In March 2019 the German Economic Institute reported on how companies collect ideas from their own employees. In the companies surveyed, 29 percent of employees had recently submitted ideas or improvement suggestions. About 43 percent of the suggestions were put into practice. At Siemens, employees made more than 160,000 improvement suggestions in 2017, with a measurable benefit of more than 300 million euros. Employees in medium-sized firms submitted 2.5 suggestions a year each, and employees in large firms 0.3. On average, companies paid a good 1,400 euros for an idea that was put into practice.