Employee suggestion boxes often begin with enthusiasm. Ideas pour in, employees feel heard and leaders anticipate a steady stream of improvements.
Then momentum fades.
Submissions accumulate, evaluating them becomes difficult and contributors receive little or no feedback. Employees conclude that nothing happens to their suggestions, while managers inherit an unmanageable backlog.
I have seen this happen firsthand. I once suggested introducing a suggestion box at work. It was initially well received and attracted plenty of ideas, but there was no effective process for comparing submissions, assigning responsibility, or keeping contributors informed. The volume became difficult to manage, participation declined and the initiative eventually fizzled out.
I was gutted that my idea was ultimately seen as just another of those management initiatives that wastes time and goes nowhere.
The problem was not a shortage of ideas. It was the absence of a system for prioritising and testing them.
An ‘idea market’ offers a possible solution.
What is an idea market?
An idea market is a structured system in which employees submit proposals and use a limited allocation of virtual credits to support the ideas they believe will create the most value.
Instead of giving every proposal equal apparent importance, an idea market asks participants to make choices. Supporting one idea leaves fewer credits available for another. This scarcity encourages employees to consider feasibility, impact, cost and relevance rather than simply voting for everything they like.
The resulting rankings help the organisation identify promising ideas for further assessment. They do not necessarily determine which proposals are implemented.
A typical process works like this:
1. The organisation defines a specific business challenge.
2. Employees submit ideas addressing that challenge.
3. Participants receive an equal number of virtual credits.
4. They allocate those credits among the ideas they support.
5. Participants can discuss proposals and ask questions.
6. A review panel evaluates the strongest ideas.
7. Selected proposals receive funding or resources for small-scale experiments.
8. Results and decisions are reported to everyone who participated.
The market is therefore a ‘prioritisation mechanism,’ not an automatic decision-maker.
An idea market cannot solve weak leadership or poor follow-through. However, it can provide the missing structure needed to focus participation, compare proposals and move selected ideas towards practical testing. It also encourages employees to consider carefully where they would invest their virtual cash which in principle helps to identify the most impactful ideas.
How to introduce an idea market at work
Launching a permanent organisation-wide market immediately would create many of the same risks as an unrestricted suggestion box (see my mistakes earlier!). A focused pilot is a better starting point.
1. Choose one clearly defined challenge
Begin with a question employees can understand and influence, such as:
– How could we reduce avoidable administrative work?
– How could we improve the customer onboarding experience?
– How could we reduce waste in a particular operation?
– How could we improve communication between two departments?
– How could we make a recurring internal process faster?
Avoid an invitation such as “Send us any idea that could improve the company.” It is too broad to produce easily comparable proposals. This was one of my biggest mistakes.
2. Set a short timetable
A pilot lasting approximately six to eight weeks is long enough to gather, refine, prioritise and review ideas without allowing interest to drift.
For example:
– Week 1: Announce the challenge and explain the rules.
– Weeks 2–3: Collect and moderate submissions.
– Weeks 4–5: Open the market for discussion and investment.
– Week 6: Conduct expert review.
– Weeks 7–8: Announce decisions and prepare experiments.
The precise timetable can vary, but deadlines should be visible from the beginning.
3. Give participants equal virtual budgets
Each participant might receive 100 non-transferable credits to allocate among eligible ideas.
Participants should be allowed to support several proposals, but their total allocation must remain within the budget. Someone could place 50 credits on one idea, 30 on another and 20 on a third, for example.
This is more informative than an unlimited “like” button because it shows both preference and conviction.
4. Moderate before opening the market
Moderation should improve clarity without quietly controlling the result.
Moderators can:
– Remove duplicates.
– Combine closely related proposals with the contributors’ agreement.
– Ask authors to clarify unclear ideas.
– Ensure that each proposal follows a consistent format.
A useful submission template might ask for:
– The problem being addressed
– The proposed solution
– The people affected
– The expected benefit
– Likely costs or resources
– Major risks or dependencies
– A simple way to test the idea
Moderators should publish clear eligibility rules and explain why any proposal has been excluded.
