An Innovative Environment Helps Attract the Best People

We all hear about the importance of organizations being innovative. Seems reasonable. An innovative organization should be able to find ways to do things better, develop more new products and services and be generally more effective. These outcomes can all bolster an organization’s competitive advantage.

But research shows that an innovative environment contributes to an organization’s competitive advantage in a way that may not have occurred to you. It makes the organization a more desirable place to work and helps it attract talented contributors.

Deloitte has been conducting an annual survey of the millennial generation now for a few years. (Millennials are considered to currently be in their early 30s and younger.) When queried on the importance of working in an innovative environment, they have some noteworthy responses.

A huge portion, nearly eight in ten, say that they are influenced by how innovative an organization is when deciding where they want to work. Half tell us that working for an innovative company is “essential” or “very important” to their overall job satisfaction. And just shy of one quarter say they are willing to earn 15% less in return for having a job at an innovative organization.
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This is huge. We all know that attracting the best people makes a critical contribution to your competitive advantage. We now know that part of attracting them is creating the innovative environment that yields dividends in many forms.

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