why won't they listen?

only 41% of employees believe their managers listen to the ideas they present to them.
37% (more than a third) felt their company’s management was inaccessible to them.
a majority 60% felt their company’s suggestion program was ineffective. But here’s the interesting part. According to one research firm, each employee suggestion was worth approximately $6,000 to a company in cost savings, etc. So why does it sound like hardly anybody is listening? One reason (and the one close to half of the people participating in the studies mentioned above would probably believe) is that employee suggestion boxes are just there for show. A sop to keep the employees quiet. The big reason – at least what I would hope – is like so many other well intentioned projects, many (and perhaps most) employee suggestion programs do not have systems in place to handle the incoming suggestions. Is there a central place to accumulate them? Is there staff assigned to review, filter and pass on the most “promising” suggestions? Hanging out a box for people to put pieces of paper in isn’t a system – it is a recipe for further employee frustration and disengagement. If you want input, then make it possible to listen. ]]>