Friday’s Recruiting Daily Advisor explored how traditional employee-suggestion programs of yesteryear have become the revitalized idea systems of today. Now, we outline how to build in key components—plus dodge potential pitfalls.
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From Idea to Policy
To reap the benefits, essential elements of an employee-idea program include the following:
- Senior staff support
- A simple, easy process for submitting suggestions
- A strong process for evaluating and implementing suggestions
- An effective program for publicizing and communicating the program
- A fair and motivating award structure
- A program focus on key organizational goals
But installing and managing these elements is no small task. And the risks associated with doing it poorly can be large, experts say.
If an idea program is underutilized or inadequately managed, the results can include declines in employee morale and lost opportunities to cut costs.
In particular, ease of submission directly impacts the number of ideas received. For example, online suggestion systems receive more ideas than paper or form-based systems because there are simply fewer physical barriers to submitting the idea. In addition, so-called “gating,” or asking for too much information up front, can reduce the number of ideas submitted.
Other potential problems in the process tend to be lack of proper recognition to those involved; a perceived lack of support from management; excessive turnaround time between submission of an idea and the final decision; inadequate training for employees and evaluators; and insufficient marketing and publicity to keep the program fresh.
End result: Any of these characteristics can render a program a failure.