Shaping Aberdeen

Aberdeen City Council is Scottish Government Agency responsible for the delivery of services throughout the city. They have a clear vision for the future and high expectations for what they can achieve now and going forward. With triple aims of improving customer experience, improving staff experience and making better use of their resources, they needed a way to help reach their full potential.

The Challenge

The Council knew they had to make full use of the collective intelligence and ideas from their staff. Under pressure from decreasing public sector budgets the council had to find a way to effectively reach their aims and involve all of their employees at the same time.

Zoe Evans - Transformation Manager from Aberdeen Council explains “We recognised that in order to encourage innovation from the bottom up and to ensure the voice of employees is both sought and responded to, we required a much more transparent and up to date platform that would allow us to improve and transform our services.”

The Solution

HunchBuzz provided an accessible online platform for Aberdeen City Council staff to encourage innovation, ideation, and amplify employee engagement across all levels of the organisation.

The platform also created a way for employees and managers to highlight great work done by others through praise and recognition. With staff members contributing to the platform, there was more opportunities for staff to have their say on key corporate initiatives (such as the local showcase ‘Star Awards’). It became a way for employees to share their personal commitments to change and transformation, and also allowed them to update their progress with a clear goal in mind.

The Outcome

By using HunchBuzz for their Idea Management and innovation needs Aberdeen City Council has been able to enable and facilitate innovation, increase engagement and create collaboration all in a completely transparent manner. Some of the keys benefits the council has seen are:

• Ideas and feedback are gathered from acorss the organisation, whether front line staff or at a Director level.
• Service strategies are being informed by achievable, real goals and objectives.
• Best practices are shared throughout the Council through promotion and stakeholder support and buy in.

Working and collaborating with HunchBuzz has helped Aberdeen City Council become a more innovative and inclusive organisation while also harnessing and giving value to staff insights and ideas, creating better outcomes for the Council and the wider Aberdeen community.