By Tondy Nkuna – Group Chief Financial Officer

Introduction

Innovation is widely recognised as a fundamental driver of organisational performance, competitiveness and long-term sustainability. Innovation involves the generation and implementation of new ideas, processes, services or practices that improve efficiency, solve operational challenges and create organisational value (Burns, 2020). In an increasingly complex and uncertain business environment characterised by rapid technological advancement, economic volatility, resource constraints and evolving customer expectations, organisations across the world are under growing pressure to innovate continuously. Consequently, innovation has become a strategic necessity rather than an optional organisational capability.

Despite its recognised importance, innovation is still frequently viewed as the responsibility of executives, researchers, engineers, digital transformation specialists and dedicated innovation teams. Strategic planning sessions and boardrooms are often perceived as the primary sources of organisational innovation, where new technologies, business models and transformation initiatives are conceived. This narrow perspective, however, overlooks a significant source of innovation embedded within the daily activities of employees operating closest to organisational processes. Employees at all organisational levels possess valuable experiential knowledge that enables them to identify inefficiencies, recognise opportunities for improvement, and implement practical solutions that enhance organisational performance.

This challenge is particularly relevant in both global and South African organisational contexts. Organisations continue to face increasing pressure to improve productivity, reduce operational costs, strengthen service delivery, enhance environmental sustainability and maximise the value derived from existing resources.

In South Africa, these challenges are further intensified by economic uncertainty, infrastructure constraints, rising operating costs, unemployment, skills shortages and the need for organisations to achieve greater efficiency while remaining competitive. Addressing these challenges requires organisations to move beyond traditional, top-down approaches to innovation and cultivate inclusive innovation cultures that recognise and harness the ideas of employees throughout the organisation.

Recognising Office Cleaner as Source of Innovation

The Office Cleaner provides a compelling example of the broader understanding of innovation. Although commonly associated with cleaning and facility maintenance, Office Cleaners interact continuously with workspaces, equipment, employee movement, resource utilisation and organisational routines. This proximity provides them with unique operational insights that enable them to identify inefficiencies, reduce waste, improve workplace safety, enhance environmental sustainability and recommend practical improvements to everyday organisational practices. While these innovations may not involve sophisticated technologies or large-scale organisational transformation, they often represent incremental innovations that collectively deliver significant operational and strategic value (Ma & Zhang, 2026).

Recognising Office Cleaners as contributors to organisational innovation challenges conventional assumptions about who creates value within organisations. The recognition reinforces the principle that innovation is not determined by organisational hierarchy, job title or formal authority, but by an individual’s ability to recognise opportunities for improvement and translate those opportunities into actions that create organisational value. Appreciating the innovative potential of employees in often-overlooked roles broadens organisational thinking and demonstrates that sustainable innovation can emerge from every level of the organisation.

Innovation Beyond the Boardroom

Although innovation is often linked to disruptive technologies and strategic transformation initiatives, scholars increasingly recognise that small, incremental improvements developed through everyday work can generate meaningful long-term benefits for organisations (Coetzee et al., 2026). This broader understanding aligns with the concept of Innovative Work Behaviour (IWB), which refers to employees’ ability to generate, promote and implement useful ideas that improve work processes and organisational performance (Pajuoja, Viitala & Henttonen, 2025). Importantly, innovative work behaviour is not confined to managers or specialists. Rather, it is a behavioural capability that employees at every organisational level can demonstrate when organisations cultivate supportive leadership, learning opportunities and psychological safety (Sanlioz & Yildiz, 2026).

Closely related is the concept of Employee-Driven Innovation (EDI), which recognises that valuable innovations frequently originate from frontline employees who possess direct experience of organisational processes. These employees often identify inefficiencies, operational risks and opportunities for improvement long before they become visible through management reports or performance dashboards (Ma & Zhang, 2026). Their practical knowledge, developed through daily operational engagement, enables them to propose realistic, low-cost improvements that contribute directly to organisational performance.

Why the Office Cleaner Sees What Others Overlook

Unlike executives who analyse organisational performance through reports, meetings and performance indicators, Office Cleaners observe organisational activity continuously throughout the working day. They move through every workspace, monitor the use of facilities, witness employee behaviour, identify recurring maintenance issues and observe patterns of resource consumption. This sustained exposure provides what organisational scholars describe as tacit operational knowledge, practical knowledge developed through experience rather than formal reporting systems (Coetzee et al., 2026). Such knowledge enables Office Cleaners to detect inefficiencies that may remain invisible to managers whose interactions with operational processes are less frequent.

An Office Cleaner may observe that certain meeting rooms consistently consume excessive cleaning supplies due to avoidable waste, that recycling bins are poorly positioned, or that recurring water leaks are increasing utility costs long before these issues become evident in financial reports. These observations represent valuable organisational intelligence capable of informing continuous improvement. Consequently, organisations that actively encourage ideas from Office Cleaners gain access to an often-underutilised source of operational innovation (Ma & Zhang, 2026).

The Office Cleaner’s Contribution to Organisational Innovation

Innovation is a collective organisational endeavour in which every employee, regardless of role or hierarchical position, contributes to creating the conditions that enable creativity, collaboration, and continuous improvement. The Office Cleaner is one such contributor whose role supports organisational innovation in meaningful ways such as:

Cost Reduction

Office Cleaners are responsible for managing the daily use of cleaning materials, consumables, equipment, water and energy within the workplace. Their close involvement provides detailed insight into consumption patterns and operational waste. By identifying excessive use of cleaning chemicals, recommending more efficient dilution practices, improving inventory control or proposing environmentally friendly alternatives, Office Cleaners contribute directly to reducing operational expenditure. Small improvements implemented consistently across an organisation can generate significant financial savings over time. These forms of incremental innovation demonstrate that cost optimisation is not solely the responsibility of financial managers but can emerge from employees performing operational work (Ma & Zhang, 2026).

