in Greenwich, Connecticut, expects every employee – from receptionist to chairman – to submit at least two ideas each week for improvements. Initially established to encourage cost-savings, the Boardroom, Inc., program is called “I Power,” and the company credits the suggestion program with a five-fold increase in its revenues as well as untold benefit to the morale, energy, and retention of its employees. Each employee is asked to turn in two suggestions each week; these suggestions are evaluated the same week by an employee volunteer. For many of the suggestions, the evaluator says, “What a great idea!” and returns the idea to the person who suggested it with the implicit permission to proceed to implement the idea.
As Martin Edelston, chairman and CEO of Boardroom says, “Sometimes the best idea can come from the newest, least experienced person on your staff.” Like the hourly paid shipping clerk who suggested that the company consider trimming the paper size of one of its books to get under the 4-pound rate and save some postage. The company made the change and did, indeed, save postage: a half a million dollars the first year and several years since. Explains Marty, “I had been working in mail-order for over 20 years and never realized there was a 4-pound shipping rate. But the person who was doing the job knew it, as do most employees know how their jobs can be improved.”
The first year of the program, suggestions were limited to one’s own job until employees got the idea that the intention was less to complain about things than to try to think how things could be improved. The company now even has group meetings just to brainstorm and share ideas about specific issues or functions in the company.
And the benefits of the suggestions are not limited to saving money. Says Antoinette Baugh, director of personnel, “People love working here because they know they can be a part of a system where they can make a contribution.” Adds Lisa Castonguay, renewals and billing manager, “My first couple of weeks, I was kind of taken aback because everyone was smiling and everyone was open.” She recalls her first day of work when she was pulled into a group meeting and, within 30 minutes of walking in the front door, was asked, “What do you think we should do about this problem?”
Lisa almost fell on the floor. Why? Because she had just come from a company where she had worked for eight years, and no one had ever asked her for her opinion about anything. After she got over the initial shock, she realized that having her opinions and ideas sought after and valued by those she worked with felt pretty good. As a result, she wanted to think of even more ways to help the company.
The impact is both positive and contagious. “People became agents of their own change,” says Marty. “There’s so much inside all of us, and we don’t even know it’s there until someone asks about it. And in the process, it just builds and builds.” Adds Brian Kurtz, vice president of marketing, “It’s a constant flow of communication. People are not sitting in a cubicle, totally insulated from one another.”
Involving employees in decision-making
When employees believe they have a hand in decision-making, companywide buy-in and participation is much easier to obtain. If the general consensus among staff is that decisions will be made with or without their input, the likelihood of anyone providing open and honest feedback is quite small. Asking employees for their input shows that you respect and trust them, and it likely increases the quality of the decisions being made.
No one knows how to better do a job than the person who is currently doing that job, so starting there makes sense. For example, if a reporting process is ineffective or costly, talk to the individual responsible for managing the process. Take the example of a receptionist at Champion Solutions Group in Florida, who received expense reports from field sales representatives via overnight delivery. When the company implemented her suggestion that the reports be faxed instead of shipped, it saw a 40 percent reduction in postage costs – and led company leaders to seek the advice of employees for other ways to realize cost savings.
Support for change can’t be acquired without involving employees, so you need to ensure that you give employees the opportunity to be involved in the decision-making process. Some simple ways to include employees follow:
✔ Asking employees for their opinions on various matters of importance to the department
✔ Inviting employees to actively participate in setting objectives and revising goals for the department
✔ Establishing task forces made up of employees whose objective is to identify better ways to work
If you’re effective at getting employees to take more initiative, you have to provide them greater autonomy, flexibility, and support to help them succeed. All employees need to have a say in how they do their work to make it more meaningful. After you enlist your employees to make suggestions and improvements, you need to encourage them to run with their ideas, take responsibility, and champion those ideas to completion. Allow employees to approach anyone they need for help, give them the authority to make decisions or use resources, and permit them to take the actions that are necessary to get the work done.
In my research on employee preferences at work, “autonomy and authority” and “flexibility of working hours” were two of the top motivators for today’s employees. To the extent that you, the manager, or the organization is able to provide those motivators for employees, their morale and performance will be positively – and significantly – impacted, and they’ll do their best work possible.
Giving employees autonomy
No one likes to be micromanaged. The vast majority of employees would prefer to determine how they work best. In other words, they’d prefer to be assigned a task and allowed the freedom to develop a work plan that suits them. As a manager then, focus
