If your company is seeking innovation and ideas from your people, you're not alone. Many businesses turn to suggestion boxes to harness the creativity of their employees.
First off, congratulations – by implementing a suggestion box, you're already recognising that your employees are in the best position to identify areas for improvement. They work with your customers and suppliers daily and know first-hand what works and what doesn't.
But if you're reading this, you might feel your suggestion box isn't delivering the results you expected. Let's explore why that might be and what you can do instead to better capture and utilise your employees' insights.
Why employee engagement matters
Employee engagement is not just about gathering more ideas; it’s about making employees feel valued and connected to the company’s mission.
Engaged employees are more likely to contribute high-quality ideas and feel a sense of ownership over the company’s success. By focusing on engagement, you’re more likely to foster an innovative culture where ideas can flourish.
Different types of suggestion box
Suggestion boxes can take various forms but the two most common arguably remain:
- Physical boxes: Traditional boxes placed in accessible locations where employees can drop their ideas anonymously.
- Digital idea inboxes: Centralised email inboxes or online forms managed by HR or leadership teams where employees can submit their suggestions electronically.
Both formats aim to gather valuable insights, but often fall short of expectations.
Why isn't your suggestion box working?
There are various key reasons why suggestion boxes fall short of delivering meaningful insights and ideas, including:
Assuming psychological safety
One of the primary reasons suggestion boxes fail is the assumption of psychological safety. Sharing new ideas, just like raising issues, can feel risky for employees, particularly risk associated with embarrassment – ‘people will think this is a stupid idea’ or ‘I’m sure someone else has already suggested this’. We often overestimate the levels of safety employees feel, and adjusting our approach accordingly can deliver big results.
Lack of real or perceived action
Suggestion boxes involve a social contract between employees and management, including – crucially – the understanding that someone will take that feedback on board and do something with it. Sadly, in the experience of many employees, this simply doesn’t happen enough.
We recently came across an organisation that had tried a physical suggestion box. Employees told us that it sat there, gradually filling up, with nobody seeming to open it or check its contents. One day, when it was overflowing, it simply disappeared.
This is an extreme example, but many people have stories of submitting ideas only for them to disappear into a void with no feedback or follow-up.
You can imagine the impact of this lack of transparency or action. The only result is discouraging future participation and eroding trust.
3. Expecting fully-formed solutions
Innovation is often framed as the need for complete solutions, but employees may not have all the answers. Often, they know what's wrong or broken but might not know how to fix it.
By expecting polished ideas, organisations miss the opportunity to explore raw insights that, with further exploration, could lead to breakthrough innovations.
What should you do instead?
So, your suggestion box isn't working out as well as you'd hoped. But all is not lost – here are some more effective ways to invite insights and ideas from your employees.
Look for natural ways to harvest ideas
Instead of relying solely on suggestion boxes, consider more natural and continuous ways of listening to your employees. Continuous listening involves gathering experiences, ideas, and feedback regularly, providing insights into day-to-day organisational life.
Guarantee psychological safety
Ensure employees feel safe to share their ideas by guaranteeing anonymity, at least until they feel comfortable being identified. This safety is essential for fostering an environment where everyone feels included and valued.
Encourage sensemaking through dialogue
Create channels for ongoing dialogue where employees can discuss issues and ideas openly. This helps build a culture of continuous learning and innovation. For more on this topic, see our blog on sensemaking.
Create a feedback loop
Close the loop by showing employees how their feedback contributes to business decisions. Acknowledging their contributions and communicating resulting actions enhances trust, engagement, and shared motivation towards organisational goals.
Learning from others: Microsoft case study
To transform into a learning organisation, Microsoft first prioritised becoming a listening organisation. This involved fostering varied perspectives and actively listening to employees through regular feedback collection. Key aspects of this transformation included:
- Cultural shift: Under CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft embraced a growth mindset, where learning from diverse perspectives was encouraged. This shift from a "know-it-all" to a "learn-it-all" culture was foundational.
- Feedback mechanisms: Microsoft implemented systems to regularly collect feedback from employees, ensuring their insights and experiences were integral to decision-making. This helped the company adapt its strategies based on real employee needs and market changes.
- Inclusive environment: By promoting an inclusive and diverse workplace, Microsoft ensured that a wide range of perspectives was considered, enhancing its learning capabilities and fostering innovation.
By prioritising listening and feedback, Microsoft effectively became a learning organisation, which has been crucial to its innovation, employee engagement, and market success.
A new approach to innovation and idea-generation
While suggestion boxes can serve as a starting point for gathering employee insights, they need to sit within a more comprehensive listening strategy to truly unlock innovation. Here’s a high-level guide for companies looking to implement a more effective system:
1. Integrate continuous listening
Adopt a continuous listening approach that allows you to capture ongoing feedback from employees. Tools like Harkn enable you to gather real-time insights into day-to-day experiences, ideas, and feedback, providing a dynamic pulse on organisational life.
2. Foster a culture of psychological safety
Ensure that employees feel safe to share their thoughts without fear of repercussions. Harkn's anonymous feedback channels guarantee psychological safety, encouraging more honest and open communication.
3. Encourage collaborative sensemaking
Facilitate ongoing dialogue to help employees make sense of the issues and opportunities they encounter. Harkn’s platforms support open discussions, allowing teams to collaboratively explore ideas and innovate.
4. Develop a robust feedback loop
Create a transparent feedback loop that connects employee input with actionable outcomes. Use tools like Harkn to communicate back to employees, showing how their contributions influence decision-making and lead to tangible changes.
5. Leverage leadership support
Engage leadership to champion the listening strategy. Leaders should be visible advocates for continuous feedback and demonstrate their commitment to acting on employee suggestions.
6. Measure and refine
Regularly measure the effectiveness of your listening strategy using engagement metrics and feedback analysis. Tools like Harkn provide insights into how well your initiatives are working, allowing you to adjust and refine your approach as needed.
How Harkn creates learning organisations
Harkn offers a suite of listening tools designed to put continuous learning, improvement and innovation at the heart of workplace culture.
- Real-time insights: Capture the pulse of your organisation with live data on employee sentiment, perspectives, and experiences.
- Anonymity and safety: Ensure psychological safety with anonymous feedback channels that encourage open and honest communication.
- Open dialogue channels: Foster ongoing discussions that drive sensemaking and collaborative innovation.
- Actionable insights: Transform feedback into action by integrating it with your strategic decision-making processes.
Unlock continuous employee listening
By moving beyond traditional suggestion boxes and embracing a more holistic approach to employee feedback, organisations can unlock a wealth of untapped ideas and inspiration.
Implementing a strategy that prioritises continuous listening, psychological safety, and open dialogue not only enhances employee engagement but also drives sustainable success for your business.
Find out more about creating a high-performing listening strategy here.
