Case Study: Direct Line Group achieves £3.25m+ in savings through employee idea management with Wazoku

How Direct Line Group generated more than £3.25 million in savings through idea management

Direct Line Group, a leading UK motor, home and commercial insurer focused on making insurance easier and better, needed a way for employees to share cost‑saving and customer‑centric ideas and know they’d be heard. To solve this they launched Wazoku’s idea management platform, Idea Lab, in October 2015 as an anytime/anywhere collaboration channel — attracting 2,000 submissions in the first months and engaging over 11,000 employees overall.

By rebranding Idea Lab (#thinkdifferently), aligning challenges to strategic priorities, simplifying submission processes, and empowering idea ambassadors and executive sponsors, the programme doubled its implementation rate and scaled adoption across the business. To date it has captured 6,000+ ideas, implemented 103, generated more than £3.25m in savings, paid over £138,000 to idea creators (with £26,000 donated to charity), and won the 2018 Engage Award for Best Use of Innovation in Employee Engagement.

Direct Line Group

Simon Linares

HR Director