Adding a suggestion box to your workplace offers a number of immediate advantages. For one, it allows ownership and management to get recommendations from line level employees that can actually streamline operations and improve processes.
But a simple suggestion box also offers workers the chance to have their voice heard, reinforcing the idea that they are a valued part of the business. Workers who feel as if management cares about them work harder, stay longer, and produce better results.
Boosting Employee Morale and Motivation
An employee who feels as if their company doesn’t care about them, doesn’t know who they are, and has no interest in what they have to say isn’t going to be a motivated worker.
These employees aren’t going to be loyal to the company, are more likely to bad mouth the business to others outside of work, and are more likely to quit sooner, leaving the business with another job to fill.
Yet something as simple as a suggestion box can help workers feel as if their opinions matter and that management is actively interested in what they have to say, improving employee morale and overall job satisfaction.
Revenue Builder
Line level workers have a perspective of the operation that management often doesn’t. They can see ways to save money, reduce expenses, and improve efficiency that may not be obvious to executives and other bosses.
When they share these ideas in the workplace suggestion box, it can open up new improvements to operations, potentially increasing revenues and growing the company’s market share.
Case in point: The Minnesota-based company 3M Corporation posted a suggestion box in their employee break room and a worked dropped a slip of paper into it with the idea for Post-It Notes, a product line which has helped grow the company’s market share to more than $34.7 billion in annual revenues.
Cost Cutter
Suggestion boxes can also help companies save money. Every dollar businesses save thanks to employee suggestions goes right to the bottom line.
Some businesses encourage employees to come up with money-making or cost-saving ideas, rewarding them with bonuses for suggestions that actually result in increased profits. In the early 2000s, Nevada-based Harrah’s Entertainment Inc.’s “Big Idea” program paid out thousands of dollars to line level workers whose ideas helped add millions of dollars to the casino company’s bottom line.
Suggestion boxes are a little thing that can result in big ideas that can result in dramatic improvements to employee relations, operations, product offerings, and cost savings.