The growth of UK organisations is being inspired by fresh ideas from employees, according to one expert who has advised companies to look out for their most innovative staff.

That is the opinion of Dominic Swords, co-chair of judges for the National Business Awards in partnership with Orange and economist at the Henley Business School, who said that the business landscape is becoming increasingly competitive, with new markets and ways to improve profitability hard to come by.

As such, organisations need to realise how vital it is to unearth as many possibilities as they can in order to create new ideas.

He explained: "A lot of that is about engaging effectively with their workforce, and really energising people, engaging them with thinking about what they can do, how they can do things better, what opportunities there are, what their customers want – those kind of things."

Mr Swords added that staff who do come up with innovative ideas and help to drive productivity need to be recognised and rewarded for their contribution.

"Noticing what people are doing and giving them due regard and acknowledgement for what they are doing is actually a very motivating thing for people, and something that gives them the willingness to commit themselves to the organisation," the expert noted.

08/06/2012 17:04