How do you ensure that junior employees contribute their ideas?

Creating a safe environment where everybody feels comfortable contributing is very important to us. I can understand how one may feel intimidated to share ideas due to lack of experience, but in _VOIS we are always looking for fresh ideas and we aim to "Get it done, together" as per our culture.

This could look like a very hard thing to do in the beginning but with a bit of practice and preparation this should be somehow of an easily thing to achieve. This may or may not surprise you, but the majority of teams inside _VOIS appreciate and welcome the opinions and fresh perspectives of new joiners (and that includes junior employees too). I have been in this position many times within the Graduate Program and, upon joining a team, my initial thoughts have always been: “How can I contribute? What can I change? What can I add?”, however as the old (cliché now) saying goes: “Rome was not…”, you know the rest. The thing that helped me the most was to slow down, take a breather and pivot my strategy into one of an “active observer”. For the first couple of weeks, I spent most of my time finding out what the team does (their tasks and responsibilities, their procedures, their role and position in the company) and building connections with them (observing team dynamics, asking for help, offering help, shadowing). This will be beneficial for you as this will become the fuel you need to build the courage (if needed) and get your ideas out there. And finally, when the time comes, and I cannot stress this enough, DON’T BE SHY!! state your mind, present your idea! By doing this you either get the chance to showcase your knowledge and put yourself on the map or learn another lesson. Hope this helps :D