Employee
Involvement Campaigns
 Getting
employees' ideas should not be an option. If your organization is going
to be competitive, it is mandatory you involve the minds, hands, and
ideas of everyone in your organization. Getting employees involved not
only yields valuable ideas and suggestions, but also the increased
morale of workers who feel like they are being listened to results in
a more productive and satisfying work environment.
Peter E. Drucker said, "One has to assume,
first, that the individual human being at work knows better than anyone
else what makes him or her more productive...even in routine work the only
true expert is the person who does the job."
Recently, an
organization I worked with conducted a powerful employee suggestion
program called an
Idea Campaign. In just three weeks this organization captured over
500 new ideas from the workforce. At the end of the campaign,
they had substantial, bottom line ideas and employee suggestions on how to improve productivity, cut costs, and
improve worker motivation.
The Idea Campaign concept is a
revolutionary way of capturing new ideas and improving employee
involvement. They are a highly effective, fun, and adrenaline
charged version of
the traditional employee suggestion program. The major
difference between this and other employee involvement programs is
there is a direct bottom line result. The campaign is the best way
of getting hundreds of ideas from the workforce quickly. They have
been used by many organizations and recently by Eglin Air Force Base.
At Eglin Air Force Base, the campaign ran for two weeks
where both civilian and military personnel were asked to submit ideas that
could reduce waste and inefficiency or increase productivity. Eglin
received a tremendous surprise when workers generated $400,000 worth of
cost savings ideas and new ways to generate revenue.
Harley-Davidson ran a similar program saving $3,000,000 in one 30 day
program. The U.S. Park Service made over 12,000 suggestions with an
approval rate of 75 percent. These are only a few of the
organizations discovering tremendous results.
The goal is to get at least one idea from
everyone in the organization. For the first idea, each person
receives a custom designed coffee cup. The second idea is rewarded with a
writing pen. In addition, each week there is a special award
ceremony to recognize everyone's ideas. At the end of the
celebration management randomly draw names from a basket for one of
several prizes. Other award items like baseball caps, gold rimmed
coffee mugs, books and medallions can be provided. However, the most
coveted prize was a reserved parking space in front of the building.
Bottom-Line Results
With most suggestion programs results are
slow in coming and the really good ideas get screened out. On the
other hand, idea campaigns take a different twist. All ideas are
recognized and all suggestors receive instantaneous recognition. The
vendor provides all materials, awards and the instructions.
What people discover is that the most
powerful force was not the awards. What they learned from the
campaign is people become more motivated when they know someone will
listen to and do something about their ideas.
|
