The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) launched two employee innovation challenges in 2010 and 2011 using IdeaScale's crowdsourcing platform. The challenges encouraged VA's 300,000 employees to submit ideas on improving health information technology and veterans' health. Over 4,650 ideas were generated, receiving over 325,000 votes and 9,000 comments. The top 125 ideas were further developed and 32 were chosen for funding by the VA Innovation Review Board after reviewing how they could help improve veterans' health. The VA saw the challenges as successful in engaging employees and promoting innovation within the department to benefit veterans.

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VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION
GOVERNMENT CASE STUDY
IDEASCALE

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In March 2010, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Veterans Health Administra?on
launched the Employee Innova?on Challenge (EIC). Powered by the IdeaScale platform, this
online campaign encouraged VA employees to share their ideas on how the department could
improve health information technology.
In 2011, the VA returned to IdeaScale for an additional employee innovation challenge. This time
the Department of Veterans Affairs online competition encouraged VA employees to discuss
what improvements could be implemented in order to benefit veterans’ health.
At the beginning, the Department of Veterans Affairs used an information campaign - emailing
employees, cold calling, and spreading posters at the halls of the offices - to spread the word
about the upcoming competition. Once the VA’s ideas website had launched, the department
contacted its all of its employees with the hopes of finding methods to improve veterans’ health
(the VA was able to integrate its single sign-on log-in system with IdeaScale making it easier for
its employees to participate in the competition).
During the initial stage of the competition the Department of Veterans Affairs allowed its
employees to submit ideas and comments, but disabled the voting feature. After the VA
employees generated an ample amount of ideas, the department turned off the submission of
new ideas, and turned on the voting feature with the goal of giving their employees the
opportunity to review all ideas submitted to that point.
As a result the Department of Veterans Affairs...
• Saw over 4,650 ideas generated by a community of 300,000 employees.
• Received over 325,000 votes and nearly 9,000 comments.
• Was able to understand the values of the department’s employees.
• Saw additional interaction between employees beyond the voting itself; IdeaScale’s
crowdsourcing plaPorm was also used as a knowledge sharing forum among VA staff
Upon the completion of this stage, the VA chose the top 125 ideas, and asked those employees to
submit a full report on the idea and how it can help improve Veterans health.These ideas were
then reviewed by the Veterans Health Administra?on’s Innova?on Review board, which
chose 32 of the top 125 ideas for funding.
2IdeaScale Case Studies
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3. “We were extremely excited with the level participation of the site,” Jason Carley, Management
Analyst for the Veterans Health Administration, “We saw employees actively submit ideas, and were
happy to see the comments and responses generated by employees with their motives of improving
the department.”
Currently the VA is in the process of planning for the top 32 ideas, with the hopes of implementing
them in the future. With the success of the most recent employee innovation challenge, the
Department of Veterans Affairs plans to build on its efforts in engaging employees, and continue
using crowdsourcing tools to promote innovation within the department.
Crowdsourcing is an engagement method whereby organizations
(such as cities, brands and entrepreneurs) seek input form the
crowd or community, mostly through social media.
4EXPLORING CROWDSOURCING AND RISK 3IdeaScale Case Studies