The
Idaho Transportation Department was named a 2016
Innovative Company of the Year finalist by the
Idaho Technology Council October 25 in Boise. No
other state public service agency has ever been
a finalist in the category, typically reserved
for private-sector firms.“This award shows that a government agency can be just as innovative as the private sector and move at the speed of business,” said Director Brian Ness. “By finding better ways to do our jobs, we put the focus on the customer and serve the citizens, not ourselves.”
The centerpiece is an employee-driven effort branded “Innovate ITD!"
“Empowering our employees to make decisions where the work is being done has made us a more efficient and effective organization,” he added. “No one knows how to do a job better than the one who is actually doing it.”
The innovative-company honor comes on the heels of ITD’s internal 2016 “Best of the Best” competition, which spotlights innovations in each of seven categories central to the department’s overarching goals: safety, mobility, economic opportunity, customer service, employee development, time savings and cost savings.
“This program honors all the dedicated employees who come to work each day and think about how they can do their job a little bit better than the day before,” said Charlene McArthur, ITD’s Chief Administrative Officer and champion of ITD’s innovation program.
“If you rely on the brains of just the leadership group, or a few key employees, you can do some good things,” she added. “But when you tap into 1,500 minds and hearts, there is no limit on what you can achieve.”
Since the program began in 2014, ITD has:
• Received more than 620 ideas from employees
• Implemented more than 424 innovations
• Generated savings and efficiency improvements of more than $2.1 million
• Realized more than 70,000 contractor and employee hours saved
• Created nearly 165 customer-service improvements.
The savings in time and money are being used to maintain roads and bridges and provide better customer service.