Active involvement of employees in innovation activities at Easyfood in Denmark

The Danish convenience food producer Easyfood is a small and medium sized company (SME) founded in 2000. According to the company a high level of innovation and uniqueness in its product range is highly important to Easyfood. The company recruits workers from other food industries. Since their work organization is very different from other companies, there is a need for specific training.

Objective

Training of employees and newly hired employees to meet company specific needs. In cooperation with a local training institution, Easyfood has started a programme in three areas:

• “Easy Pilots”: User driven collection of customer data. Workers of the production collect data by visiting customers personally. Aim is to find out what kind of demands customers have on the products of Easyfood. Employees participating in the “Easy Pilots programme” are specifically trained in a series of courses at a local training institution. The “easy pilots” are organized in groups of 10 in a so-called task force and carry out this task parallel to their usual work in the production. Focus of this programme is to provide all workers with specific knowledge on how their products are used and perceived by customers.
• “Food Architects” – programme for innovation in food: A special education in food innovation in cooperation with local education institution and on university level. The programme creates a common picture of the meaning and role of innovation. Aim is to involve as many people as possible in the innovation process.
• Managing change and general values: Easyfood counts on employee’s innovations for product development and to improve production methods. The company has established a working culture that enables all employees (including production workers) to be innovative and creative. Specific activities and training on company values and cooperation.

Outcome and achievements

Production workers have a new and active role in the innovation process; higher job satisfaction. Ten employees are actively working as “food architects”.