REVIEWED IN AUTUMN, 2004

I took a look at everything below in the fall of 2004, and found it interesting that the concepts of four, five and more years ago are just as valid today as then. There certainly has not been a great transformation to electronic communication that works -- just too much electronic communication that fails.

The nine most important concepts in 
employee communications
Brian A. Kilgore -- Communications Counsel
Saturday, January 27, 2001

Not in any particular order. Much of this applies to communicating with members of an organization, and to customers and investors.

A/ Tell employees what they want to know; satisfy their curiosity.

B/ Recognize that different people want to know different things.

C/ People want to know they work for smart bosses.

D/ People need to know that bosses listen.

E/ People think, or don't think, that their bosses are important. Deal with this.

F/ Executive management is the most important audience.

G/ Companies don't do anything, people do.

H/ People want to know the company is trying hard (see G)

I/ Make the company famous, so there's recognition and prestige in working there.

J/ Recognize that with some people you just can't win, and other people just don't care, so skip 'em.

October 14, 2000

EMPLOYEE SUGGESTION PROGRAMS
If I was an International Association of Business Communicators member, I might have put this into IABC's Memberspeak web page. But I'm not so I didn't.

An IABC member in Memberspeak asked "... about any successful employee suggestion or employee cost-savings program. ... I'd love any ideas of what works, pitfalls in past experiences, etc...." Here's a few minutes worth of thoughts for her, and all BAK's Report readers who care.

A dozen hints for a successful suggestion program
(always give more than is promised)

1/ Who is eligible? It is the job of bosses to think up cost savings anyway, so do you allow them in or not? I was once involved in one of these projects where three of us (the quality chief, the executive assistant to the vice-president -- not his secretary -- and I -- the PR boss-- ) could have made more money from the suggestion plan than we made in salary. But we were not eligible.

2/ Whaddaya pay? And who determines how much is saved? Is the reward structure a share of the savings, or a weekend at a hotel, or a free dinner, or $20? Decide. And if there's money involved, make sure there is no cap on it. Huge savings deserve huge awards. Another story. A vice-president of manufacturing once called me with a problem. "I've got to give away a million dollars in the next six months in our suggestion plan. How do we get suggestions worth this much in awards?" You need to have the program run by someone the employees trust to give credit where credit is due, and who actually has the skills to assess the value of suggestions.

3/ Make the program a big deal. Have the CEO announce it. Stop production when you make awards. Put people's pictures on the bulletin boards. Remind people day after day after day.

4/ Trust is everything. These programs attract cheaters and liars and rivals and so you need to make sure that the awards are judged with the highest integrity.

5/ Repeat four, because it is so very important.

6/ It must be company wide. Make sure you include branches, international operations, and so on.

7/ Gross up the awards so people actually get the money they earn, instead of giving it to the tax man.

8/ Give people a choice of what they get if you are not giving money.

9/ Remember that lots of money saving suggestions result in people being fired. Are you going to pay someone for an idea that leads to layoffs? There's no hard and fast rule, except to decide yes or no before the problem comes up.

10/ Are you unionized? Unions usually hate cost saving programs, but sometimes they become enthusiastic supports. Regardless, there are all kinds of social, political and contractual components to a suggestion program that involves union members. 

11/ What happens if someone quits or gets fired (or is inspired to quit) before a suggestion is assessed and an award made?

12/ Set a time schedule for approvals and awards, and set a completion date for the program, because at some stage you may want to shut it down. You can always extend it.

13/ Build trust before the launch. If your people do not trust senior management now, they won't respond to a suggestion program, because they'll predict they will be cheated.

14/ Make sure teams and groups can get awards, and make sure everyone appropriate shares in any team award. And figure out a system for varying the participation by team member. The original idea-guy gets more than the clerk who wrote it up.