The document discusses the concept of workplace innovation, emphasizing its impact on organizational performance and employee quality of life through improved work structures and employee participation. It highlights empirical evidence from various studies indicating that organizations implementing workplace innovation experience better productivity, employee engagement, and business outcomes. The document also mentions successful examples, such as Bronkhorst High-Tech and Philips, showcasing the effectiveness of co-innovation and adaptable work environments.

1. 1
Workplace Innovation
for
quality jobs
and
organisational performance
Frank Pot
“Gipuzkoa Workplace Innovation”, San Sebastian, 7 May 2015

2. Concept workplace innovation used by
• Eurofound, Dublin (2005 – recent EWCS, ECS, cases)
• European Economic and Social Committee (opinion 2011)
• European Commission (since 10 October 2012)
• EU OSHA, Bilbao (since 2012)
• European Parliament (18 December 2013)
• IndustriAll ( Manifesto 2 April 2014)
• English translation of Finnish, Flemish, Dutch and Basque
programmes
• National tripartite initiatives in UK and Ireland
• OECD (also ‘innovative workplaces’)
• Number of institutes in USA
2

3. 3
Societal relevance workplace innovation
• Competitive economy:
• Global competition and knowledge based economy 
development of competences and skills needed
• Future decreasing workforce  increasing labour
productivity needed
• General values
• Democratic and prosperous society, societal wellbeing,
good work
• Economic model based on the ‘high road’
• ‘National’ programmes in Finland, Germany, Belgium, the
Netherlands, Norway, UK, Ireland, Sweden, Basque
Country

4. Organisational relevance of workplace
innovation
• Workplace Innovation claims simultaneous improvement of
organisational performance (in particular productivity and
innovation capabilities) and quality of working life (learning
opportunities, wellbeing, stress prevention).
• Making new technology work through innovative work
organisation
• Workplace innovation explains a larger part of innovation
success than technological innovation does
• These claims are supported by a number of theories and
research projects Unfortunately there is no time today to
refer to those. The next slides give an impression.
4

5. 5
Overlap of OSH and workplace innovation
Workplace
innovation
Health Wellbeing Performance
Work
organisation 
HRM 
Employment
relationship 
Ergonomics 
Working
times 
Job autonomy
Employability
Involvement
Comfort
Work-life-
balance

6. 6
Empirical evidence: Best and poorest performers on
both dimensions in Finland (409 self assessments)
Poorest group
31 projects
top-down
interventions
Best group
152 projects
participation
internal collaboration
Performance
+
-
Source: Ramstad, 2009
Quality of working life
+ -

7. 7
Working Smarter and Performance (NL)
Performance criterion
SMEs without
working smarter
SMEs with
working smarter
Company results 2 18
Company turnover 7 15
Productivity 5 14
Employment 6 11
Economic Institute for SMEs. Source: Hauw et al., 2009; n = 650
% change in performance last 2 years

8. 8
Source: BISAM 2011/07, G.I.B. and G.I.B., 2013
5,7% 6 % (3,5)
37,4% 43,5 % (39)
65,7% 74,5 % (40,9)
58,1% 65 % (31,3)
12,1% 13,4 % (17,4)
17,4% 19,1 % (46,2)
17,8% 18,8 % (26)
13,5% 17,6 % (57,4)
20,9% 21,3 % (45,9)
19,1% 22,7 % (54,7)
31,5% 37,2 % (52,9)
34,7& 48,8% (56,8)
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Other
Higher product/service quality
Improved work organisation
Preserving employment
New technologies
Higher market share
New products/services
Higher profitability
Lower costs
Increased turnover
Increased productivity
Increased employability
Answers to the question about improvements as a result of
the potential-consultations
(consultations in Region NRW, Germany, 2010 actual, n=1.197and in
2012, n = 2.164) , actual and (expected)

9. Monitor Social Innovation Region Limburg
Maastricht University NL: Schumacher, Gerards, De Grip (2015)
• 141 organisations: in industry (56), commercial services
(62) and non commercial services (23); all sizes
• Pilllars/measurements: strategic orientation on social
innovation; speed of internal change; self-organising
capacity; talent development; investment in knowledge
base; employability
• Results: Social innovative organisations perform better:
 Higher growth of turnover
 Stronger development of new products and services
 A more comprehensive sustainability
 Lower sickness absenteeism
9

