In many ways, I have always run a very traditional workplace. A few years ago, I hired an outside consultant who introduced me to many different employee incentive program ideas. Almost all of them were immediately dismissed. In my worldview, you do your job well and you get rewarded by promotion, pay increase, and time off. It is every bit as simple as that. I never would have changed my management strategy either, if not for my experience witnessing the success of a friend of mine who owned a business of his own. His employee suggestion program worked wonders.
Of course, I had heard of employee suggestion programs before, but I had never seen one put into practice. Employee suggestion programs take a variety of different forms, but none of them really made sense to me intuitively. Basically, an employee suggestion program is a way to keep track of employee comments and ideas. Often, as in the case of my friend, they use elaborate, anonymous systems to allow employees to speak their minds without penning their names. That way, the they can feel free to speak anonymously, not fearing repercussions for negative feedback.
You can see why I might have had a problem with this. I have always believed that you should speak your mind, and that if you aren't brave enough to do this, you don't have the guts to succeed in business. Nonetheless, my friend's success convinced me otherwise. When he started installing employee suggestion systems, feedback in his workplace increased dramatically. People were less tactful as well, unafraid to speak their minds even if it meant coming across as very negative about workplace policy. Some of it was just idle complaining, but the employee suggestion program also picked up some very valid criticism. Apparently, employee suggestion programs were worth taking a second look at.
He ran a smaller workplace than I did, and in my office everyone knew everyone fairly well. As a result, the employee suggestion programs do not have quite as dramatic or as immediate an effect. People still didn't feel like they were able to really speak their mind at first because someone might guess who made what particular comments. Nonetheless, soon a brutal honesty started flowing. Everything, from hiring practices, to the mechanisms of promotions, to the infrastructure of the business itself was open to criticism. And I have to admit, some of the ideas were very very good – ideas that I would never have heard otherwise.
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