To see the best engagement levels and strongest ROI from your efforts on Nectir, it is important to adopt good habits to ensure none of the following occurs:

Any of the above can happen, but ALL are avoidable. Try implementing all of the following to ensure your innovation program is a massive success:

Avoid allowing ideas to go unreviewed for more than 2 - 3 days. The sooner ideas are reviewed, the better as they will act as affirmation to the idea creator that their idea was seen and considered. Allowing ideas to sit too long without being reviewed can result in lessened excitement and lower engagement within the platform. 

*PRO TIP: Spend 10 - 20 minutes per day reviewing ideas. It won't take too much time, just make it consistent.

Check out the article Reviewing Open Ideas to learn how.

Depending on your strategy focus, budget, number of users, and desired level of idea complexity, the number of approved ideas you will want to see will vary. The key though is to still approve at least SOME.

*PRO TIP: Early on in your program, try creating one or more initial challenges that encourage small, incremental change. Out of those 'incremental' challenges, make sure to improve several ideas for implementation. This will provide users with social validation and optimism that some ideas will actually be approved. Once this foundation is set, your communications strategy for Nectir will be effective in clarifying the frequency of ideas and types of ideas that you are planning to approve.

To give a user permission to approve ideas, check out Managing User Permissions to learn how.

To learn how to approve ideas, check out this ARTICLE.

Challenges are the best way to drive focused thinking and initial engagement. A new Nectir account without challenges is a blank slate with little direction for new users. By creating at least one initial challenge before onboarding users, you will create easy initial ways for users to interact with Nectir and get a feel for your programme. 

*PRO TIP: Launch with an easy and somewhat fun challenge to get people engaged straight away. By doing this, new users are eased into sharing their ideas in a fun way without feeling the pressure that can come with openly sharing ideas. This feeling of pressure is common at the start of programmes, but can easily be diffused with the right leadership support and comms strategy. Some ideas of fun initial challenges include:

Making it clear to the masses that leadership is fully onboard with Nectir and the innovation programme is vital to ensuring adoption and engagement is strong. This is mainly accomplished through your comms strategy that would have been outlined before launching, but is important to revisit and build on as the programme continues.

The main purpose is to make it clear that management supports and recognises people's efforts and ideas. Most employees simply want to be heard and acknowledged. Using your post-launch comms to make it clear that there is still support will go a long way.

* PRO TIP: Highlight top innovators or top/great ideas in your periodic comms. This could be emails, team meetings, or newsletters. The channel doesn't matter as much as the act of acknowledging and applauding specific individuals for their efforts.

Incentives are a great way drive engagement in your programme. Similar to goal setting though, it is beneficial to have both long-term and short-term incentives. If the only incentives in place are for things such as top innovator of the year, or top idea of the year then you risk people losing interest along the way.

Try mixing it up with some short-term incentives as well. These could be attached to challenges, trigger each week, month, or quarter. The rewards would of course be a lot smaller for these types of incentives, but the effect would be just as powerful because of the frequency and short lifespan.

*PRO TIP: Attach an incentive to the initial fun challenge we recommended you launch with. Also, get creative with the incentive offering. They don't all need to be monetary based. Incentives could include a temporary premium parking spot, or the ability to leave 30-minutes early for one week.