Workplaces as the object for innovation in the social sphere (case study of the Vologda oblast)

The article is devoted to the research of workplace innovation. The aim of the study is to consider the essence of the concept “workplace innovation” in the context of innovation in the social sphere, as well as to assess innovation according to such indirect indicators as the employee satisfaction with their professional activity, working conditions and quality of workplaces. The author justifies the relevance of studying this type of innovation to increase the efficiency and economic returns from labor activity. The data from the international scientometric databases Web of Science and Scopus are presented as the confirmation of the growing interest to the topic under consideration. The paper reveals the experience of studying this issue in Europe and specifies the necessity of researching it in the Russian Federation. The information base of the study comprises the results of the monitoring regarding the quality of the labor potential of the Vologda Oblast, which hasbeen conducted by Vologda Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the region since 1997, as well as the data from the international sociological survey “Modern Successful Person”, carried out in 2018 by the researchers from the Russian and Belarusian institutes of Academies of Sciences and the representatives from the Russian and Polish organizations of higher professional education. The author has used general scientific methods such as analysis, synthesis, abstraction, generalization, sociological methods (questionnaire, etc.) in the process of carrying out the study. The results obtained during analyzing the empirical data have allowed to assess the current state of workplaces, determine their problem issues, which can be improved in the process of applying innovative solutions. The scientific novelty of the study consists in defining the essence of the concept “workplace innovation” in the context of innovation in the social sphere, identifying its elements and the dependence of labor efficiency on the innovative component of workplaces. The author emphasizes the importance of studying and further implementation of workplace innovation for improving various aspects of labor activity and creating the favorable working environment for the effective functioning of organizations and increase in labor productivity of workers in the region as a whole.