FREE Essential Tips to Create an Employee Suggestion Program

It is important that every employee in a company or an organization is heard. This is sometimes one of the things that managers and other people who are in the position always seem to forget or tend to forget. What could possibly go wrong with the authority and the status that they hold? At first, nothing seems to be wrong until their employees start to have had enough.

Every employee has their own set of ideas and thoughts that they want to be heard, especially if it is something related to work and that could help them with their jobs. These thoughts should be heard or you’ll end up having a discontented and fed up employee. And an employee who feels such is never a productive employee. This shows exactly how lousy the leadership is in a company or organization.

How do you make your employees’ ideas and thoughts count? The very thing that you need to do is create an employee suggestion program. Yes, you heard it right! An employee suggestion program is a program that allows the employees to become a part of the planning and implementation of work-related processes by making their ideas and thoughts be heard. Through this program your employees will be able to share their thoughts about work-related stuff to help make the process better and make the whole work better. If you’re not familiar with this type of program, then that is fine. Just like there are effective tips for making solid business contracts and tips for writing thank-you letters, there are also tips to create an employee suggestion program. And these tips are discussed below.

Tip # 1: Promoting the program.

Every program needs participants to test and know if the said program is working. But you won’t get participants by just having the program written on paper. You will need to promote the program to be able to gather your audience and participants. Once you have gathered the target audience and participants for your program, you will need to explain to them or let them understand what the said program is all about. Your explanation should not cause any misunderstanding or stir any problems among your participants. Your explanation should be something that would encourage them to participate. You can also make use of posters and taglines to spread awareness about the employee suggestion program you are running.

Tip # 2: Ensure that your program matches your needs.

The best way to match your program with your needs is by making it as flexible as possible. Your program should be designed in a way that it matches certain goals and objectives. This ensures that the program will be effective and useful.

Tip # 3: Collaborate with your employees and engage them in the program.

Now that you have gathered your participants, you will need to collaborate with them in order to make the program successful. Their engagement in the employee suggestion program is important to be able to gather fresh and different ideas that can possibly help the business reach its desired goals and objectives. Collaborating with them and engaging them in such program will help motivate the employees.

Tip # 4: Encourage employees to be creative and take risks.

Encourage your employees to become creative with their ideas. It will boost their self-confidence and this in turn will generate wonderful ideas that are guaranteed to be useful. With great ideas come great risks and both come side by side. Let your employees take responsibility about their ideas, but never criticize them for doing so. You will only lose your participants in the program making the entire thing ineffective. Always remember to encourage your employees, not discourage them.

Tip # 5: Do things smarter, better and faster.

Thinking of smarter, betterm and faster ways to do things allows the company to save costs, become more productive and save time. The goal of the program is to make things even more effective by finding better and more functional ways to get work done.

Tip # 6: Provide feedback.

One way of continuously involving your employees in the employee suggestion program is by providing feedback to those who have submitted their ideas or suggestions. Keeping in touch with them and letting them know how their suggestion is being handled and decided is something that can motivate the employees even more.

Tip # 7: Make sure to approve and implement ideas.

You need to decide which ideas or suggestions are approved or not. You should also determine how they are approved. This is to make sure that the process is done fairly and is based on the objectives and mission of the company, and not because the employee is close to the manager or has ties with the higher-ups. Once the idea or suggestion has been approved, its implementation should follow right away.

Tip # 8: Keep track of the results.

The next thing to do after implementing the approved ideas or suggestions would be keeping track or monitoring the results. Determining if the desired outcome or results have been reached is essential as this will also determine if the said ideas or suggestions are useful and efficient. Results should be measured using the set of standards being provided in the company’s standard operating procedures.

Tip # 9: Provide recognition and reward your employees.

Being given rewards and being recognized in a company where you work is something that employees look forward to. So giving them the recognition that they deserve for participating in the program will further boost their self-confidence and will make them understand and feel how important their contribution is to the company. The same goes for providing rewards to employees whose ideas or suggestions prove to be useful for the company.

Tip # 10: Make sure to review your progress.

Finally, the last tip that you need to make sure that your program is effective is to review its progress and how it is doing. Check if the rest of the employees are starting to become aware of the program and if they are also participating by submitting their ideas or suggestions. Is your company able to benefit from the program? If it is, then what are the benefits your company was able to take advantage of? Is there still room for improvement or changes? These questions can help you evaluate how your company and your employees are doing with the program.

If you use these essential tips, you are sure to create and implement an employee suggestion program that works. If you’re looking for more tips about other work-related stuff, you may find our payroll tips from a tax professional and tips for making your business introduction letter stand out useful.