Let your employees help In today's economy, having truly engaged employees who are knowledgeable, experienced and sincerely committed to the success of your company is vital.
So, before you start the first round of layoffs, budget cuts and other traditional retrenching tactics, consider this.
The people actually doing the job are the best ones to tell you how to do it more economically.
So ask them! The people working on the shop floor, processing the customer orders, answering the customer support calls and producing and shipping the products know first-hand how much time and material could be saved with improved processes.
You need their ideas, expertise, and extra effort to get through this.
And, here's how you do it.
Share the Good, Bad and the Ugly I know, things are probably looking more bad and ugly than good lately but share it anyway.
And do it before your employees hear it on the 6:00 news! If your company is experiencing difficulties of any kind, make sure that your employees here it from you first and not the news media.
Your employees are an integral part of your company's team, not outsiders, and so should be provided the opportunity to make suggestions for minimizing the situation and answer their questions and have you allay their fears.
And remember, a scared work force is focusing on their own survival not yours.
What kind of information do you share? Everything.
Business Plans, Marketing Plans, Employee Engagement and Retention Plans, Sales figures, Expense figures, Customer Survey Results, Financial Reports, Share Prices and Stock Market Projections.
Anything and everything that will give your employees enough information to help you make important decisions.
Hold a meeting.
Bring in lunch and goodies if you want to, do it over the internet if you have to, but share the whole picture with everyone.
I know, most of you have these reports in some form or another on your intranet or in glossy quarterly reports.
But now you need to make sure that people really read them and you need to teach them to understand these documents as well as you do.
As well as your banker does.
Explain the consequences of maintaining the status quo.
Your employees are smart, they'll understand what you're showing them.
After you've shown the big picture to everyone, take time to individually go over the figures relevant to each of your departments and teams being sure to fully explain how cost-saving strategies in one area can help another.
These can be separate meetings if you think this would take too long in a single meeting but make sure everyone sees how they're connected.
An open and honest communications program across your organization energizes your employees and provides them with the information they need to offer valid and valuable suggestions for saving money, avoiding layoffs, and outliving your competition when times are tough.
Ask, Answer and Act Once you've shared all of the information, Ask, Answer and Act.
Ask for help, Answer promptly, and Act as quickly as possible to implement the suggestions.
Most employee suggestion programs are underused for a variety of reasons but primarily because they were implemented without a foundation of mutual trust, shared goals and a plan for sustaining the program and effectively using the ideas and comments.
There are a lot of people writing about the importance of building trust between employees and management and that's good because you really can't say enough about just how important a strong trusting relationship is to the success of the organization.
And for an employee suggestion system in particular, you need employees to know that they can trust you to not only value their input but also to do something productive with it.
Employees will not bother providing feedback and ideas if they think it's a waste of their time.
If you've shared the good, the bad and the ugly already then everyone's goal for the organization is probably pretty clear: Make it out of this down economy in one piece! Really good cost-saving suggestions are probably going to come pretty fast.
But that's because everyone has a common goal.
If, on the other hand, you just throw out a general request for cost-saving suggestions without explaining your concerns and creating this sense of a common goal, all you'll be doing is scaring your employees.
The first thought in their head is going to be that you're getting ready to start layoffs.
And when that happens, you can forget receiving any productive suggestions for improvement.
Your employees will be focused on protecting themselves not your company.
Your organization probably already has a few vocal employees always willing to contribute their ideas whether there's a formal suggestion program in place or not.
And that's great but what we want too, is to capture the thoughts and ideas of the more reserved or uncertain employees as well.
For that, we need an effective employee suggestion program that's:
Create four columns across two pages, Suggestion, Expected Benefit, Read By (manager's name), Action Taken.
An employee completes the first two columns and the person responsible for acting on the suggestions completes the last two columns.
Be sure to allow lots of room for discussion.
I find that once a suggestion is written, other employees also have ideas to add or they would like to agree or disagree on a point.
If enough discussion is taking place, offer to include the topic at your next staff meeting.
Cork Boards and index cards are also another good suggestion system that works on the same principle as the book but don't forget the high-tech ways of gathering suggestions as well.
Can you build a chatroom into your intranet site? Can you create an anonymous email account that employees can use to submit suggestions? Regardless of the system you choose, the final key to its success is how well you use and maintain it.
