support Peer learning of innovation agencies at both national and regional levels across Europe (INNOSUP-5) and Improving Innovation Support for SMEs through innovation policy experimentation (INNOSUP-6). The findings from INNOSUP-6 are reported in (Cuelo 2021) and (Cuelo et al 2022).
The proposed approach “allows for testing of new ideas before scaling up successful solutions and provides valuable evidence on what works, what doesn't work, and why. While this approach has been embraced by other policy fields, it has not yet become widely adopted in Research and innovation policy, hindering efforts to further improve Europe’s Research and Innovation performance” (EC R&I 2023).
Bridges 5.0: Towards a Human-Centred, Sustainable and Resilient Economy
Bridges 5.0 is intended to build bridges to accelerate companies transitioning to Industry 5.0. According to the EU’s Research and Innovation Directorate, Industry 5.0 is “a vison for European industry that aims beyond efficiency and productivity as the sole goals and reinforces the role and the contribution of industry to society. It places the wellbeing of the worker at the centre of the production process and uses new technologies to provide prosperity beyond jobs and growth while respecting the production limits of the planet. It complements the existing Industry 4.0 approach by specifically putting research and innovation at the service of the transition to a sustainable, human-centric, and resilient European industry”.
The Bridges 5.0 leadership team includes many of the pioneers in European workplace innovation research and development (such as our project team member Dr. Peter Totterdill, co-founder of Workplace Innovation Europe). As a follow-up to the research-to-practice work with employers in this project, we intend to approach Canadian workplaces and networks for whom the results of Bridges 5.0 will be particularly valuable, to develop processes for accelerated adaptation and mobilization of research insights from the Bridges 5.0 program. We can build on our existing links to European research in Workplace Innovation to enable these further research-to-practice processes.
About the authors:
Natasha Castela Lopes is a member of our WINCan Research Team with experience as a Policy Officer and Program Advisor in the Government of Canada (and also was a WINCan team member as an undergrad). Thomas Carey is the Principal Catalyst for Academic Partnerships with the Workplace Innovation Network for Canada and an academic leader who has directed numerous multi-institution innovation projects across academic and workplace sectors in Canada and the U.S.
Acknowledgement: The Workplace Innovation and Quality of Work research project was supported in part by the Government of Canada’s Future Skills Centre.
References
Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry, EU (2014). Workplace Innovation: concepts and indicators. https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/industry/strategy/innovation/workplace-innovation_en
Eurofound (2021b), Innovation in EU companies: Do workplace practices matter? European Company Survey 2019 series, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/policy-brief/2021/innovation-in-eu-companies-do-workplace-practices-matter
Totterdill, P. and Exton, R. (2021). Workplace Innovation in Practice: Experiences from the UK. The Palgrave Handbook of Workplace Innovation, pp.57-78.