Corporate Inventors Share Their Feedback

Every day, we engage with inventors to assist them in acknowledging their innovative accomplishments. In this article, we present several key insights gleaned from surveying inventors in a corporate setting.

Improve Employee Engagement

Gallup's latest measure finds that 4.8 million fewer U.S. employees are engaged now than at the end of 2023. With employee engagement such an important factor in today’s business world we asked whether their company’s culture towards innovation helps to make them feel seen, heard, and valued as an inventor. Just over 70% agreed that their company’s strong innovative culture had a positive impact on them. And 74% percent stated that additional IP recognition would further improve their engagement. This shows that even a strong innovative culture can continually improve with simple solutions some as inventor recognition.

Tangible Awards: A better bang for your buck!

We asked inventors whether they relate the action of receiving an award from their company as appreciation for themselves and their contribution. This was met with an overwhelming result with 85% agreeing positively. 100% of inventors also expressed that they feel a tangible award such as a plaque of desk award provides longer lasting memories when it comes to feeling recognized for their efforts. While cash is always going to be appreciated, it is just an extension of their pay and gets spent on everyday stuff and forgotten about quickly. You net far better and longer lasting impact at a fraction of the cost when using tangible awards for recognition.

Timing is Everything

While most inventors are not impacted by receiving a “late” award, a small percentage of inventors feel untimely awards can lessen the value of recognition. About 22% feel that an award arriving 1-3 months after the fact isn’t as meaningful to them. When asked if their company handled recognition and awards in a timely manner, 37% had a less than favorable response. When you consider that any award is reinforcing the positive innovative behavior that contributes to the organization, you want to try and get that recognition as close to the behavior as possible to reinforce it and encourage it to reoccur more often.

A culture of innovation is built with many different pieces over time. What do your inventors think about recognition within your organization? What does a patent plaque or desk award mean to them? We encourage you to speak with your inventors, conduct a survey to get feedback on your culture of innovation to see where it stands. No matter how good things may be, you can always look for ways to improve it. If left on cruise control, its effectiveness may diminish over time.