Every organization has a valuable resource
for new ideas - Your Employees.
Your goal is to tap that resource.
An Employee Suggestion Program's main goal is to
encourage employees to develop suggestions
that identify specific problems and to suggest
solutions that will enhance efficiency, increase
productivity, reduce costs, or create a safer
work environment. A properly constructed Suggestion
Program should be a part of every organization’s
Incentives and Recognition plan.
If you are thinking about implementing a new Suggestion program, the following are very important to its success.
Topics in this article:
Create an Employee Suggestion Review
team
The team’s mission is to review every
employee’s suggestion and acknowledge
the receipt of each within a few days. The
team should not be all managers, and should
include members from many different departments.
If the review team approves a suggestion, it
will advance to senior management for final
approval.
Designate an Owner/Administrator of
your Program
To ensure success, your program needs a senior
manager as the owner/administrator, and must
also be part of the review team. Responsibilities
include making sure the whole process works
as designed. Having a senior manager on the
team will show employees that this suggestion
program is very important to your company.
Announce your Employee Suggestion
Program
Gather the employees to announce your program.
Talk about what you want to accomplish with
your program. Define what kind of suggestions
you want, such as: ideas to reduce costs, ways
to increase efficiency and productivity, improve
quality, identify opportunities to improve
sales or services, ideas related to safety,
and ideas that will improve employee attitudes
and morale. Describe what makes a good suggestion
(described below). Detail the Suggestion Review
Process so they will know what to expect, and
clearly define the rewards for approved suggestions.
Define what a good suggestion looks
like
Every suggestion should clearly state the issue,
include a detailed solution, an estimate of
the cost to implement the solution, and an
estimate of the projected savings or benefit
if implemented. While this may sound like a
lot to ask of an employee, it is vital information
that is needed by the suggestion review team.
The more information you can provide about
the solution and it's benefits, the better
its chance of getting approved.
Encourage submissions from individuals
and Teams
While suggestions submitted by individuals
should always be a part of your program, Team
Collaboration and Team submissions should also
be encouraged, and is where you could see some
amazing results. Design your program to encourage
people to come together as teams to create
solutions that may be bigger and better developed
than is possible by just one person.
Some employees may have great ideas, but are
not able to detail an issue, or complete a
cost/savings estimate, or develop a detailed
solution. However, if a Team Submission
option is available in your program, then these
valuable suggestions can be developed by the
combined intelligence of a few co-workers.
Define how the Suggestion Review Team
will communicate
Timely feedback on the status of suggestions
is important to keep employees motivated. Everyone
will be anxious to hear what’s happening
to their suggestion, so provide frequent updates
at defined intervals.
All communications between the suggestion
originator and the review team should be confidential.
This includes requests for suggestion clarification,
status reports, or rejection notices.
However, when a suggestion is accepted, the
employee should be recognized publicly. Include
a description of the suggestion and how the
solution will benefit the company. If an award
is involved, it should be presented at that
time. While most employees will welcome this
recognition, always respect the wishes of employees
who do not want that spotlight.
Clearly Define the Rewards for Approved
Suggestions
For approved suggestions that result in cost
savings, the employee generally is awarded
up to ten percent of the estimated savings,
up to a defined maximum amount, for the first
year the suggestion is implemented.
For approved suggestions that are difficult to measure its benefit, or does not result in cost savings, a series of tier-level
merchandise awards should be clearly defined.
If you publically recognize employees and
provide sufficiently substantial awards for
adopted suggestions, the results of your program
will be amazing.
How can Select-Your Gift help with employee suggestion awards?
For your tier-level merchandise awards, Select-Your-Gift
provides Suggestion Award Presentation
Packets.
These Gift Album Award Presentations
can be customized with a certificate of recognition
describing the suggestion,
signed by an executive, plus an Award Catalog
for the value warranted by the
suggestion’s
impact to the company.
Gift Albums are perfect awards as they allow
employees to select their own award from a
wide choice of popular items, and the selected
item is shipped directly to the employee’s
home.
Select-Your-Gift
offers 18 differently priced award catalogs,
which can be redeemed online, or by using the
provided catalog and a return mailer.
(See
all albums here)
Use this Information
Request and we'll rush an
Award Presentation Packet, sample catalogs,
complete information and ordering info -
Free.
We are available by phone or email to answer
any questions and provide assistance when needed. Please
call - We look forward to working with you.
For more information on any Select-Your-Gift product or service,
contact us at 630-954-1287 (M-F, 8am - 5pm CST), or Request
information packet .
