The Importance of the Employee Suggestion Box
The employee suggestion box may seem like an antiquated concept. Who is going to drop a crumpled up piece of paper into a box, or send and email to an anonymous email address? With that attitude, no one. However,
Hugh Molotsi, VP of Innovation at Intuit Labs, believes that employee ideas can be the most underutilized tool in an employer's innovation strategy.
Here's the scenario: Your company encounters a large organizational issue. Senior management can't solve it. So, the organization spends thousands, if not millions, to bring in a consultant to try to solve the problem. It may work in the long-term, but how can you ensure ROI on such a huge investment? Alternatively, you could pose a brainstorm contest or competition (
think like a hack-a-thon) to your employees, spend a couple hundred dollars bringing in lunch or dinner for the staff, and empower your
employees to find the fix. Not only have you saved an enormous amount of money, but you've given your employees the opportunity to have a
direct impact on shaping your organization. An employee suggestion can turn into real solutions to problems and real improvements in your organization, without bringing in expensive and sometimes disruptive consultants. Do you invite your employee suggestion into organization strategy sessions or problem solving exercises? If you don't, it might be time to consider a change in 2015.
Company Culture Leads to Employee Empowerment
The most effective employees are those that feel empowered to do their job and learn and grow into the best contributor they can, not those that feel caught up in a hierarchy or a corporate system. Although employee engagement and employee empowerment are important in creating a successful workforce,
according to a recent Inc.com article, emphasizing these two key components can actually be counter intuitive. Here are a few tips to creating employee empowerment and engagement without emphasizing it.
Embracing Employee Imperfection
Our society, and our work standards, strive toward perfection. We sometimes feel we must be perfect, the perfect boss, the perfect employee, the perfect parent, etc. We may even think that making no mistakes is the best possible scenario and that a squeaky clean record at work, and in life, is what it's all about. Well let's think about challenging that notion. According to
Kate Hamill of the Freelancer's Union, weaknesses and mistakes can actually bring out some of our other strengths and can help harvest self-reflection that makes us, our staff, our managers and our organizations more successful. Your weaknesses are inextricably tied up in your strengths. Every cause has an effect and every action a reaction. If you invert your weaknesses, you will uncover your strengths. This is where employee imperfection is key. There is no way to invert perfection, nothing to learn from it. Employees can't grow from perfect, and frankly perfection is boring. There's no evolution or growth that comes from perfection and stagnation can be unfulfilling. When employee imperfection is embraced, it can lead to self-compassion. Employees who learn to give themselves a break, instead of getting frustrated, give themselves a chance to improve upon their discovered weaknesses and get a lot farther in their careers. Self-teaching and independent growth are valuable skills that breed great team members and hard workers. Weaknesses don't have to be negative, but rather should be looked at as the ultimate opportunity, not to achieve employee perfection, for employee growth potential.
Starting 2015 with Employee Motivation
As we embark on 2015 and our workforce has shaken off the holiday rust it's important to think about how to maintain a culture of motivation not just through the cold winter months but throughout the year. Here are a few ways to keep employee motivation, productivity and job satisfaction at the top of your company's priority list all year long.
Inspire Teamwork & Engagement With These Video Clips
In today’s hybrid / remote work environment, many employees often feel isolated and lonely. On days with less meetings, employees can go whole days without talking to a coworker live and that can take a toll. Lonely employees are more than twice as likely to look for a new job than employees who are not feeling lonely.
As we use asynchronous communication more and more, like Slack and Microsoft Teams, sending memes and other lighthearted communications has become more normalized. But what if you’re looking to bring a remote team together?
