Creativity at work is sometimes viewed as the exclusive purvue of ‘artsy’ careers – marketing, the arts, interior decorating, that sort of thing. But in this era of rapid change in technology, increasing need for understanding the human experience at work, customer satisfaction expectations and the arrival of AI and Machine Learning, this old-fashioned view has to go. To fulfil its purpose and remain successful, a business must be able to innovate. And creativity is critical to that process. As George Scialabba (not Einstein) said, “Creativity is intelligence having fun.”

 

Space for creativity at work is also critical to improve employee engagement and business performance. Gallup highlighted this in 2018 in their article titled Fostering Creativity at Work: Do Your Managers Push or Crush Innovation? So in our 2019 South African Company Culture Health Index, we asked survey respondents to tell us a little about their companies’ approach to creativity and innovation.

 

Creativity at work – Do companies really value their employees’ ideas?

 

Creativity at work info graphic showing 45% of companies encourage innovation, 42% encourage people to speak up, 39% allow employees to develop new ideas, 38% will invest in ideas and 35% allow employees to make mistakes without fear of punishment

 

Is your company performing well according to these cultural measures of creativity at work? Order your own Company Culture Health Survey.

 

Learn more about our South African Company Culture Health Index results.

 

Posted by:Elaine Porter

I am a strategic business consultant who is passionate about helping companies match their insides to their outsides. In other words, I believe that an authentic business is a successful one. This means aligning internal and external marketing and communications activity with the company’s culture, or vice versa.