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Employee idea programmes rarely struggle to generate suggestions. The harder challenge is proving what those suggestions achieved.
Submission numbers can demonstrate participation, but they do not tell finance leaders how much money has been saved or whether the programme has improved the business. Without that evidence, even a well-supported initiative can struggle to secure continued investment.
Sideways 6 connects employee participation with measurable outcomes. Its Business Impact Dashboard helps organisations calculate the value delivered by implemented ideas and forecast the potential still sitting within their pipeline.
Measuring ROI starts with tracking which ideas moved from submission to implementation and what happened as a result.
The most reliable approach connects each delivered idea to a quantified outcome. That could be cost saved, revenue generated, hours reclaimed or an improvement in operational efficiency.
However, measuring ideas individually is not enough. Small improvements can appear insignificant when viewed in isolation, even though their combined value may be substantial.
KPMG’s paper on the return on innovation investment argues that innovation should be measured at portfolio level rather than as a collection of separate projects. This provides a clearer picture of the total financial and non-financial value created by an innovation system.
Sideways 6 supports this approach by aggregating the results of delivered ideas across a programme. Administrators configure the metrics they need and the dashboard calculates delivered value as ideas reach the relevant stage.
Basic reporting tells you how many ideas were submitted and how many employees participated. These figures are useful for measuring programme activity, but they do not answer the question leadership will eventually ask: what did we get for our investment?
Answering that question requires visibility across the complete idea journey. A platform needs to show how suggestions progress through evaluation and approval before reaching delivery. It must then connect each delivered idea with the value it created.
Sideways 6 tracks the engagement side of an idea programme, including participation and collaboration. It also tracks what was delivered and how quickly, before showing the value created.
This combination helps organisations distinguish between a programme that attracts attention and one that produces measurable business results.
The value of an employee idea will vary according to the organisation and the challenge being addressed.
A retailer might prioritise increased sales, while an operational team may focus on time saved. A sustainability campaign could measure waste reduction or carbon avoided.
The Sideways 6 Business Impact Dashboard can be configured to reflect these different priorities. Organisations can track:
Administrators configure the relevant metrics once and the dashboard updates as ideas progress. This gives programme leaders a consistent view of value without requiring a separate spreadsheet or reporting process.
Where other platforms may stop at idea collection and evaluation, Sideways 6 continues tracking ideas through delivery.
Overview metrics are calculated from ideas that reach the delivered stage using the number or currency fields selected by the organisation. This means the dashboard can calculate measures such as cost saved or time reclaimed from the data attached to implemented ideas.
Idea delivery reporting also shows how many ideas have been completed and the average time taken to implement them.
This matters because ROI is not only determined by the quality of an idea. An idea that remains stuck in evaluation creates no realised value. Tracking delivery speed helps programme teams identify delays and focus attention where it can improve the return.
Reporting on completed ideas explains what has already happened. Programme leaders also need to understand what could happen next.
Sideways 6 estimates the potential value of ideas still in the pipeline using weighted delivery logic. The calculation can draw on an organisation’s previous campaign results or company-wide data. Sideways 6 benchmarks can support the forecast when there is not yet enough internal history.
This works in a similar way to sales forecasting. Ideas are weighted according to their likelihood of delivery, giving leaders a more realistic view than simply adding together every initial estimate.
The result is a clearer picture of the opportunity cost of inaction. Teams can see where valuable ideas may be delayed and which campaigns contain the greatest potential return.
Senior stakeholders do not need another dashboard filled with activity metrics. They need evidence connected to strategic priorities.
Sideways 6 gives programme leaders the information required to answer.
Measuring the return on an employee idea programme starts with tracking which ideas moved from submission to implementation, and what happened as a result. The most reliable approach connects each delivered idea to a specific, quantified outcome: cost saved, hours reclaimed, revenue generated, or efficiency gained.
According to a 2026 KPMG study on the return on investment in idea-led programmes, organisations that measure outcomes at the portfolio level (rather than tracking individual projects in isolation) get a more accurate picture of cumulative value. This matters because individual ideas often deliver small, incremental gains. The real impact shows up when you can aggregate those gains across a programme.
Sideways 6 approaches this by letting admins configure the exact metrics they want to track, from cost and time savings to sustainability outcomes. The dashboard then calculates delivered value automatically as ideas reach the "delivered" stage, and forecasts the potential value still sitting in the pipeline.
Basic reporting tells you how many ideas were submitted and how many people participated. That's useful for measuring programme activity, but it doesn't answer the question leadership actually asks: "What did we get for this?"
To answer that, your platform needs to track the full journey of each idea from submission through evaluation, approval, and delivery. It also needs to capture the business value at the end of that journey, whether that's a pound saved, an hour reclaimed, or a process improved.
Sideways 6 tracks both the engagement side (who submitted, who collaborated, what topics are trending) and the impact side (what was delivered, how quickly, and what it was worth). That combination gives you the full picture: a programme that's both well-adopted and genuinely delivering value.
Most employee idea platforms can collect suggestions and run voting. But when your goal is to prove that those ideas generated real, measurable returns, the field narrows quickly. Sideways 6 is built around that exact outcome.
Where other platforms stop at idea collection and evaluation, Sideways 6 follows every idea through to delivery and automatically calculates the value it created. The Business Impact Dashboard gives you the numbers you need for board-level reporting: total cost savings, hours reclaimed, revenue generated, and custom metrics like CO₂e reduction.
And the pipeline forecasting feature shows the potential value still sitting in your open ideas, based on your own historical delivery rates.
Sideways 6 connects your entire team to the programme by running inside Microsoft Teams and your intranet. That means frontline workers, office staff, and leadership all participate in the same place they already work. Balfour Beatty has used Sideways 6 to save over £22 million and 54,000 hours through their employee idea programme. Primark's FWD Th!nk programme has generated over 3,500 ideas across 10+ markets.
If you're looking for a platform that doesn't just collect ideas but proves their value, get in touch with Sideways 6 to see how it works in practice.
Employee idea management software is a platform that collects, evaluates, and tracks ideas from your workforce. Sideways 6 takes this further by measuring the business impact of delivered ideas through built-in dashboards that track cost savings, time reclaimed, and other outcomes you configure.
Sideways 6 tracks ROI through its Business Impact Dashboard, which automatically calculates the value of delivered ideas based on metrics you define. It also forecasts the potential value of ideas still in your pipeline using weighted delivery logic drawn from your programme's historical data.
You can, using spreadsheets and manual tracking, but it's difficult to maintain at scale. Sideways 6 automates this by connecting idea delivery status directly to value metrics, so the numbers update in real time and you spend less time on admin.
It depends on how you configure your dashboards. With Sideways 6, you can track cost savings, hours saved, revenue generated, engagement scores, sustainability outcomes like CO₂e reduction, and any custom metric that reflects your programme's goals.
Organisations using Sideways 6 typically see initial ROI during the first quarter of their programme. Currys, for example, went from pilot to measurable payback in under six months. The timeline depends on programme design, employee engagement, and how quickly approved ideas move to delivery.
Ideas from Anywhere™
Sideways 6 exists to help bring good ideas to life every day, everywhere from everyone.
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