Bright Ideas Campaign | Employee Suggestion Program
Capture Employee Suggestions and Boost Employee Motivation
Capturing employee suggestions and ideas drives employee engagement and improves employee motivation. It creates a more productive and satisfying work environment. Yet many organizations ignore the untapped ideas and suggestions of their employees who know their jobs better than any expert.
The Bright Ideas Campaign
The Bright Ideas employee suggestion campaign provides a proven blueprint to capture hundreds of ideas to improve productivity, cut costs and drive improvements from the bottom up in a short time period. This Campaign provides the details on capturing ideas, driving involvement and identifies cost savings ideas from the bottom of the organization to the top. The ideas and employee suggestions you will obtain will improve your bottom line as well as create a high level of motivation and enthusiasm from your workforce. The Bright Ideas Campaign has been used by hundreds of organizations with proven results. It is not a “program,” but a self-contained, high performance Campaign that can revert to an on-going employee suggestion program for your organization.
“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.”
–Peter Drucker
First — Each person has tremendous potential. All workers possess good ideas about improving their job and the organization as a whole. You need to have a system to capture those good ideas. I wanted to create an effective, easy and fail-safe way for businesses to identify ways to cut costs, waste and to improve organizational productivity. Many of the Campaigns we have managed have saved clients hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in cost saving ideas. 
Second — I wanted to create a powerful employee suggestion program that provides employees a feeling of ownership and pride. There is no better way to empower, engage and motivate people than to ask for their ideas and suggestions. I used to work for the Federal government and I still remember how frustrating it was fighting the bureaucracy. Trying to get a new idea implemented was frustrating –like pulling teeth. After fighting that experience, I knew there had to be an easier and more effective way to get ideas implemented. That experience was the genesis of the “Campaign” process. The Campaign is designed to work around the departmental barriers, bureaucracy, sign-off, turfdoms and inertia that may inhibit good ideas and suggestions from surfacing to the top. 
Third — I wanted a program that generated powerful results. We can also custom design a Campaign to meet your specific needs. What makes this Campaign so successful is the the step-by-step process I have developed. The process is the secret to success. You will capture hundreds of employee suggestions and cost-cutting ideas from your workforce in 3 weeks or less.
Most Typical Employee Suggestion Programs Do Not Work!
Most typical employee suggestion programs fail to work. Why? Employees have learned most of their suggestions just sit in the box and go unanswered. Usually, only 10% of the workforce will even participate in the program. Then, there is this situation that occurred recently. A company president sent an email to all his employees asking them to send him their suggestions. Employees responded and sent in dozens of ideas and suggestions. The president was impressed, but overwhelmed. Because there was no process in place to evaluate and implement the ideas, most of the suggestions withered and died along with the attitudes and trust of his employees.
The Bright Ideas Campaign is a Carefully Constructed Campaign Based on a Proven Blueprint!
During the past 30 years, I have worked with hundreds of organizations designing employee suggestion and employee engagement programs. Years ago, I was responsible for creating an employee suggestion program for an organization of 72,000 people. As a Board Member of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, I had the opportunity to evaluate how leading organizations use their Employee Suggestion Systems (ESS) to produce results. I trained managers at Yamaha and learned how they drive continuous improvement with their Kaizen process. Because of our success, Japan sent a delegation to the U.S. to learn about innovation and employee suggestion programs so they could apply it to their businesses in Japan. As a result, I have taken what I have learned and created the most effective way to boost innovation and capture thousands of ideas and suggestions from your workforce.
The Bright Ideas Campaign is Different!
It Generates Results Quickly and is Easy to Implement
The Idea Campaign is Effective, Quick and Gets People Motivated!
The Bright Ideas Campaign is a streamlined and powerful variant to typical suggestion programs. With many suggestion box programs, results are sporadic and slow. Many good ideas get screened out, lay dormant, or are overlooked and ignored by the organization. On the other hand, this Campaign generates hundreds of ideas in three weeks or less. The Bright Ideas Campaign is custom designed to focus on specific improvement opportunities such as cost reduction, continuous improvement, waste, customer satisfaction, safety etc.
Expect 100% Employee Participation!
The Bright Ideas Campaign process is designed to get 100% participation. We have designed all the steps and details to make this happen. The campaign emphasizes one key principle — focus on your job and look for as many improvements as possible. By doing this, you accomplish three things: 1. You allow everyone to get involved and thereby create a receptive atmosphere for change, innovation and continuous improvement. 2. You open communication channels, build trust and identify opportunities for changes for the better. 3. The ideas motivate and energize larger ideas with greater impact.
Build Teamwork and Employee Engagement
It is this receptive atmosphere that allows ideas to become improvement realities. The same people who last month may have ignored requests for co-operation are now enthusiastic and team oriented. Things get done faster than ever before. Communication on all levels improves and bottlenecks are unplugged. The goal is to get people to look at their jobs, work together, and communicate in a collaborative manner. Employees are asked to suggest cost saving ideas and ideas to improve quality and customer satisfaction. It is important to get people to consider even the smallest ideas that can improve the overall organization. Over 30 years of research and experience in suggestion and employee involvement programs went into creating this system.
Boost Employee Engagement and Motivation
Do you remember the last time someone thanked you for your ideas? How did it make you feel? Just imagine if you could multiply that powerful feeling to all of your workforce? This Campaign has a proven track record in hundreds of companies. If you follow the guide carefully, you can insure a tremendous result, both in the quality and quantity of ideas and the subsequent motivation of your workforce.
