Grading Government on Innovation

The federal government often gets a bad rap for fostering bureaucracy and stifling creativity. Overall, only 63 percent of feds give their agencies a positive score on innovation, according to a new report.

The report, "Snapshot: What Drives Innovation in the Federal Government," by the Partnership for Public Service and the Hay Group, found that the government has room to improve on inspiring and rewarding employees for creativity and innovation. While 91 percent of federal workers are looking for ways to perform their jobs better, for example, only 39 percent believe innovation and creativity are rewarded.

"This suggests federal workers are motivated to drive change through creativity, but need stronger support from their organizations and leaders to do so," the report states.

The report is based on the 2010 Employee Viewpoint Survey and the Partnership's Best Places to Work rankings.

NASA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission topped the list of the most innovative agencies, according to the 2010 Employee Viewpoint Survey. Rounding out the top five was the General Services Administration and the State and Army departments.

So what can agencies do to boost creativity and drive innovation among their workers? The report identified six workplace factors that have a disproportionately high impact on overall innovation score:

• Recognition for providing high-quality products and services.
• Meaningful opportunities to improve skills.
• Inclusion in decisions that affect work.
• Personal empowerment with respect to work processes.
• Opportunities to demonstrate leadership skills.
• Leaders who strive for employees' respect.

"Well-defined processes and systems support innovation, but they cannot create it; that is the role of leaders," the report states. "Leaders will get the most innovative results from their teams if they view their role as providing their teams with the environment they need to be effective, and then giving them the respect, responsibility and freedom to do good work."

How would you score your agency on innovation? Does a lack of innovation opportunity make you want to move to a job outside government?