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There is a famous story of a worker in one of Toyota’s car production facilities who received a sizeable reward in return for a suggestion that he made that subsequently saved the company many thousands of dollars. His simple idea? Why not turn off the lights.

Years ago when cars were built mostly buy hand, workers needed the lights on the see what they were doing, but nowadays when most cars are put together by robots, the acres of fluorescent lights are no longer necessary. All that is now needed are smaller lights that light up the walkways for people to attend and service the robots.

The question that arises from this example, is how many similar ideas are sitting in the minds of your staff just waiting to be set free.

What is significant to me about stories such as the car worker, is not so much the idea itself, but more that the culture of the organisation ‘allowed’ the idea to flow in the first place.

Suggestion boxes for staff to put ideas into are not new; in fact some would say that they are an idea whose time has passed. I disagree. Properly designed suggestion boxes placed at strategic places around the workplace are a tangible demonstration of management’s sincere desire to encourage full participation and contribution by all members of staff to help grow the organisation and make it a better place to work.

The key however to the success of suggestion boxes is in what happens after the suggestions have been received. Firstly, if the member of staff has left their name, a note of appreciation needs to be sent thanking them for their suggestion. Secondly, the person needs to be kept informed as to the outcome of their suggestion, even if it is put on the back burner for consideration at some later stage.

An alternative is an electronic version of the suggestion box whereby staff can email their suggestions to a particular person or fill in a form on the company’s website. Again, receipt of the communication needs to be acknowledged.

It is also very important to publicly acknowledge the results of suggestions having been implemented by the company. This also demonstrates the genuineness of management’s desire to seek involvement from all members of staff in growing the company. Mediums such as staff newsletters, notice boards and group emails can be used to communicate suggestion outcomes. People will only continue to participate if they know that there are positive outcomes to their suggestions and that their contribution is appreciated.

Some organisations provide incentives based on the number of suggestions received, or for increased savings or sales made as a direct result of the suggestion.

Until next week, many happy customer returns!

Graham Harvey APS

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