During a recent factory visit we observed a suggestion box covered with dust and apparently fallen out of use. This cannot present a good image to employees, and also reminded us of the many things companies do to encourage employee involvement in generating improvements, both good and bad.
THE GOOD: One company had regularly scheduled meetings of production employees to solicit ideas that would improve operations. The manager would dutifully write down all the ideas presented, along with the person making the suggestion. Then, there would be a group vote on which 2-3 of these had the most merit. The manager, or sometimes hourly workers, would then lead the effort to implement those changes, and report on results in future meetings.
THE BAD: The worst example was a company that energetically encouraged employee input, but gave no further information about action or results. As you might imagine, this plan did not last. Worse, consider the uphill battle the company will face in the future if they wish to create a new program for improvement suggestions.
THE UGLY: The idle, dust-covered suggestion box speaks volumes about the mindset of this company’s management, particularly how it values employee ideas.
Generally, people that volunteer useful ideas need acknowledgement in order to keep the good ideas coming. The company that had a public prioritizing system addressed one big issue—that of how to deal with low potential ideas without cutting off future contributions. They also had a simple reward program. As a consequence, they had a continuous stream of improvement suggestions. And that’s the desired result!