Measure and Evaluate Employee Suggestion Scheme Successes

In order to fully evaluate the impact of employee suggestion schemes it is necessary to undertake, where possible, a quantitative assessment of their impact and assign calculable values. Measuring the positive impact on the business will help to determine whether the methods used to collect, evaluate, and implement employee suggestions have been effective, what parts still need improving, the savings that have been made as a result of implementation, enhancements in work practices that have resulted, and the costs of implementation of ideas etc..

The following provide some ideas on how suggestion schemes can be assessed:

• Employee suggestions: Number of improvement ideas or suggestions made per employee in a given period or,
  % of employees that make improvement suggestions or,
  % of employees improvement ideas or suggestions that are implemented or,
  Average value of improvement ideas or suggestions implemented or,
  Lead time to respond to suggestions or feedback.

Explanation:
This measure monitors an important way in which employees can contribute to improving the performance of the organisation. The measure can also provide an indication of employee satisfaction, as dissatisfied employees are unlikely to make suggestions to benefit the organisation unless there is an additional incentive.

• Employee feedback mechanism: No. of mechanisms deployed for gathering employee suggestions or feedback.

Explanation:
This measure can provide an indication of the thoroughness of the company's information and knowledge gathering system and will give an indication of the level at which the organisation encourages employee feedback/involvement.

• Innovation - Idea conversion rate: Number of ideas or suggestions implemented in a given period or,
  % of ideas or suggestions that are implemented or acted upon or,
  Average value of ideas or suggestions implemented or,
  Average lead time to respond to ideas or suggestions.

Explanation:
The idea conversion rate measures the rate at which new ideas are assessed and implemented successfully through improvement initiatives or directly at the point of operations.

• Employee suggestion - Reward value: Value of reward given in return for suggestions (all suggestions or only those used).

Explanation:
This measure which can be useful in benchmarking other organisations` innovation creation processes. It is also important to know these values and to review them regularly in order to fine tune the effectiveness of the innovation creation process.

• Employee suggestions - Value: Average value of improvement ideas or suggestions implemented, or
  Average saving per employee due to suggestions, or
  Total annual value of cost savings due to employee suggestions

Explanation:
A measure of the value to the organisation of suggestions or feedback from employees.

• Innovation - Idea generation rate: Number of ideas or suggestions for improvement received monthly or,
  Total no. of ideas per year
  

Explanation:
This is a measure of the organisation's ability to generate new ideas.