According to a new analysis by the Partnership for Public Service, many federal employees don’t feel empowered to be innovative when looking for ways to better do their jobs. While 91 percent of employees said they are always looking for ways to improve their job performance, only 57 percent said they feel encouraged to do so. The study also revealed that only 36 percent of employees said creativity and innovation are rewarded at their agencies.

The Partnership also used the results of the Office of Personnel Management’s 2012 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey to analyze how feds ranked their agencies on factors that drive innovation, such as the level of respect feds have for their senior leaders and whether employees are rewarded for producing high-quality products and services. Based on their analysis, the Partnership encourages managers to do the following to improve innovation:

• Involve employees in efforts to improve business processes and to solicit employee feedback.
• Give employees an avenue for sharing new ideas in team meetings, or brainstorming sessions.
• Launch employee competitions.
• Use performance data to evaluate what programs are working well or require additional innovation.

For more information on how you can improve your agency’s innovation efforts, please visit Federal Times.