m


 

  
  
  
 WE EXPLOREǥ
 What is an Employee Suggestion Program?
 Creating an Employee Suggestion Program
 Kinds of Employee Suggestion Programs
 Live examples
 Real world picture
 Benefits of Employee Suggestion Program


  

  
  


m  
 
 
  
 Employee suggestion program is a program that
provides employees with an opportunity to be
rewarded for innovative and creative ideas in an
organization.

 Employee suggestion programs offer an

organization a distinct competitive advantage
with their many benefits including cost savings,
increased revenues, decreased waste, improved
quality, safety, customer service, improved
corporate culture, employee motivation and
employee satisfaction.

 Employee suggestion systems have been in

existence for over one hundred years in one form
or another.
   
 
 
  
 ENCOURAGE EMPLOYEES TO OFFER
SUGGESTION:
Donǯt impose any rules.
Welcome suggestions through any medium.

 OFFER POSITIVE FEEDBACK:

Acknowledge the employees who offer their
suggestions irrespective of whether you like them
or not.
Positive reinforcement will keep thoughts flowing,
and good suggestions will definitely come up.
 REACT QUICKLYã
Respond to the suggestion fairly quickly.
Employee could interpret your silence as a negative,
thinking that perhaps his idea was no good.

 REWARD THE BEST SUGGESTION:

If an employee suggestion turns into big savings or
lands a new client for you, offer a tangible thanks of
some sort.
This motivates other employees as well to
participate.
  

 
 
  
SUGGESTION BOX
Itǯs a physical box with a slot in the top situated in
a building in which people could physically drop
in their suggestions into it.

Ideas submitted in the box are periodically

reviewed by the organization.

The organization implements the ideas which it

finds to be profitable for itself.
But why do suggestion box fails as an effective
tool?

è Employees have learned most suggestions just

sit in the box and go unanswered.

è There is no infrastructure in place to evaluate

and implement the ideas, most of the
suggestions withered and died along with the
attitudes and trust of his employees.
 IDEAS BANK
An ideas bank is a website where people post,
exchange, discuss, and polish new ideas.

Ideas banks are used for the purpose of

developing new inventions or technologies

Corporations have installed internal ideas banks

to gather the input from their employees and
improve their ideation process.
EXAMPLES OF IDEAS BANK:

è Halfbakery is an example of a slightly less

serious ideas bank. Users submit ideas, often
jokingly, which are then commented on, often
jokingly, by other users.

è Founded in London in 2000, Idea A Day solicits

submissions of original ideas from around the
world, edits and publishes one considered
example every day.
E-DEAS
An idea tracker software keeps tracks of all the
ideas submitted to the organization.

The administration uses the software to access the

information and implement them in the
organization to benefit the company.
 
 
 RLI INSURANCE:
The 291 employees at this Peoria, RLI insurance
company came up with 1,319 new ideas in one year.
One employee came up with 49 new ideas.
Another employee's new ideas saved the company
$145,000.

 TOYOTA:
Toyota employees in Japan average more than one
new idea per week across the whole workforce.
(Source: HR Briefing, May 10, 1995).
 JOHNSON CONTROLS:
The 230 employees in this Georgetown, KY., auto-
parts factory generated 631 new ideas in 1995. Each
of the employees came up with 30 new ideas in
one month, alone.

 FORD MOTORS:
In one 3-week campaign in 1996, Ford workers and
engineers in Chicago and Atlanta came up with
new ideas that will save Ford Motor Co. more than
$73-million a year.
 ð 
    
    
  
 Capturing employees ideas and
suggestions improves employee
motivation, creating a more
satisfying and productive work
environment.

Yet companies ignore the untapped

resource of their employees.
DATA SUGGESTS:
— Just 41% of employees think their senior management
supports new ideas and new ways of doing things

— Just 37% of employees think senior management tries

to be visible and accessible to employees

— A whopping 60% of employees think their

organization's employee suggestion program does not
exist or is ineffective.
ð  
 
 
  
 Improved customer satisfaction.
 Creates a feeling of empowerment in the minds of
the employees.
 Improves job satisfaction.
 Captures hundreds of new ideas from various
walks of life.
 Improves motivation and employee morale.
 Creates a positive and healthy work environment.
 Results derived pay the cost of using such a
program.
 Hence, low risk and high pay off.