‘The Customer Comes Second: Put Your People First‘- Hal Rosenbluth, Rosenbluth International
Any organization’s sustenance in the market is significantly dependent upon acceptability amongst its takers. Therefore it needs to constantly grow to be at par with the driving forces in the marketplace. Growth, progress and sustenance of an organization are only possible if the people within it also grow in equal measure.
Employees are the greatest strength of an organization. Every employee has remarkable potential. Proper channeling and harvesting of this potential leads to overall growth of the individual as well as the company.
As observed by Ian Hutchinson, the author of People Glue, ‘Your number one customers are your people‘. Employees have thorough knowledge about every nuance involved in churning out a product, service or a process. If a tried-and-tested formula is not working or if acceptability of a particular range is dwindling, the employee would know why. This is where employee engagement comes to the fore. Specifically, the Employee Suggestion Program.
As an HR Manager, one should know the long-term benefits of such a program, i.e., freshness of ideas, cost savings, enhanced team spirit, improved customer satisfaction, employee motivation, cost cutting, etc
Certain concepts, if properly executed, are sure to click if you want to engage employees for the growth of your organization. These pointers will help you understand the powerful tool that an Employee Suggestion Program is and how to utilize it:
- Strategize: First things first. It is necessary that you lay down rules as to which process/ product/ service it is that you require suggestions on. Otherwise, ideas from employees would prove to be useless.
- Include: Make sure that each and every employee of the organization knows that s/he can contribute suggestions for the particular issue at hand. The suggestions should not just emanate from employees of the impugned vertical.
- Oversee: A manager or supervisor is to be selected to oversee the procedure and ensure smooth running of the program. The manager should have handy replies to FAQs that employees may have. S/he should also engage in regular pep talk and motivate them.
- Organize Workshops: To make employees aware of the benefits of the program and intimate the problems of the company, workshops are necessary.
- Recognize: If an idea is accepted, the employee should be given recognition and should also be involved in its implementation.
- Implement: It is important that employees see in real time that ideas are being implemented. This will result in enthusiastic participation in the future.
- Incentivize: The top suggestions should be incentivized either by way of a bonus or other benefits. This is certain to lead to quality idea and aggressive involvement.
Organizations like Amazon, Starbucks, etc have hugely benefited after applying Employee Suggestion Programs. Effective implementation of this program leads to increased satisfaction in your first customer – your employees!
