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Show us a company with an employee suggestion box, and we'll show you
a company that is desperately in need of suggestions, the first one being: get rid of that suggestion box. We've almost never seen one
that worked. Managers seldom have time to read the suggestions, and an ignored suggestion is worse than none at all.
The paradox is that employees often do have the best ideas for improving a
company. Consider Springfield Remanufacturing Center Inc., where a single employee has come up with production suggestions that have saved the
company about $2 million.
If you don't have the staff or the resources to keep up a credible, ongoing
suggestion program, you might want to take a tip from Betsy Howe of Howe Communications, a suggestion specialist in West Boylston, Mass. Her
approach involves setting up a specific program of limited duration (say, six weeks) with rewards for the best ideas each week, and a grand prize at
the program's end. Even if you don't wind up with million-dollar suggestions, you just might do something for morale. |
