The Benefits of a Suggestion Scheme and How to Start

Part 1

A lot of the time, we are asked, what are the main considerations of setting up an ideas programme? What should be considered and what are the benefits? This two part post will give you some pointers.

The Importance of Involving Employees

People, both in teams and as individuals, always have been and always will be the source of creativity, innovation and improvement. The harnessing of this talent is crucial to the success and growth of any organisation. Increased competition and demand for improved customer service means that managers have to consider how they meet increasing demands without increasing costs. They have to utilise existing resources fully. There is therefore a need to proactively encourage employees to generate ideas for innovation and improvement.

Advantages of Involving Employees Continue reading

Free eBook download – How to Start a Staff Suggestion Scheme

ideasUK are offering a free eBook introducing the basic ideas on how organisations can initiate a Staff Suggestion Scheme. We have compiled our blog posts on the subject into one easy to read eBook for you to download. Continue reading

The biggest challenges facing suggestion schemes today

I am often asked: what are the biggest issues you face when trying to launch an ideas programme within an organisation?

Having being involved with ideas management for over ten years, the challenges today are the same as they were all those years ago.

It is important right from the start to outline the objectives of the programme and review on a regular basis.

1. Reputation – In my personal experience, suggestion schemes do have a bad reputation within some organisations. This is no fault of the scheme itself, but in the initial set-up of the scheme. When launching a scheme it can be easy to fall in the trap of promising the world but in reality delivering very little. Continue reading

Carrying out a SWOT analysis for the Suggestion Scheme

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats involved in managing the Suggestion Scheme.

It involves specifying the objectives of the programme and identifying the internal and external factors that are favourable and unfavourable to achieve that objective.

The technique is credited to Albert Humphrey, who led a convention at Stanford University in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500 companies. Continue reading

Good Luck to all the Students out there!

Good luck to all the students out there who have visited our site over the past few weeks, I can only assume that some business papers this year have either Maslow or Employee Engagement as a topic!

Please feel free to look around our site and use any information you need, however, please do not forget to credit us as a source of your information.

Best of luck and we hope to meet some of you as managers in the future.

How to start a Suggestion Scheme – part 8

How to start a Suggestion Scheme:

Finally, after you have all the parts in place, we need to measure the effectiveness of the programme.

Assessing the outcomes of the programme Continue reading

How to start a Suggestion Scheme – part 7

How to start a Suggestion Scheme:

Resource planning was covered in part 6, now we move on to the processes needed for a staff suggestion scheme.

Processes

In developing a programme and drafting a Business Plan consider what processes are necessary to deliver the expected outcomes. All key processes must be clearly mapped out and all stakeholders advised from the outset. Continue reading

How to start a Suggestion Scheme – part 6

How to start a Suggestion Scheme:

We have covered how people are so important to the success in part 5, now we need to look at how your resources within your organisation are planned to produce maximum yield.

Resource Planning Continue reading

How to start a Suggestion Scheme – part 5

How to start a Suggestion Scheme:

We have reviewed how management support must be in place for a scheme to progress, now we will look at the importance of employees.

People

The involvement of all of the people in the organisation is vital to the success of the programme. How this will be achieved should be included within the Business and Marketing Plans. Continue reading

How to start a Suggestion Scheme – part 4

How to start a Suggestion Scheme:

Once you have management support, as covered in part 3, in part 4 we’ll see why planning, and the different types of plans that need to be in place, is so important.

Detailed Planning is essential

Establish aims, objectives, targets and measurements for the suggestion scheme. Continue reading