According to new research released today by 3M, nearly seven million UK employees currently have ideas to improve their business that they haven't shared with their employers. Only 30% of UK workers believe that the board has the best ideas in the company, with better ideas coming from people in HR, IT, sales and marketing, secretaries and graduates.

Despite a wealth of great ideas generated by employees, over a quarter of workers, equating to 6,839,999 people, currently have ideas that they haven't shared with their employers. These ideas range from improving the working environment and staff morale, to new product areas and improving productivity.

One in five workers do not feel their bosses listen to them while another one in ten are intimidated by making suggestions to senior management. 84% of employees said they would be more willing to stay with a company that listened to their ideas. Being listened to is highly rated by UK workers, with 53% identifying that a scheme that encourages bosses to listen to their ideas is just as important as a good benefits package.

This week is National Ideas Week, which aims to encourage the spread of staff suggestions schemes and the like.

What do you do to get input from everyone in your organisation? Post your comments below.