Blog: IdeaHub to Engage DOT Employees, Tap Their Expertise

Statement

Today, DOT is taking employee engagement and innovation to the next level with our new IdeaHub tool. While this is good for workers here, it's also good for the public. A more effective Department will be better able to fulfill its mission.

IdeaHub is an online community where employees can post ideas for their colleagues to comment and build upon. It's a collaborative website where all of our staff are free to participate. Now, we've got over 55,000 DOTers spread across the country, so an undertaking of this scope--unprecedented among Federal agencies--was not easy.

IdeaHub Screenshot
IdeaHub offers space for one staffer to build on the innovation of another.

With IdeaHub, a Federal Aviation Administration employee in Alaska can offer suggestions about an idea by a Federal Transit Administration worker in Atlanta or vote on an idea by a Federal Highways Administration employee in Arizona.

Once an idea is posted, our employee community can vote it up or down. As ideas attract votes and generate activity and comments, they advance to DOT's IdeaHub liaisons and Innovation Council where they are evaluated and may get put into practice.

Leaving a comment
I'm already hooked; it's great to see the innovation Team DOT members are suggesting.

IdeaHub also gives us the opportunity to post 'challenges' to our workforce as a way of getting people to think about specific questions or problems. For example, our opening challenge asks: "How can DOT help you do your job more effectively?"

And, believe me, the ideas are already pouring in.

IdeaHub is easy to navigate, too. I took it for a spin myself yesterday!

But IdeaHub is not all fun-and-games. We expect this tool to encourage:

* Budget savings and increased productivity
* Increased engagement and workplace satisfaction
* Greater agility and collaboration within the Department
* Unfiltered information from our front lines

IdeaHub Team Photo
The IdeaHub core team, from left to right: Bethany Blakey, Rhonda Murrill, Carmen Marco, Nancy Mowry, me, Syreta Brooks, Melvin Harris, Deb Green, Marlise Streitmatter, Jenn Gustetic, and Tim Schmidt. Not pictured: Whitney Veit, Steve Gomez, Jolaina Jeff-Cartier, Brodi Fontenot, Joshua Price, James Grayson, and nearly 100 others who helped get this off the ground!

That's why I'm asking our senior executives to visit the site regularly, comment on ideas, and add value to the discussions. I'll be doing the same--I've already bookmarked it to my "Favorites"--and I am looking forward to it.

No one knows better than our staff how to make their work-lives more productive. And IdeaHub offers us a way to tap that knowledge to create a more effective Department--for our employees and for America.

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