5. Encourage discussion before investment closes
Participants need enough information to make informed choices. They should be able to ask questions, identify assumptions and suggest improvements.
Idea authors should also be permitted to revise their proposals in response to constructive feedback, provided material changes are clearly recorded.
Discussion can reveal useful knowledge that would not appear in a simple vote. An employee may know that an idea has already been tested, depends on an unavailable system, or could be achieved more cheaply in another way.
6. Use market results as evidence, not as the final verdict
The most heavily backed idea should not automatically win.
Market activity can reveal employee confidence and organisational knowledge, but it cannot replace technical, financial, legal, or strategic assessment. A qualified panel should evaluate the leading ideas against published criteria such as:
– Potential impact
– Feasibility
– Estimated cost
– Implementation time
– Strategic alignment
– Operational and legal risk
– Testability
– Evidence of employee or customer need
The panel should explain its decisions, particularly when it selects a lower-ranked proposal over the market leader.
7. Fund experiments rather than perfect business cases
Requiring a complete business case at the beginning may exclude employees who understand a problem but lack access to financial data or specialist support.
A better approach is to give selected teams a small amount of funding, protected time and expert assistance to run an experiment.
Examples might include:
– Testing a process change in one department
– Building a simple prototype
– Interviewing a small group of customers
– Running a manual version of a proposed service
– Measuring the effect of removing one approval step
The purpose of a pilot is to learn cheaply before making a larger commitment.
8. Close the feedback loop
Every proposal should receive a visible status, such as:
– Submitted
– Eligible for investment
– Under review
– Selected for testing
– Deferred
– Declined
– Pilot completed
– Approved for wider implementation
Where possible, declined ideas should receive a short explanation. Common reasons could include excessive cost, duplication, regulatory constraints, poor strategic fit, or insufficient evidence.
Publishing outcomes demonstrates that participation has consequences, even when an idea is not selected.
How should participants be rewarded?
Rewards can encourage participation, but they can also distort it. A large payment for the “winning idea” may promote secrecy, competition, exaggerated claims, or disputes over ownership.
A hybrid approach is usually more appropriate.
1. Recognition
Recognition may include:
– Acknowledgement from senior leaders
– Internal profiles of contributors and project teams
– Invitations to present results
– Awards at company events
– Recognition in performance or development discussions
Recognition should extend beyond the original author. Colleagues who refine, test, or implement an idea may contribute just as much to its success.
2. Professional development
Employees could receive:
– Protected time to develop the proposal
– Project-management experience
– Mentoring from specialists or senior leaders
– Training linked to the pilot
– Opportunities to join implementation teams
– Access to relevant conferences or learning programmes
These rewards can strengthen both the idea and the employee’s career.
3. Fixed or outcome-based awards
Where appropriate, organisations may offer modest fixed awards when ideas reach defined stages, such as:
– Selection for a pilot
– Successful completion of an experiment
– Approval for wider implementation
– Achievement of a verified outcome
The criteria should be transparent and agreed in advance. Rewards based on claimed savings should only be paid after the organisation has defined how those savings will be measured.
4. Rewards for sound judgement
An idea market can also recognise participants who consistently identify promising proposals. However, this should be handled carefully.
Rewarding only those who backed the eventual winners could encourage people to follow popular opinion rather than assess ideas independently. Recognition should therefore value thoughtful analysis, constructive feedback and collaboration, not just accurate prediction.
Risks and safeguards
Idea markets are not automatically fair or accurate. Their design can introduce new problems if these are not anticipated.
A. Popularity can be mistaken for quality
Well-known employees or polished presenters may attract more support than quieter contributors.
Safeguard: Use standard proposal templates, allow optional anonymity during the investment stage and require independent expert review.
B. Larger departments may dominate
A department with more participants could direct disproportionate support towards ideas that benefit its own work.
Safeguard: Monitor participation by department and consider segmented analysis where appropriate. Do not treat the raw ranking as the only measure of value.
