1. Reflecting on what you really want: it’s very easy and cool to talk about improvement ideas in the abstract, but understanding exactly what you want from employees is much more complicated. Do we want to limit ideas to a few areas or can they affect every aspect of the company? Are you expecting input on how to improve processes or suggestions for new products and services to be launched on the market? Do we just want a rough draft or a detailed proposal? All of these choices are critical in determining what to do to stimulate those ideas. If management does not have clear ideas about the objectives to be achieved, the results will be disappointing.
2. Understanding where the pain points are: why don’t employees make suggestions? There can be many reasons which affect some departments or the entire organisation: little engagement, relationship with direct superiors, work organisation, evaluation systems, company culture not very open to listening, etc. Identifying the obstacles to the stream of suggestions allows you to avoid initiatives or incentives that are destined to not generate results. Yes, you should investigate – but how? A simple internal online survey, for example, allows you to have a very clear picture of the situation in a short time.
3. Internal communication as a catalyst: the first step for progressing with suggestions for improvement is to create the context for them to take shape. To this end, it’s important that employees are aware of this possibility, that they are informed about where the company is going, about the objectives it sets itself, about what happened to ideas that were put forward in the past, etc. It’s not enough to assume that information flows naturally and undistorted through the organisational hierarchy. We must create the tools and opportunities to communicate internally and engage people: internal newsletters, meetings, a house organ, visual management tools, Intranet… the methods of effective internal communication are almost endless.
4. Encourage suggestions with dedicated initiatives: inviting employees to make suggestions may not be enough. Sometimes you have to nudge them to do it. How? For example, by launching an internal competition, where employees are invited to submit specific suggestions for improvement that, if valid, can be rewarded by the company. What are the ingredients for a successful contest? Clear rules and objectives (in terms of scope, evaluation method, expected level of detail), attractive communication (you have to “sell” the project internally) and concrete incentives (prizes and public recognition).
