Half of British workers not encouraged to innovate

Vodafone UK today calls on British businesses to do more to encourage their staff to put forward innovative ideas.

Working Nation, a report commissioned by Vodafone UK, paints a dismal picture. More than half (54%) of the 2,020 workers surveyed said they are not encouraged to be creative or to present ideas to managers. 70% said their companies do not have a good reputation for rewarding innovation. 24% said they never even bother to tell anyone about their bright ideas.

George Cox, Chairman of the Design Council, who is currently carrying out a review of the role of creativity in UK business on behalf of the DTI said of the research: "In a world where innovation is going to play an increasing part in economic success, Vodafone's latest research puts the task facing the UK into perspective. Companies - and indeed public sector bodies - need both a culture for encouraging new ideas and a process for evaluating suggestions and doing something about them".

Mark Bond, Director of Enterprise Marketing for Vodafone UK said: "All companies need to continue to innovate to stay among the leaders and build their business.  For most workers, however, it seems the opportunities to develop and exploit their ideas are simply not there".

'Ideas at work: The untapped resource'  is the third in Vodafone UK's Working Nation series examining attitudes among the British workforce. It shows that very small companies, with up to five employees, are the best at generating new ideas - half of them giving staff formal thinking time. In large corporations on the other hand, just 13% of the workforce see their ideas being regularly taken up.

Senior managers are much more likely to be rewarded for innovative ideas, than other staff.  Two-thirds of senior managers said they are formally encouraged to come up with ideas to develop products and services, compared with less than half of other workers.

The sectors that do least to encourage and capture ideas - transport, manufacturing and utilities - are those often viewed by some as under-performing in the UK.  Here, two-thirds of staff spend no time at all coming up with ideas, with 14% of utilities workers and 9% of manufacturing workers associating innovation with redundancy.

Half of respondents see an open-door policy as the most conducive to the free flow of new ideas, with only 14% citing suggestion schemes. Over-55s are the most likely age group to come up with an idea at least once a day.

Mark Bond said: "What this report shows is that the will to generate ideas is certainly there among the UK workforce.  Now it's up to UK companies to get ideas flowing and create value for their business".

George Cox concluded: "Not every idea is a good one; not all suggestions are practical, and not all good ideas should be acted upon. Change needs to be co-ordinated, priorities need to be balanced. Creativity isn't the province of the few. It needs to pervade the whole business".

For further information, please contact:

Helen Brockett and Bryony Clow
Vodafone UK Public Relations
Email: press.office@vodafone.com

For media enquiries, please call 07000 500 100
For general enquiries, please call 01635 33251

About Working Nation
Working Nation is a major ongoing study, commissioned by Vodafone UK, that chronicles the attitudes and trends that shape the United Kingdom at work (April 2004 to May 2005). The themes for each report were identified via qualitative research conducted by Opinion Leader Research with a select group of opinion leaders. Contributors included self-made business people, captains of industry and Members of Parliament. These themes have been further developed by means of quantitative research surveys conducted with 300 senior business people and 2020 employees across the UK.

Copies of reports in the Working Nation series are available by emailing: vodafone@harvard.co.uk or online at www.vodafone.com/uk/workingnation

Working Nation photography and case studies are also available.

The Design Council
The Design Council enhances prosperity and well-being in the UK by demonstrating and promoting the vital role of design within a modern economy. It is committed to driving business growth, renewing public services and building an enhanced design capacity.

Vodafone UK
Vodafone UK has 15.3 million customers and is part of the world's largest mobile community offering a wide range of voice and data communications. On the 1st January 1985, the first mobile phone call was made by Ernie Wise on the Vodafone network. Since then, Vodafone was the first to introduce SMS in 1994 and to make a 3G voice call in July 2001. Vodafone UK was the world's first mobile operator to introduce international roaming, now connecting customers with standard roaming agreements in 174 countries, GPRS roaming in over 55 countries and 250 cities worldwide using 3G.

Following the launch of Vodafone UK's 3G/GPRS Mobile Connect data card in April 2004, the company launched Vodafone live! with 3G in November 2004 offering services such as video-calling and music downloads. Vodafone's 3G UK population coverage currently stands at 65 per cent and the network is being continually expanded.