Has anybody had any success with having suggestion boxes in the office?
I am currently working on a list for a client who would like to be able to provide the team with the ability to anonymously make suggestions to them, but not the suggestion box concept.
Any suggestions or ideas that have worked for you?
5 Responses
Money
I would suggest a financial incentive for any ideas or suggestions that work.
The name is irrelevant.
Set up a company Twitter account called £££ideas
Survey Monkey?
Perhaps use an online survey, like Survey Monkey, which can be made anonymous. For the free accounts you can ask 10 questions, which could be used to gather information on the suggestion.
have a weekly/monthly meeting
and use the SCREAM mnemonic to challenge the way we do things now.
Rus Slater
voice meetings
In a previous organisation we had 'voice' meetings meaning voice of the people. This involved one rep from each team bringing ideas, queries, suggestions to a monthly meeting. Although the voice rep was known the individuals who provided contributions weren't necesarily known. There would also be reps from other parts of the business invited to answer questions or take away ideas. So, for example; if there were suggestions about how to improve the staff canteen, the catering manager would come along to talk to the group and talk about the ideas presented or to address queries that people had raised.
The idea was that the voice rep would change every 6 months so that someone else from the team would then step in. This meant that everyone would get a chance to go along if they wanted to.
The rep would have the job gathering up the ideas and comments and then presenting them at the meeting. They would also be responsible for reporting back to the team about what was said, how ideas were progressing; what could be done, what couldn't be done and why.
It did take some skill in having a chair person that could facilitate the meetings into something productive and solution based rather than just a chance to voice frustrations.
Suggestion Box
1. Call it 'Quest to be Best'
2. Launch the scheme using top management
3. Ensure an evaluation panel consisting of a cross section of the staff is created.
4. Ensure follow through of ideas into action and publicise
5. Incentivise suggestions on quantity e.g. have a department leader board on numbers of ideas submitted.
Hope that helps
Bryan
http://www.abctrainingsolutions.biz – course delivery and off shelf training materials