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Listen To Your Team
Everyone who’s ever worked in
a business has thought about how to make it better. It’s usually with
the goal of making their own job a bit easier or more rewarding, but
that’s natural and highlights the sincerity of suggestions that
originate from outside the owner’s office.
Life at the top is pretty competitive. While managers fight fires and
climb ladders they’re often too preoccupied to see many smaller but
important elements of the big picture. Those who have their
responsibilities looking after smaller parts of the puzzle see what
their bosses miss.
What a resource is going untapped! But not everywhere.
Many business managers today are
actively soliciting suggestions from their team members and getting
great and useful ideas as a result.
There are other benefits to
seeking out and rewarding this valuable input. Employees feel more
connected to their work and the business. They perform better and stay
in their jobs longer. They have been empowered like never before and
they enjoy it.
It’s not as simple as putting up the classic ‘Suggestion Box’ next to
the pay window and waiting for the workers to come up with the next idea
as big as the paperclip or Post-It Note. First of all, nobody with an
idea potentially worth a million dollars is going to give it away to the
boss unless they know they’ll get a share of the action.
More importantly, companies have found that it’s the little ideas –
small ways to improve industrial processes or products that are the real
golden nuggets panned from their own people.
The process worker who sees a flaw in the system and has a way to stop
scratching delicate metal parts after they’ve been painted isn’t going
to get rich and nor will the company that employs him, but they can both
come out well ahead if he’s suitably encouraged to come forth with his
suggestions.
The office worker who’s tired of hearing customers complain about late
deliveries and finds that shipments are delayed at busy times by an
unnecessary wait for invoices to be generated is another source of
information that deserves to be heard. It’s up to the company to give
her voice a channel of communication.
“The devil’s in the detail” is an old saying, but so are the solutions
to a lot of problems that management is too distant to solve. An idea
here and an idea there can soon add up to big improvements – if they’re
correctly evaluated, implemented and managed.
These ‘little ideas’ come up all the time. They arise unasked for and
usually require little more than sincere acknowledgement in return. The
very human desire of wanting to make something better is strongest in
those who work with inferior equipment or procedures.
Offering a financial reward for these ideas can in fact be
counterproductive. The reward changes the focus of team members who
start looking away from their own segment of the business and try to
find ‘big picture’ items outside their own sphere of competence.
How much better it is to create a culture of encouraging and sharing
ideas so that everyone in the business sees it as a part of his or her
job. The only sacrifice the company has to make is allowing time for
small teams to meet on a regular basis – perhaps monthly, and share
ideas.
Create these teams within areas where people all take part in the same
processes. That way they have a common basis of knowledge and an
understanding of each others work. Each meeting should be chaired by an
elected member of the team.
Let this team be the first source of evaluation. If they decide the idea
should be implemented then an appropriate level of manager with
responsibility for that area – not a management committee, can manage
the process.
This system of evaluation makes the generation and suggestion of ideas a
part of everyone’s work. It’s relatively informal and allows shared
knowledge and information to be leveraged for maximum benefit.
How beneficial is this for an employer? First Maryland Bancorp
instituted a program designed to motivate employees to identify ways to
increase revenue or reduce expenses. The program generated $8 million in
savings for the bank in the first year.
A manufacturing plant in Livingston, Tennessee credits employee
participation with keeping the plant open. In 1999, employees generated
an average of 8.5 suggestions each, saving $741,761 in one year.
Douglas Battery Manufacturing Company asked for employee suggestions to
reduce workers back strain problems. The company was able to reduce back
injury claims by 40 percent within one year.
Little ideas from employees have created big savings for their
employers, so find a way to give your team the opportunity to make their
contributions and you’ll discover a hidden resource that was there all
the time. |
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