Get Rid of the Suggestion Box
As a manager you realize that attracting and keeping skilled workers is your biggest battle. You do some reading and discover that employees want to feel valued and part of the organization. You recognize that it is important to get feedback and ideas from your employees so you make a ‘Suggestion Box.’ Proud of your brain storm, you announce it to your staff and eagerly wait for their ideas to start filling up the box throughout the day. You rush back from lunch and check, but nothing. At the end of the day you look again, nothing. By noon the next day you actually open the box up in case any of the cards have been caught under one of the cardboard flaps on the bottom. Still nothing. You begin to secretly fill in a few cards by yourself and drop them in the box hoping it will spark a flood of other suggestions that were just too afraid to be the first ones in. Weeks turn into months and dust begins to settle on top of your suggestion box. You scratch your head, and think to yourself “so much for that retention idea.”The truth is that employees do want to be heard and they want their ideas to be taken seriously. How you go about collecting those ideas however is an art. There are many reasons why employees don’t share more of their ideas at work.
This may be some of their thoughts:
• Management doesn’t do anything with the ideas anyway so why waste my time.
• The last guy who asked for ideas made fun of most of them.
• I just can’t think of any.
• I don’t have anything to contribute.
• If it’s a good idea, I’ll probably be asked to organize its implementation and I’m busy enough.
So why bother? Because harvesting ideas form your employees is money. It’s intellectual capital. You could pay a consultant thousands of dollars a day to give you a few ideas or you can glean them from your staff. If done correctly, asking for input motivates your workforce, creates a greater sense of ownership and can even get people excited about the future of your organization. But, its all in the ask. Here’s one way to do it.
Launch an Idea Campaign
The Goal
Create a focused 3-4 week campaign designed to gather as many ideas as you can.
Outline the campaign and announce it
You explain to your staff why you want their input, and how much better as a team you will be when everyone throws in their suggestions. Next you will need to outline exactly what the campaign looks like. You can even create a couple of categories they can contribute under like ‘Best ways to improve the work environment,’ or ‘How do we build a greater sense of team?’ or ‘How can we be more efficient?’ You are only limited by your imagination.
Inspire and Reward participation
Ask everyone to contribute at least one idea during the 4-week campaign. When someone contributes their first idea they get a coffee mug you had made up for the occasion. Each week collect all the ideas submitted and have a draw. Only those who contributed that week are eligible. The winner gets dinner for two at a nice restaurant or tickets to the hockey game. It’s a small price to pay to get employees thinking harder about ways your workplace might be improved.
Build momentum
At the end of the first week, type up the list of ideas and put them on the lunchroom wall. Repeat the process each week with minor variations for creativity sake. If there are some real standout ideas, share them with your direct supervisor. Let your staff know about it. They will begin to see that their ideas have potential to impact more than just their department.
Finish off with a bang
Officially end your campaign at three or four weeks, but only if everybody has contributed at least one idea. Have a big celebration like a pizza lunch and conduct an awards ceremony. Give awards out to various people like the one who contributed the most, or the one with the best overall idea. You can even categorize them like the Oscars. For example you could have “The Best Overall Idea of How To Improve Working Conditions goes too…” You can even give out some wacky awards for the craziest idea (just be careful not to offend anyone) or an award for the idea that would “Get Us All Fired.” Make a final tally and commend the group on their insight and creativity and then close the idea box until the next campaign.
This whole experience will have added some fun to the office and provided every employee a great avenue to be heard in many different areas. It also gives you as a manager, many chances to recognize and applaud your employees, which makes it a win-win. Lastly it shows that management is listening. That’s important because when management listens, employees feel respected.
One last thing, be sure to follow up on some of the best ideas right away. If you have an idea Campaign and then no ideas get implemented, I guarantee your next Idea Campaign will not go so well.
Good Luck.
