By: Tim Augustine

Utilize your employees' creative ideas to improve your firm's operations.

You might be asking yourself, how can I get my staff more engaged in the business and leverage their creative ideas? Many companies rely on the good old suggestion box in the lunchroom. The problem with most suggestion/incentive programs is their longevity. The ideas pour in during the first few weeks, but slowly decrease as the program lumbers along. When employees don't see their ideas being taken seriously, they stop participating. Sound familiar?

The primary reason suggestion/incentive programs fail is due to a lack of communication and structure of the program. A successful suggestion program is one that reflects the company's culture, motivates the employees to get involved, and aligns with your firm's strategic goals.

In February 2005, my firm, Atwell Hicks, instituted a truly unique employee suggestion/feedback program called "Impact Atwell." This new program is designed to encourage employees to become more involved with the governance of the company and brainstorm new solutions to improve the firm and stimulate growth.

The overwhelming success of the program can be attributed to the structure, launch, constant communication, and technology of the program. The program consists of four areas of participation:

People (employee referrals)
Practices (business and procedural improvements)
Prospects (business development leads)
Possibilities (next service line, market sector and big ideas)

Each area of the program is aligned with specific financial incentives that are awarded once an employee's submission is accepted, i.e., a candidate suggested (referral) by the employee is hired or a lead the employee found becomes a client. The employee may be awarded between $100 and $10,000, depending on the scope of the idea. All awards are made as lump-sum, separate check payments.

The following are descriptions of each area of Impact Atwell.

People. The people component includes bonuses for referrals and helps the firm find the best talent. It's a simple plan: Employees who recommend someone hired for part-time work are rewarded $1,000. For full-time hires, the referral bonus is $2,000. And for licensed personnel, referring employees get $3,000.

Additionally, the firm publishes a list of the three most wanted positions available every month. Employees who refer someone who is hired for one of those positions are awarded $5,000. Approximately 60% of the firm's new hires come from this referral base. The referral program also helps us monitor the morale of the firm. If most of the employees are recommending the firm to people they know, then the morale must be very high and they must believe in the firm. These referral awards are paid after the candidate has been successfully employed for 90 days, which is consistent with the Atwell's orientation program.

Practices. The practices portion of the program provides an outlet for creative ideas in the technical areas within the firm and allows employees a channel to voice their ideas. Practice ideas can range from new ways to use our technology tools to ideas to reduce the costs of printing expenses. Practice ideas are rewarded with a $100 gift certificate for each idea. In addition, these employees are included in an annual drawing for a prize that will dramatically impact their life such as a Bose® whole house audio system, which was awarded in 2005. This program has helped the entire staff uncover and implement over 250 ideas that have improved the efficiency and procedures for the company.

Prospects. Everyone knows someone who might need our services. Therefore, we developed an initiative to focus on business leads. The prospects area of the program focuses on how employees can help grow the business. Often, these suggestions include business development strategies or leads for new work. Employees who submit a lead that turns into a client meeting will be awarded $500. If that meeting results in a work order above a certain threshold, the employee gets an additional $2,000. We generated over 100 leads, which resulted in over $200,000 in new revenue.

Possibilities. What is the next "Big Idea"? Everyone has a big idea, such as a new service to offer our clients, a new geographic area to explore, or a new market sector to research. In the possibilities section in Impact Atwell, we are searching for revolutionary ideas. It's a unique forum to get people to think outside the box and be creative. As employees make these suggestions, they are submitted to an evaluation committee that meets monthly. The employees with the best ideas are then invited to the monthly meeting with the executive leadership of the firm where they have the opportunity to present their ideas to the group. Presenters are awarded $500 for participating in the meeting. If the idea is approved, a task force team is assembled to develop a business plan and implementation strategy. Once the idea is implemented, the employee is then awarded an additional $10,000.

Structure of the program

You need to make it easy for the staff to participate and track their ideas. We utilize an on-line portal for employees to submit ideas, which makes the submission process easy and encourages participation in the program. The program has its own website where employees can make online submissions with electronic forms that automatically populate a database. The ideas are then forwarded to the appropriate committee member for review. We let employees know immediately that the idea was received and is in review. The ideas are tracked on the site, so employees can stay abreast of the status of their ideas. In addition, I suggest frequent communication of the overall program through e-mail announcements or quarterly internal newsletters.

This program has had a significant impact on the firm. So far, we have received over 900 suggestions and ideas, realized $2 to $3 million in savings and efficiencies, and distributed over $150,000 in program bonuses. Our greatest challenge has been keeping up with implementing the ideas. Before you start such an endeavor, make sure you have the systems and processes developed thus sustaining idea flow and ongoing employee recognition.

Learn more about Tim Augustine.