“We have in a short time got a more inclusive and participatory municipality. In 6 months we have had over 100 activities and 2500 participants.” says Petra Lindstedt
About Hofors:
The foundation of Hofors municipality is that people show care for each other. They are the ones who have the kindness to welcome, who are involved and care, and who have a heart for Hofors.
Challenge:
Hofors municipality aims to promote open innovation, idea generation, and collaboration. They want to engage both citizens and employees in decision-making processes and improvements to create a more inclusive and participatory municipality.
Solution:
Hofors municipality has successfully implemented the Vocean platform to promote open innovation, idea generation, and collaboration. Vocean has been used to increase participation and influence, both internally and externally. Hofors municipality has involved citizens, employees, and stakeholders in decision-making processes and improvements. Vocean supports this through its Innovation funnel, where ideas are collected, developed and enriched in co-creation processes and common understanding is achieved through selection and shared priorities, with the goal of achieving new brilliant solutions.
Vocean platform has been used to collect feedback on, among other things, the People’s House, school meal issues, and the municipality’s comprehensive plan. The platform has also been used to involve employees in energy-saving proposals, improvement initiatives, and safety surveys for students in elementary school.
Internally, Vocean has been used to conduct employee surveys with the municipality’s more than 900 employees. This has made the surveys not stop at the results from a survey, but the answers are further processed through co-creation and common understanding of development proposals and new solutions.
Hofors municipality plans to continue using Vocean to involve citizens in decision-making and give them the opportunity to influence political decisions. This will lead to stronger decision-making bases and faster case processes. The collaboration with Vocean is an important enabler for Hofors to continue to be a role model and pioneer in participation and innovation.
Benefits:
1. In a few months, Hofors has carried out 127 activities and collected over 1500 thoughts/opinions from 1712 participants.
2. Developed new ways to reach citizens and employees through QR codes. Reaches more and new target groups.
3. Hofors municipality easily gets real-time thoughts and opinions from citizens and employees.
In summary:
Challenges:
1. Increase participation and engagement
2. Better support for decision-making
Benefits:
1. Powerful tool for open innovation
2. Doubled the number of licenses when seeing the value
