Actionable strategies for HR teams to boost innovation

Creativity is the fuel for solving complex challenges and staying ahead of the competition. HR functions are at the core of creating and fostering systems where employees can bring in diverse perspectives and ideas, test new approaches, and collaborate across departments. Without this support, innovation slows, and teams fall back on outdated methods.

The business case for creativity in learning and development

Research consistently shows that creativity supports employee engagement, problem-solving, and adaptation in the workplace. However, organisations often fall into outdated methods that limit participation and innovation.

According to Lepaya, using diverse training styles—such as interactive video, scenario-based exercises, and collaborative problem-solving—can increase inclusion and engagement by catering to different learning styles and backgrounds. This is particularly valuable for neurodiverse learners, who may prefer customised pacing and interactive formats.

At the same time, cultural diversity drives innovation by bringing multiple perspectives to problem-solving. A report from Loymark highlights that companies with culturally inclusive practices often see stronger creative performance because employees feel understood and valued. Creativity in learning content—such as including diverse scenarios—helps address cultural sensitivities and increases relatability for a wider audience.

In addition to increasing inclusion and engagement, here is why creativity needs focused attention:

• Improved processes: Employees on the ground often have ideas that can reduce costs, speed up workflows, or improve customer experience.
• Faster problem-solving: Cross-functional teams with diverse experiences tend to develop better solutions than teams with similar perspectives.
• Employee motivation: When employees feel empowered to share and implement ideas, engagement naturally improves.

By removing barriers to creativity and investing in innovative learning technologies, you’re setting up your organisation to adapt quickly, solve challenges, and grow sustainably.

Most common challenges faced by HR teams

Many organisations fail to provide flexible learning paths, interactive training, or support easily accessible to all employees during onboarding and throughout their development paths. As a result, employees aren’t set up for success in their roles and lack the resources to develop creative problem-solving skills. 

The obstacles in creating and maintaining a diverse and innovative workplace, where creativity is set back, are not uncommon:

• Rigid structures that prevent employees from taking initiative
• Training focused on compliance rather than problem-solving
• Team silos that block diverse perspectives and collaboration
• One-size-fits-all onboarding and learning processes

These challenges can hinder innovation at every level. Similarly, building a workplace culture where employees are encouraged to bring in diverse perspectives and creativity is the "key to success" for business growth. 

Top 5 practical strategies for HR teams to boost creativity

Boosting creativity is all about building scalable processes that support continuous improvement through diverse collaboration, modern learning platforms, and recognition for creative contributions. Through targeted and practical strategies, HR departments can give employees both the tools and freedom to explore new solutions.

1. Build creativity into training with real challenges

Static training that focuses on rules and procedures doesn’t develop creativity. Employees—especially neurodivergent thinkers—need scenario-based training that engages them with problem-solving opportunities. Creativity emerges when people can experiment with solutions in complex, real-world contexts.

How to implement: 

• Design role-specific scenarios that mirror real challenges (e.g., managing client escalations or operational crises).
• Allow multiple decision paths, where choices affect the outcome, encouraging exploration and critical thinking.
• Provide instant feedback loops to guide reflection on decisions.

Imagine this strategy in action: A customer service training module presents reps with a difficult escalation scenario where they must creatively resolve a client dispute. Learners explore different paths—such as offering incentives or reframing objections—and receive feedback on their outcomes, promoting creative problem-solving.

2. Adapt onboarding to foster creative collaboration

Onboarding often overwhelms employees with standardised content, which stifles creativity. Generic onboarding programmes often fail to engage employees by ignoring their role-specific challenges. Creative and neurodivergent hires benefit from structured projects that require problem-solving and collaboration from day one.

Tailored, project-based learning offers new hires the opportunity to collaborate across teams, solve role-specific problems, and generate innovative solutions early on.

How to improve your onboarding strategy:

• Assign cross-departmental projects to encourage creative thinking from multiple perspectives.
• Offer adaptive learning paths that reflect the employee’s job needs and strengths.
• Include mentorship programmes that foster brainstorming and knowledge-sharing.

Imagine this strategy in action: A new operations manager participates in a project where they must improve supply chain efficiency. Collaborating with tech and logistics teams, they generate new workflow designs, sparking ideas that wouldn’t emerge from isolated training

3. Leverage diverse perspectives to drive innovation

Creativity is amplified when teams bring together diverse skills and viewpoints. Cross-functional collaboration, particularly with neurodiverse thinkers and employees from different cultural backgrounds, disrupts groupthink and inspires breakthrough ideas.

Here are some practical steps you can take:

• Assemble innovation teams with a variety of roles, expertise areas, and perspectives.
• Use structured ideation techniques to ensure all voices are heard.
• Train managers on inclusive facilitation, allowing employees to challenge assumptions freely.

Imagine this strategy in action: A product development team combines engineers, marketers, and customer support staff. A neurodivergent analyst recognises a pattern in customer complaints that others missed. Their insight leads to a creative solution that improves both UX and retention.

Visit our article on What is Human-Centered Instructional Design for additional insights.

