While members of the ‘Millennial’ generation valued innovation in an employer, only 26% of those surveyed in the recent Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Millennial Survey believed the leaders of their current organisation encouraged practices that fostered innovation.

Some 78% of the 5 000 ‘Millenials’ surveyed stating that innovation was essential for business growth.

When gauged on their perceptions around innovation and its impact on society, 84% of respondents said business innovations had a positive impact on society.

“Innovation at the institutional level is needed to sufficiently shift an organisation's mindset to allow new ideas to truly emerge and thrive,” Deloitte Global CEO Barry Salzberg said in response to the survey’s findings.

He added that innovation was a driver of business growth and a catalyst for solving society's most pressing issues.

Further, almost half of the respondents believed that business, rather than governments or academic bodies, drove the innovations that most positively impacted on society.

Salzberg noted that a generational shift was taking place in business as the leaders of the baby boomer generation, many of whom may have been wedded to the “traditional way” of doing business, began to retire from their leadership roles.

Two-thirds of those surveyed said an enhanced focus on innovation improved an organisation’s level of attractiveness to potential employees and was particularly relevant to those companies targeting ‘Millennials’, who were forecast to comprise 75% of the global workforce by 2025.

No Silver Bullet for Achieving Innovation

“However, discrepancies were found when ‘Millennials’ were asked about the requirements for innovation, with 39% of respondents believing that encouragement and rewards for idea-generation and creativity was a requirement for innovation, whereas only 20% said their current organisation operates in this way,” the report said.

Some 34% said providing employees with free time to dedicate to learning and creativity was key to an innovative environment, while almost half believed in the importance of encouraging innovative thinking at all levels of the organisation.

“Real opportunity exists for organisations to create the conditions and commitment needed to encourage and foster innovation in the work environment. There is a tremendous upside if we get this right; we can better retain talent, remain more competitive in the future and more positively impact society," Salzberg added.

Meanwhile, views on innovation varied significantly by country and industry, with many respondents in the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, or Brics countries, considering themselves and their companies to be innovative, while respondents from Japan stated that their companies were lacking in nearly every aspect of innovation. 

All respondents were born January 1982 or later, were degree educated and were currently in full-time employment.