Innovation is not only a core guiding value at Calian—it is one of the five key social pillars of our environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategic framework.
To keep our company evolving and aligned with the needs of our customers, we regularly encourage employees to contribute their ideas, helping us stay agile in an ever-changing landscape.
However, many employees felt the old submission process for employee ideas was too complicated. Moreover, many held the common misconception that “innovation” was only about technology. To harness the team’s creativity, encourage out-of-the box thinking and increase submissions, we recognized that the process needed to change.
Making innovation accessible to all
In response, we launched Calian Spark in early 2024. This internal innovation program simplifies the process for submitting ideas—big or small, technical or non-technical—and connects employees with mentorship and collaboration activities to help bring their concepts to life.
Today, employees can share their ideas quickly and easily through the new Calian Spark portal. Within just the first few weeks of going live, the portal saw dozens of submissions from employees. From there, our volunteer innovation committee reviews each submission, provides feedback and further develops those ideas by tapping into the rich diversity of experience we have across the organization.
Exploring fresh ideas to boost efficiencies
In particular, Calian Spark encourages employees to consider how to make smaller, incremental changes that have lasting impact—whether that means improving internal processes, enhancing our approach to customer service or something else.
The company also regularly holds internal events year-round to help ignite employee creativity, inspire innovative thinking and find value-based innovations. One such example is a recent mini-hackathon, where multiple departmental teams brainstormed on how to simplify the time-consuming and often-overwhelming challenge of writing bids.
With guidance, participants discovered a way to reduce the effort by over 75 per cent using an artificial intelligence (AI) solution—saving significant hours while also resulting in an impressive return on investment of up to 800 per cent compared to the projected cost of manually creating profiles for the bid.
Driving a ripple-effect culture of continuous improvement
Ultimately, the Calian Spark program is building a culture where every employee can:
- Identify areas for improvement
- Access the support and resources to easily and confidently voice their ideas
- Feel empowered to contribute—regardless of their role
This sense of agency is crucial not only for driving change internally—but also exploring solutions to benefit our customers and the community-at-large. After all, even an incremental internal process change can have an impact on Calian’s ability to make an impact on the world in a positive and meaningful way.
As Calian works to reduce many of the world’s most severe environmental, economic, geopolitical, societal and technological risks, we believe encouraging employees to explore the “art of the possible” will lead to more advancements that ripple out to improve industries and enhance lives.
Encouraging collaboration for maximum impact
Ongoing global change affectstechnology, markets and daily life. To anticipate and adapt to change, organizations must always be thinking innovatively. By introducing Calian Spark, our company has revolutionized innovation into a shared journey for all employees—regardless of their technical background.
As we continue to harness the collective creativity of our people, we’re increasingly cultivating a vibrant, collaborative space where unconventional and bold ideas can thrive—helping us transform challenges into opportunities, while propelling our organization into the future.
Learn more about Calian:
With Calian Spark, employees can confidently express their ideas for improvement, regardless of their role, knowing they have a platform to share and the resources to help bring those ideas to reality.
– Lisa Aimable, Director, Enterprise Business Enablement
About Calian CARES
Our breast cancer screening blood test provides a new tool for women to use in taking charge of their breast health. Our mission is to make early detection part of routine healthcare and our partnership with Calian brings us a big step forward in Canada to impacting the way cancer is detected here and around the world.