4. Recognise and reward creative contributions

Employees won’t invest in creative problem-solving if they see no recognition for those efforts. Many organisations reward routine performance while overlooking employees who take risks to innovate.

How to build recognition:

• Publicly highlight creative contributions that improve processes or outcomes.
• Reward both successful innovations and lessons learned from experimentation.
• Integrate creativity metrics into performance reviews, not just efficiency goals.

Imagine this strategy in action: An HR specialist develops a gamified compliance training module that increases completion rates and engagement. Their solution is featured in a company-wide presentation, inspiring other teams to experiment with creative learning formats..,

5. Enable creative collaboration with the right tech tools and gamification

Creativity often requires collaborative platforms that support real-time interaction and scenario-based learning. Adding gamification—with challenges, rewards, and leaderboards—can further motivate employees to experiment and share ideas.

How to apply:

• Use platforms that support interactive projects and team-based competitions.
• Add gamified elements like points, badges, and timed challenges to encourage innovative thinking.
• Enable live brainstorming with tools like sticky notes, shared workspaces, and feedback options.

Imagine this strategy in action: A sales team participates in a gamified negotiation challenge, where they develop creative solutions to common client objections. The leaderboard ranks reps based on client satisfaction and deal closure creativity, sparking healthy competition and the exchange of new tactics across markets.

How to make most of e-learning technologies:

Workplace training today goes beyond simply delivering information. Employees need to be actively engaged, applying what they learn to real work-related challenges from the start. This approach encourages creative problem-solving and faster skill development, which are key to succession planning and long-term growth.

However, while hands-on training can accelerate learning, some employees—especially those who thrive with structured, reflective learning styles—may find it stressful if frequent feedback and interaction aren't well-balanced.

To meet the needs of diverse learners in modern, global organisations, training programs must embrace both social and online learning models. 

With AI-driven, diverse video engagement platforms like Cinema8, HR teams can easily implement video technology solutions that can boost creativity, such as:

Interactive Elements

In addition to engaging the learner, interactive elements improve the training process. You can tell your employees to use the following features when developing an interactive video:

• Hotspots: These are the areas that can be clicked on in the video. These can be used by brands to direct viewers to different web pages for additional information, as well as reveal more relevant information within the video.
• 360 views: This feature allows viewers to change the angle of the video and experience the video in 360 degrees.
• Quizzes: Ask them to add short and relevant quizzes at the end of each module or video to assess users' attention and help them retain information.
• Images or gifs: Long, direct paragraphs of texts can lead to cognitive overload for learners. Adding a few relevant images or gifs can keep them engaged as well as help them grasp the information more easily. 

Luckily, you don’t need separate tools for every element. Cinema8 provides a wide range of interactive features that are easy to use! Train your employees using Cinema8 to help them master the art of e-learning. 

Customised colours 

If you want learners to pay attention to particular information or direct them to another video or page, you can use different colours for emphasis, such as red. 

The power of colors to evoke emotion and convey meaning cannot be underestimated. Therefore, tell your new hires to use relevant and engaging colors during the learning and development process. For this, you can refer our blogs, Color Theory - How to Use Colors in Design and How Colors Affect Your Brand Marketing to them.  

Balancing information with overlays, text and images   

Just like long paragraphs are not appreciated, using too many images or graphics is also not recommended. While corporate training, tell your employees that a balance between both is required so the students can read between the lines and fully grasp the concept through images. Ensure that they keep the visual content low (where necessary) and relevant to the topic.    

Read our article on 12 Most Common E-learning Mistakes You Should Avoid for further details.  

Popular Methods of Employee Training

Each year, we see an ever-expanding variety of staff training methods. It is this flexibility that allows every department, team, and company to find the most effective corporate training method. Interested in knowing different ways of knowledge sharing and employee engagement? Here is a quick look at the various kinds of employee training methods you can use.

Traditional Training Programs

In many organizations today, traditional learning and training still offer several benefits. Listed below are some traditional training methods you should consider when selecting the best waysbecauseSocial of training employees in your organization.

1. Classroom Based Training

Classroom learning usually takes place over a couple of days at a physical location, either on-site or off-site, under the guidance of a qualified instructor. Groups of employees participate in a series of presentations and activities, such as case studies or information regarding company policies.

Classroom training offers the benefit of allowing a group of employees to gain a large amount of knowledge simultaneously. However, this training method has many disadvantages: travel, arranging venues, and catering make it expensive. This kind of training is also tedious for employees. 

2. Interactive Training

Interactive training is a highly effective training method in the workplace that actively involves the new hires in the training session. You can use scenarios, role plays, simulations, quizzes, and games during this kind of training.

Practice makes perfect, and learners who apply what they've learned in realistic work situations are not only more engaged but better able to retain the information learned. However, in-person training can be a time-consuming process, particularly when learners need feedback regularly from a content expert.

Bottomline

Every employee is innately innovative and creative. Many businesses, however, unknowingly hinder their growth. Without creativity, it is difficult to grow a business that offers top-notch services and products while retaining a competitive edge.