Workplace Safety

Maintaining safe working environments requires continuous observation rather than periodic inspection. Office Cleaners routinely identify wet floors, damaged furniture, exposed electrical cables, blocked emergency exits, leaking pipes and other hazards before they develop into serious incidents. Beyond reporting hazards, experienced Office Cleaners frequently suggest preventive measures such as modifying cleaning schedules to reduce slip risks, improving equipment storage or recommending changes to workspace layouts that minimise accidents. Such proactive contributions strengthen occupational health and safety while reducing organisational risk and associated costs (Coetzee et al., 2026).

Process Improvement

Office Cleaners possess unique insight into how organisational spaces function throughout the working day. By observing employee movement, workspace utilisation, meeting room occupancy, waste disposal patterns and storage arrangements, they frequently identify opportunities to improve operational efficiency. Simple innovations such as repositioning waste stations, redesigning cleaning schedules to minimise employee disruption, reorganising storage areas or improving equipment accessibility can enhance workflow, reduce unnecessary movement and improve overall workplace productivity. These improvements exemplify continuous improvement through employee-generated innovation rather than top-down organisational redesign (Pajuoja, Viitala & Henttonen, 2025).

Environmental Sustainability

Environmental sustainability has become an integral component of organisational strategy and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting. Office Cleaners play a direct role in achieving these objectives through their daily management of waste, recycling systems, water usage and environmentally responsible cleaning practices. Office Cleaners frequently identify opportunities to reduce water consumption, introduce recycling initiatives, recommend environmentally friendly cleaning products and improve waste segregation processes. Because these improvements are embedded within routine operations, they are often inexpensive to implement while producing measurable environmental benefits (Ma & Zhang, 2026).

Creating an Environment That Encourages Innovation

While Office Cleaners possess valuable operational knowledge, their innovative potential is realised only when organisations intentionally create environments that encourage idea generation and implementation. Below are suggestions on how an organisation can create an environment that promotes innovation:

Supportive Leadership

Employees are significantly more likely to propose improvement ideas when supervisors demonstrate openness, coaching behaviours and genuine interest in employee contributions. Leadership that encourages participation enhances innovative work behaviour across all occupational groups (Pajuoja, Viitala & Henttonen, 2025).

Psychological Safety

Innovation requires employees to feel safe expressing ideas without fear of ridicule, criticism or dismissal. Psychological safety enables frontline employees to challenge existing practices, identify inefficiencies and recommend improvements with confidence. Research consistently demonstrates that psychologically safe environments strengthen innovative work behaviour and knowledge sharing (Sanlioz & Yildiz, 2026).

Recognition and Feedback

Employees who receive acknowledgement for their contributions are more likely to continue participating in organisational improvement initiatives. Recognition does not necessarily require financial rewards; public acknowledgement, constructive feedback, and opportunities to implement proposed improvements reinforce a culture where innovation is valued regardless of job title (Pajuoja, Viitala & Henttonen, 2025).

Structured Employee Participation

Organisations can further encourage innovation by establishing suggestion systems, continuous improvement forums, innovation challenges and cross-functional improvement teams that intentionally include frontline employees. Such mechanisms institutionalise employee-driven innovation and ensure valuable operational knowledge informs organisational decision-making (Coetzee et al., 2026).

Innovation Is Everyone’s Responsibility

Recognising the Office Cleaner as an organisational innovator fundamentally changes how organisations understand value creation. Innovation demonstrates that innovation is not reserved for executives, technical specialists or dedicated innovation departments. Instead, it emerges wherever employees observe opportunities to improve organisational performance. By recognising frontline employees as contributors to innovation, organisations strengthen operational efficiency, reduce costs, improve workplace safety, enhance sustainability and cultivate a culture of continuous improvement (Ma & Zhang, 2026). More importantly, management creates an inclusive workplace where every employee understands that individual knowledge, experience and observations contribute to organisational success.

Conclusion

Innovation may begin with strategy, but it is sustained through collective participation. The next meaningful organisational improvement may not originate in the executive suite or the innovation laboratory. Innovation may come from the Office Cleaner who notices a safer process, a more efficient use of resources or a better way of keeping the workplace running effectively. Innovation, therefore, should not be viewed as a position of authority but as a continuous process of improving how work is performed. Ultimately, innovation has no job title. Innovating belongs to every employee who is willing to observe, think differently and improve the way work is done.

References

Coetzee, M., et al. (2026) ‘From control to creativity: Cultivating creativity through supervisory behaviour and a conducive work environment’, South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences.

Ma, X. and Zhang, M. (2026) ‘Many hands spark innovation: How employee-driven collaborative job crafting fuels employee innovation via knowledge sharing’, Current Psychology.

Pajuoja, M., Viitala, R. and Henttonen, K. (2025) ‘Supporting innovating employees: How managerial coaching affects four dimensions of innovative work behaviour’, Review of Managerial Science, 19, pp. 2937–2958.

Sanlioz, E. and Yildiz, B. (2026) ‘How and when transformational leadership sparks innovative workplace behaviours: Cumulative evidence from a meta-analytic review’, Current Psychology.

The role of servant leadership and innovation climate in encouraging innovative work behaviour in service institutions (2026) Discover Sustainability.

Prasetyowanto, R.W., Wijoyo, S., Lestari, Y.D. and Setyanti, S.W.L.H., 2026. The role of servant leadership and innovation climate in encouraging innovative work behaviour in service institutions. Discover Sustainability.