C. Exciting proposals can overshadow practical improvements
Employees may favour ambitious concepts over less glamorous ideas that could produce dependable results.
Safeguard: Ask participants and reviewers to consider feasibility, cost and measurable impact. Consider separate categories for incremental and transformational ideas.
D. Groupthink can distort the market
Early activity may influence later participants, creating momentum that has little to do with quality.
Safeguard: Consider hiding investment totals until the market closes or revealing them only at defined intervals.
E. Rankings can create false precision
An idea with 2,000 credits is not necessarily twice as valuable as one with 1,000. The totals show relative support within a particular group and set of rules; they do not prove financial value.
Safeguard: Treat rankings as signals that inform further investigation.
F. Poor follow-through can still destroy confidence
A well designed market will fail if leaders do not make decisions, provide resources, or communicate results.
Safeguard: Assign named owners, establish response deadlines and secure a pilot budget before inviting submissions.
A practical six-to-eight-week pilot
A small pilot could use the following model:
1. Select one business problem and appoint an accountable sponsor.
2. Publish the rules, assessment criteria, timetable and available pilot budget.
3. Invite employees to submit proposals through a standard template.
4. Moderate duplicates, confidential information and ineligible submissions.
5. Give each participant an equal allocation of virtual credits.
6. Allow discussion and investment for a fixed period.
7. Ask a cross-functional panel to review the leading ideas.
8. Select a small number for low-cost experiments.
9. Publish decisions and explain why each idea was selected, deferred, or declined.
10. Evaluate the pilot before deciding whether to repeat or expand it.
Success should not be measured solely by the number of ideas submitted. More useful measures include:
– Participation across teams and roles
– Percentage of submissions receiving a timely decision
– Time from submission to experiment
– Number of experiments completed
– Evidence generated by those experiments
– Improvements implemented
– Participant confidence in the process
– Quality and usefulness of feedback
From collecting ideas to acting on them
The failure of a suggestion box does not necessarily mean employees lack useful ideas. It may mean the organisation has created a submission channel without creating a decision-making system.
That was the weakness in the suggestion box I implemented. It succeeded in attracting ideas but lacked an effective way to compare them, manage the volume, assign ownership and demonstrate follow-through.
An idea market addresses those weaknesses by forcing prioritisation. Its rankings can reveal which proposals employees believe deserve attention, while expert review and small experiments protect the organisation from treating popularity as proof.
The market mechanism is only one part of the solution. The most important commitments are still human ones: leaders must define meaningful challenges, respond within a reasonable time, resource promising experiments and communicate decisions honestly.
Without those commitments, an idea market could become another black hole. With them, it can help turn scattered employee suggestions into a transparent and repeatable innovation process.
FAQ’s
Is an idea market the same as a suggestion box?
No. A suggestion box primarily collects proposals. An idea market asks participants to allocate limited credits among competing ideas and normally includes moderation, evaluation deadlines, named owners, experimentation and published outcomes.
Does an idea market use real money?
Most internal schemes can use virtual, non-transferable credits. Introducing real financial returns, ownership, or profit sharing creates additional legal, tax, HR and regulatory questions. Keep it simple.
Should the most popular idea automatically win?
No. Market rankings reveal collective preferences, not objective proof. Specialists should still examine cost, feasibility, risk, evidence and strategic fit.
How should employees be rewarded?
Useful rewards include recognition, development opportunities, protected implementation time, fixed awards and perhaps bonuses linked to verified outcomes. Organisations should recognise people who improve and implement ideas as well as those who originally submit them.
Can small organisations use an idea market?
Yes, although the process can be simpler. A small organisation could give every employee a fixed number of credits and run the market using its existing collaboration tools. The essential elements are scarcity, transparent criteria, accountable review, experimentation and feedback.
What happens to ideas that are not selected?
They should receive a visible decision and, where practical, a brief explanation. Some may be rejected, while others may be stored for a future challenge, returned for further evidence, or combined with similar proposals.