Employees' Successful Suggestions Build Business and Morale

Old-fashioned suggestion boxes are disappearing from the corporate landscape, and Paula Ann Hughes, dean of the Graduate School of Management at the University of Dallas, says that too many managers aren't paying enough attention to employee suggestions.

She says that employee suggestions are important because your employees are the people closest to customers and processes. "Too often, what employees have to say never makes it to the back offices," Hughes says. She adds that employees often come up with ingenious and money-saving or revenue-generating ideas, and she cites studies to prove it. She thinks that employees often feel that even if they make a suggestion, they won't be heard or that their suggestion would never be acted on. "That creates a sense of rejection, and no one wants to be rejected," Hughes says.

For an employee suggestion program to work, managers must demonstrate that they are willing to act on good ideas. "That is the greatest encouragement management can provide," Hughes says. For companies wanting to do a better job with employee suggestions, Hughes offers these tips: