Frontline Innovation is the practice of giving all employees a voice and the opportunity to turn their first-hand experiences into real-world innovations. Most organizations desire to do this well, but they often lack the critical methods, buy-in, and technology to drive real impact sustainably. 

When done right, Frontline Innovation serves to both enhance the employee experience and drive innovation forward.

Organizations that drive Frontline Innovation forward have common traits within their programs:

• Their executive sponsors truly desire to engage their employees in a meaningful and impactful way 
• They have a program lead and a decentralized team (often in a fractional role) who help champion the program
• They recognize the value of small ideas, knowing that the medium and big ideas will come in time
• They leverage the right tools to close the loop at scale and commit to moving ideas forward

The impact of productive Frontline Innovation programs can be seen in the cumulative ROI from implementations. A program should generate at minimum 100 times the program’s investment. This return is consistent across programs regardless of size and can be measured through a mix of revenue-generating and cost-reducing opportunities.