Employees will very soon stop offering suggestions if they look in the book and realize that the last time management read any of them was weeks ago or that the last dozen suggestions haven't been discussed or acted on.
You must be diligent in reading and responding to suggestions.
Also, you need to keep reminding the employees that the suggestion program is there to use.
If people always see the suggestion book by the microwave, they stop seeing the suggestion book by the microwave.
People forget it's there so keep reminding them in emails, company newsletters, posters, bulletins and at meetings.
Reward results And the best way to keep employees using the program is to reward those who do.
Make sure your employees know that you value both large and small improvements and the impact these suggestions are making on the big picture.
Lots of small changes add up! Reward individual employees and departments/teams for reaching and surpassing targets and for coming up with the most innovative ideas (voted on by everyone).
To be most effective though, make sure that the reward is in keeping with the value of the suggestion.
A coffee mug or gift certificate for dinner would not be perceived as adequate reward for a suggestion that has saved the organization thousands of dollars.
I've always firmly believed that money alone is not going to create engaged and committed employees.
however as a one-time reward for a job well-done, it can work.
Make sure again though that the amount of the reward is in keeping with the value of the suggestion.
Perhaps even a firm percentage of the expected savings.
Rewards of course aren't always money.
Even if the suggestion saved or earned your company hundreds of thousands of dollars, other rewards are exciting too.
For example, how about offering a trip for two to a sunny location.
The bonus to this type of reward is that your employees will talk about them long before and after a monetary reward would have been spent and forgotten.
People look forward to going on vacations, talk to their family and friends about how they received the award and will share pictures and stories when they return.
Word about how well you treat your employees and how well the company is doing will soon follow.
And imagine this.
Your competition is headlining the 6:00 news for suddenly laying off hundreds of employees and here you are giving your employees fabulous trips! Well done! So now what? So, after you've implemented everyone's fantastic ideas and your employees are excited and proud of having reached and surpassed their goals, now what? Well whatever you do, don't wallow in the past.
You've made it through the rough times and your company is better for it so keep sharing the good, bad and ugly, keep Asking, Answering and Acting and keep generously rewarding innovation and initiative.
Enjoy what you and your employees have accomplished and focus of the shiny road ahead now that your organization is better positioned than ever to succeed.
So, before you start the first round of layoffs, budget cuts and other traditional retrenching tactics, consider this.
The people actually doing the job are the best ones to tell you how to do it more economically.
So ask them! The people working on the shop floor, processing the customer orders, answering the customer support calls and producing and shipping the products know first-hand how much time and material could be saved with improved processes.
You need their ideas, expertise, and extra effort to get through this.
And, here's how you do it.
Share the Good, Bad and the Ugly I know, things are probably looking more bad and ugly than good lately but share it anyway.
And do it before your employees hear it on the 6:00 news! If your company is experiencing difficulties of any kind, make sure that your employees here it from you first and not the news media.
Your employees are an integral part of your company's team, not outsiders, and so should be provided the opportunity to make suggestions for minimizing the situation and answer their questions and have you allay their fears.
And remember, a scared work force is focusing on their own survival not yours.
What kind of information do you share? Everything.
Business Plans, Marketing Plans, Employee Engagement and Retention Plans, Sales figures, Expense figures, Customer Survey Results, Financial Reports, Share Prices and Stock Market Projections.
Anything and everything that will give your employees enough information to help you make important decisions.
Hold a meeting.
Bring in lunch and goodies if you want to, do it over the internet if you have to, but share the whole picture with everyone.
I know, most of you have these reports in some form or another on your intranet or in glossy quarterly reports.
But now you need to make sure that people really read them and you need to teach them to understand these documents as well as you do.
As well as your banker does.
Explain the consequences of maintaining the status quo.
Your employees are smart, they'll understand what you're showing them.
After you've shown the big picture to everyone, take time to individually go over the figures relevant to each of your departments and teams being sure to fully explain how cost-saving strategies in one area can help another.
These can be separate meetings if you think this would take too long in a single meeting but make sure everyone sees how they're connected.
An open and honest communications program across your organization energizes your employees and provides them with the information they need to offer valid and valuable suggestions for saving money, avoiding layoffs, and outliving your competition when times are tough.
Ask, Answer and Act Once you've shared all of the information, Ask, Answer and Act.
Ask for help, Answer promptly, and Act as quickly as possible to implement the suggestions.