10. European Working Conditions Survey 2010
n = 2,048 (DK, IE, NL, FI, SE, UK). Source: Dhondt, Pot, Kraan 2014
10

11. 11
Case Bronkhorst
Bronkhorst HIGH-TECH
in Ruurlo, the Netherlands
• Develops and produces thermal mass flow meters and
controllers (about 275 employees)
• Clients all over the world; surface treatment, process
industry, life sciences, automotive, bio-technology, etc.
• Continuous innovation of product technology and
manufacturing process
http://www.bronkhorst.com

12. 12
Innovation of manufacturing process
• Demand flow
• Lean Manufacturing
• Workplace innovation
• Training on the job (developing
competences)
• Involvement
• Partner TNO

13. 13
Results
• Productivity plus 20%
• Throughput time minus 30%
• More flexible work organisation
• Enthusiastic staff

14. Tourism SME’s in Catalonia
• Co-innovation results into increasing income and optimising
resources (n = 500).
• Co-innovative factors being:
 Internet use (input endowment and operational and
marketing activities
 Radically innovative products and services
 Work organisation factors (worker autonomy with regard to
proposing objectives and with regard to organising tasks,
teamwork and multi-role work practices
Source: Torrent, Ficapal-Cusi et al., 2015
14

15. Discussion
• Concept ‘workplace innovation’ has gained policy profile.
• Core characteristic: direct employee participation reflecting
combined interventions in work organisation, HRM, work
relations and supportive technologies
• All research shows wide variety of better performance
• Quality jobs contribute to competitiveness through higher
productivity and innovation capability. Win-win outcomes as
a creative convergence rather than a trade-off
• Research on organisational level focusses more on
performance than on QWL, which is mostly investigated on
individual level
• National or regional programmes can be supportive; social
partners should be leading, governments and research
institutes supporting
15

16. Next slides only if there is more time
16

17. 17
Examples companies

18. SEMCO
18

19. SEMCO principles and values
• 6 Encourage creativity, giving support to the bold;
• 7 Encourage everyone's participation and question
decisions that are imposed from the top down;
• 8 Maintain an informal and pleasant environment, with a
professional attitude and free of preconceptions;
• 9 Maintain safe working conditions and control industrial
processes to protect our personnel and the environment;
• 10 Have the humility to recognize our errors and
understanding that we can always improve.
19

20. SEMCO survival manual
• Only people who respect their followers can be leaders
• It makes no difference whether someone has a high ranking
or a humble position. Philosophy is based on active
involvement, participation and trust.
• Whenever possible we rotate people: Some people change
area and other people change business unit. This is another
development opportunity
• The Semco Group believes that constant relationships with
unions are healthy for the company and the employees
• Flexible working hours where possible. Each person
controls their own working hours
• Occupational Safety is not only a company responsibility.
Keep your eyes open 20

21. Philips offices Bogota
21

22. From traditional to new work styles at Philips
• Slow, cumbersome
dissemination of knowledge.
• Complex, systematic,
orthodox and rigid work
structure
• Barriers separating units
and departments, even in
the same building.
• Communication forms: mail,
telephone, fax and e-mail.
•
• Face-to-face collaboration
• Instantaneous, multi access
knowledge sharing.
• Simple, flexible, mobile, fast
and unconventional work
structures
• Cross functional
collaboration and open
transparent spaces.
• Chat, group instant
messaging, video
conferencing and VoIP.
• Virtual teaming
22

23. Philips Workplace Innovation, world wide
• WPI Mission
• Contribute to accelerating growth by providing innovative,
effective and efficient work environments for Philips
employees supporting New Ways of Working.
• WPI Vision
• To deploy activity based working based on shared work
environments with
• cutting edge IT, a variety of work settings and to deliver on
our brand.
• “From control to trust. Output based empowerment”
23

24. Philips Workplace Innovation: evaluation
• Considerable cost savings (28 m€)
• Substantial increase in Net Promotor Score
• Employee engagement improved significantly:
• “My work environment is energizing and inspiring”:
• Philips overall 64% (2010)
• Completed WPI office sites before after
• Stockholm 27% 65%
• Istanbul 44% 77%
• Eindhoven-HTC 39% 57%*
• Sao Paulo 46% 75%
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