Building a successful business requires more than hard work. You also need creativity in the workplace to take advantage of new opportunities, solve difficult problems, and ultimately stand apart from your competitors. The question is: How do you nurture a creative flow among your team? Here are a few ways to bring out the creative best in your staff members.
How Can You Nurture Creativity in the Workplace?
Ask for Feedback
Your first step should be to tap the input of your employees and ask for suggestions. You can do so in a meeting, or through an anonymous survey, depending on your company size and culture. Whatever you do, make it easy for employees to offer their own ideas and suggestions when it comes to making the company more creative and innovative.
Recognize Individuality
Make sure employees know that you value each one of them, individually. To do that, meet with each worker, one-on-one, to find out more about what makes them unique, learn more about their career goals, and ask about challenges they’re facing or ideas they have for process improvements. Make it clear you have an open-door policy and that you welcome opinions and feedback from each individual employee.
Brainstorm Ideas
During meetings, whether you’re managing a project or working to solve a problem, encourage brainstorming. Use a whiteboard or smart board to write down everyone’s different ideas and thoughts during the process. Encourage your employees to offer impromptu ideas and input in a pressure-free, relaxing environment rather than a high-stakes meeting.
Cultivate a Creative Atmosphere
To create an environment that nurtures creativity, think about everything from your meeting space to individual workstations, as well as community break areas. Specific factors that can add or take away from creativity include everything from sound and color to temperature, lighting, more. So work toward creating the kind of environment where your people feel most creative, so they can cultivate new ideas and innovations.
Keep Creativity in Mind During Hiring
When you are bringing new people on board, keep creativity and diversity in mind. When you have different employees from a range of fields and backgrounds on your team, it’s easier to come up with new ideas, see situations from different angles, and ultimately sharpen your creative edge over your competition. If, on the other hand, you only hire those from similar backgrounds, ideas can become stale, which can impact your products, services, and, ultimately, your bottom line.
Need Help Hiring Creative Employees?
Turn to Future Force. As a leading recruitment team serving Orlando, and surrounding areas in FL, we can help you find and hire the creative, dynamic individuals you need to help your company thrive. Contact us today to learn more.