Most employee suggestion programs are underused for a variety of reasons but primarily because they were implemented without a foundation of mutual trust, shared goals and a plan for sustaining the program and effectively using the ideas and comments.
There are a lot of people writing about the importance of building trust between employees and management and that's good because you really can't say enough about just how important a strong trusting relationship is to the success of the organization.
And for an employee suggestion system in particular, you need employees to know that they can trust you to not only value their input but also to do something productive with it.
Employees will not bother providing feedback and ideas if they think it's a waste of their time.
If you've shared the good, the bad and the ugly already then everyone's goal for the organization is probably pretty clear: Make it out of this down economy in one piece! Really good cost-saving suggestions are probably going to come pretty fast.
But that's because everyone has a common goal.
If, on the other hand, you just throw out a general request for cost-saving suggestions without explaining your concerns and creating this sense of a common goal, all you'll be doing is scaring your employees.
The first thought in their head is going to be that you're getting ready to start layoffs.
And when that happens, you can forget receiving any productive suggestions for improvement.
Your employees will be focused on protecting themselves not your company.
Your organization probably already has a few vocal employees always willing to contribute their ideas whether there's a formal suggestion program in place or not.
And that's great but what we want too, is to capture the thoughts and ideas of the more reserved or uncertain employees as well.
For that, we need an effective employee suggestion program that's:
- Anonymous (if the employee wishes)
- Easily accessible and open for all to see and contribute to
- Reviewed by management often (daily is best)
- And is an effective tool for discussions and team decisions
Create four columns across two pages, Suggestion, Expected Benefit, Read By (manager's name), Action Taken.
An employee completes the first two columns and the person responsible for acting on the suggestions completes the last two columns.
Be sure to allow lots of room for discussion.
I find that once a suggestion is written, other employees also have ideas to add or they would like to agree or disagree on a point.
If enough discussion is taking place, offer to include the topic at your next staff meeting.
Cork Boards and index cards are also another good suggestion system that works on the same principle as the book but don't forget the high-tech ways of gathering suggestions as well.
Can you build a chatroom into your intranet site? Can you create an anonymous email account that employees can use to submit suggestions? Regardless of the system you choose, the final key to its success is how well you use and maintain it.
Employees will very soon stop offering suggestions if they look in the book and realize that the last time management read any of them was weeks ago or that the last dozen suggestions haven't been discussed or acted on.
You must be diligent in reading and responding to suggestions.
Also, you need to keep reminding the employees that the suggestion program is there to use.
If people always see the suggestion book by the microwave, they stop seeing the suggestion book by the microwave.
People forget it's there so keep reminding them in emails, company newsletters, posters, bulletins and at meetings.
Reward results And the best way to keep employees using the program is to reward those who do.
Make sure your employees know that you value both large and small improvements and the impact these suggestions are making on the big picture.
Lots of small changes add up! Reward individual employees and departments/teams for reaching and surpassing targets and for coming up with the most innovative ideas (voted on by everyone).
To be most effective though, make sure that the reward is in keeping with the value of the suggestion.
A coffee mug or gift certificate for dinner would not be perceived as adequate reward for a suggestion that has saved the organization thousands of dollars.
I've always firmly believed that money alone is not going to create engaged and committed employees.
however as a one-time reward for a job well-done, it can work.
Make sure again though that the amount of the reward is in keeping with the value of the suggestion.
Perhaps even a firm percentage of the expected savings.
Rewards of course aren't always money.
Even if the suggestion saved or earned your company hundreds of thousands of dollars, other rewards are exciting too.
For example, how about offering a trip for two to a sunny location.
The bonus to this type of reward is that your employees will talk about them long before and after a monetary reward would have been spent and forgotten.
People look forward to going on vacations, talk to their family and friends about how they received the award and will share pictures and stories when they return.
Word about how well you treat your employees and how well the company is doing will soon follow.
And imagine this.
Your competition is headlining the 6:00 news for suddenly laying off hundreds of employees and here you are giving your employees fabulous trips! Well done! So now what? So, after you've implemented everyone's fantastic ideas and your employees are excited and proud of having reached and surpassed their goals, now what? Well whatever you do, don't wallow in the past.
You've made it through the rough times and your company is better for it so keep sharing the good, bad and ugly, keep Asking, Answering and Acting and keep generously rewarding innovation and initiative.
Enjoy what you and your employees have accomplished and focus of the shiny road ahead now that your organization is better positioned than ever to succeed.