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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Copyright 2004, RAN ONE Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from www.ranone.com.