Suggestion Box
hr92175
65 Posts
Hi Everyone,
I'm thinking about implementing an employee suggestion box (bright ideas)and was wondering how you all recognize and reward employees for ideas that are implemented. Do rewards depend on the idea submitted? I was thinking an idea such as casual Friday might be worth a $25 gift certificate, but an idea that generates revenue, saves money or improves our product offering would receive a bigger reward. Any thougts/suggestion are appreciated. Thanks!
I'm thinking about implementing an employee suggestion box (bright ideas)and was wondering how you all recognize and reward employees for ideas that are implemented. Do rewards depend on the idea submitted? I was thinking an idea such as casual Friday might be worth a $25 gift certificate, but an idea that generates revenue, saves money or improves our product offering would receive a bigger reward. Any thougts/suggestion are appreciated. Thanks!
Comments
I tried a suggestion box and there are several inherent faults with the concept.
1) You have to check it.
2) You will get a lot of crank comments
3) It will become an invitation for anonymous complaints that are impossible to follow up on
Create an improvement program and discuss it regularly. Identify a short list of key people who are designated to accept improvement ideas. Create a system of rewards that are significant enough to encourage participation.
You could create an improvement committee that evaluates the suggestions and chooses awards based on the value of the improvement and how much it will benefit the organization.
Recognize that not all ideas are good ideas. Figure out how you will deal with the enthusiastic employee with terrible ideas. And always communicate the results of each suggestion that is made.
Its interesting but not all employees will make suggestions. In fact, I would venture to say that the majority of suggestions will come from just a few people. For others, making a suggestion is simply too risky and they won't do it.
Good luck.
At one place we held a Continuous Improvement Award contest. We advertised the heck out of it. A committee was formed to surface the top 5 suggestions from each division (with various size gift certificate awards) and all suggesters were rewarded with a "I was in the CIA program" T-shirt. Finally, a Corporate committee determined the top 3. Don't recall exactly what the 2nd and 3rd winners got, but #1 got a % of the first 3 year's expected return. On the 1 year anniversary of the implementation of the idea, he got a VERY nice check (in the K's)
Think about how large the USPS. A suggestion that saved the organization one million dollars would net the employee $10k if the award was just 1 percent.
My brother has had several suggestions accepted and recieved some nice cash awards.