Innovation and job creation in companies

Eurofound research in this area provides valuable insights on key topics:

• how win–win arrangements are creating innovative measures through social dialogue at company level
• how the continued growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is changing their employment criteria in order to respond to customers’ needs
• the importance of upskilling and strategic employee sharing in an ever-changing marketplace.

Key contributions

Building largely on previous Eurofound work and data from the third European Company Survey (ECS) carried out in 2013, Eurofound has explored the company-internal factors and practices as well as external factors that stimulate innovative behaviour, enhance competitiveness and boost the creation and retention of jobs.

The survey provides comprehensive information on workplace innovation practices in terms of work organisation, human resource management, direct participation and social dialogue. More in-depth studies analysed:

• the motives behind the adoption of workplace innovation practices that enable employees to participate in organisational change and improve the quality of their working life and organisation’s performance;
• practices in EU companies for direct and indirect employee participation in decision-making, and which of these practices are beneficial for both the establishment and the employees.