It Revitalizes Your Current Suggestion Process or Can Be a Stand-a-Alone Program
There are many reasons to run a Bright Ideas Campaign and employee suggestion program. Whether you are trying to cut costs or improve job satisfaction, this Campaign will bring in hundreds of new ideas and innovation. Your workforce has good ideas–they want to be engaged and involved. This Campaign is one of the most effective ways to capture their ideas and suggestions. Idea Campaigns have many uses. Companies use this Campaign to kick off a new program or a new way of doing business. The Campaign drives involvement and commitment from the lowest parts of the business to the top. The ideas your front-line workers submit will not only be worth millions of dollars in cost savings, but also generate a positive change in attitude toward your company.
2) Revitalize Your Current Suggestion Scheme. The Campaign can be used to support your current CIP, Kaizen process, other suggestion program or it can be used as a stand-a-lone program.
3) Build Teamwork and Enhance Communication. Many organizations say this is more like a motivation program than anything else. It helps to tear down barriers between departments, stimulates creativity, and improves communication. One person told me, “I now know my company cares. They asked me for my ideas!”
4) Improve Collaboration — Tear Down Walls and Barriers. Do you ever get frustrated because departments/sections don’t work with each other? This program is designed to work cross-functionally. It helps you identify barriers and conflicts that inhibit productivity and communication.
5) Reduce Costs. Organizations with active employee suggestion programs report the average savings from employee ideas is more than $1,000 per year, per employee. An effectively run Campaign can generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost savings ideas from your employees.
6) Easy to Implement. Our proven process, detailed instructions and guidelines provide a foolproof system for you to launch a successful suggestion and employee involvement program. We can also help you run your Campaign.
7) Capture High Levels of Employee Engagement. No other program available will get people as excited and engaged as this one. If you follow the directions and guidelines we can guarantee you will get ideas from every employee in your organization.
8) Boost Employee Morale. When you encourage employees to share their ideas…and when the employees participate in implementing their ideas…their morale goes up. This improves productivity and lowers costly employee turnover.
9) We Provide Everything You Need. Everything you need to start a high-powered suggestion and employee Campaign is provided. The only items you will need to add are the recognition awards to give out to your employees.
Marsha Myers of Lee Hecht Harrison said, “Managers usually overlook the company’s most valuable asset and source of information – their employees. …creative organizations can find new ways to drive revenue and reduce costs by seeking employee suggestions.”
Proven Track Record With Significant Results
- Improve customer satisfaction
- Creates a feeling of empowerment
- Improves job satisfaction
- Creates ownership and trust
- Captures hundreds of new ideas in 3-4 weeks
- 30-40% of the ideas generated can be implemented immediately by front-line supervisors
- Improves motivation and morale
- Reduces costs
- Improves internal communication
- Creates a positive attitude
- Improves profitability
- Results pay for the cost of the program
- Low risk, high payoff
Typical Results:
- The Hartford Hospital received 495 ideas from 168 employees
- The U.S. Army got 530 ideas in 3 weeks from 200 people
- Eaton Corporation gained 944 ideas from 113 people reaching 100% participation
- Parker Hannifin Corporation got 499 ideas from 103 employees
- National Semiconductor saved $3,600,000 using idea Campaigns
- The U.S. Park Service made over 12,000 suggestions with an approval rate of 75 percent
- WIKA captured over 1600 ideas from 600 employees in 3 weeks. One suggestion was worth over $125,000 in cost savings.
WIKA captured over 1600 ideas from 600 employees in a 3-week Bright Ideas Campaign. Overall, they generated over $425,000 in cost savings ideas.
The Bright Ideas Campaign Kit Includes the Following Components:
The Bright Ideas Campaign Facilitator Guide: 
The Facilitator Guide is the heart and soul of how to run a successful Bright Ideas Campaign. We provide a complete day-by-day, step-by-step plan of action. The Guide shows how to organize the Campaign and how to get the support and cooperation of everyone needed to make it a success. The entire Campaign can be coordinated by a member of your staff. The Facilitator Guide includes instructions for planning and launching a three-week, intensive Campaign to involve all your employees. Once the Campaign is over, it can revert to an on-going employee suggestion program. Facilitator Guide Detailed Outline »
Bright Ideas Campaign Video: See first hand how it generated hundreds of thousands of dollars 
worth of cost savings ideas in one organization and totally transformed the morale and motivation of its workforce. You will hear from the HR manager, Idea Leader, project manager and the Director of Continuous Improvement.
Bright Ideas Training Program: We provide you either a CD or downloadable files containing four different sets of PowerPoint slides that outline the BIC process. The slides make it simple and easy to train your Idea Team, Implementation Team and your employees. We also include MS Word documents making your Campaign easy and simple.
Coaching and Campaign Management: We will provide you and your team an orientation and planning conference call on how to initiate, customize and manage your Campaign for the best possible results.
Here are a few key topics we will cover:
- Establish the objectives of the Campaign
- Help organize the actions of the executive team
- Discuss the proper way to recognize contributors
- Talk about how to get maximum employee participation
- Define and design roles and responsibilities
- Decide the best way for employees to submit ideas
- Plan various meetings needed to kick off and manage the Campaign
- Decide how ideas and suggestions will be submitted, managed and tracked
- Explain how to sort and categorize idea submissions
- Discuss how to use visible displays
- Design and discuss the role of the Implementation Team
- Selection of Implementation Team
- Discuss other forms of rewards and incentives to maximize participation and accelerate the Campaign
- Suggest ways to gain favorable publicity and promotion
- Run the Campaign at multiple locations
- Contact us for information on customizing a Campaign for your organization
