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Survey and Research Data
1995 survey data on suggestion schemes operated by 40 UK organisations (at one or more of their sites) demonstrated:
- Savings generated by employee suggestions in 1995 ranged from £10,000 to £1.9 million, with an average value of £63,000
- The average number of suggestions per employee produced by the schemes during that year ranged from 0.02 to 3, with the midpoint at 0.25
- The adopted rates of suggestions scattered from 5% to 95% with 25% at the midpoint
- Nineteen out of 20 schemes reward employees for putting forward ideas
- Two out of three schemes which reward adopted suggestions linked the value of the prize to a formula, most commonly 10% of the savings generated by the idea in its first year
- Apart from financial benefits, respondents say the schemes improved employee involvement and morale, health and safety, and environmental standards
- The most common ways of publicising schemes to the workforce were company newspapers, workplace posters, and team briefings.
The US Employee Involvement Association (EIA, formerly the National Association of Suggestion Systems) reported their figures in 1992 were: 8% participation rate, 2.4 suggestions per person in that year, 35% implementation rate, and $2.2 billion savings. In comparison in 1996, world-class suggestion systems at Milliken (US) or Toyota (Japan) have produced over 50 suggestions per person with implementation rates around 80%.
A study on performance and best practices in new product development by the American Productivity and Quality Centre on new product suggestion schemes, i.e. schemes to actively solicit new product ideas from employees, found they were more commonly practiced among Best Performing businesses with:
- 34.5% of Best Performers having a strong, visible idea scheme
- 7.7% of Worst Performers had New Product suggestion schemes.
It was noted that New Product Suggestion schemes were a weak area across all businesses.
Research conducted by Chart Your Course International (USA), suggested that sometimes it is the small motivators that make a big difference. To be successful, a motivator needs to energise employees to get involved, and a way to do this is through an activity that is enjoyable or that rewards employees for their ideas on how to save money or improve safety. Examples given include:
- Giraffe awards to reward risk-taking: "thanks for sticking your neck out"
- E-cards: Internet 'money', gifts, and credit cards that you e-mail to employees
- Training opportunities as rewards
- Peer recognition - having employees reward each other.
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