How Employee Suggestion Programs are Critical to Internal Communications

In this day and age it’s easy for things to get lost in translation. Whenever there is a miscommunication at work, we often brush it off as a technology failure rather than considering that we might need work on our communication skills.

Organizations spend considerable time communicating value to the outside world, yet sometimes they forget about the people inside the company. In other words, a good internal communication plan is vital for your organization run smoothly.

There are various ways for an organization to make internal communications effective, such as internal newsletters, updates from the CEO, and enterprise social networks. One critical but often overlooked strategy is implementing an employee suggestion program.

Why Internal Communication is Important

Your employees are representatives of your brand and a company can’t function if the entire team isn't on the same page. Especially in a large organization, it can seem like you’re just a number and that your work isn't directly impacting the bottom line. This can lead to apathy and employee disengagement. Internal communication bridges the knowledge gap between employees and decision makers.

In any organization it takes work to create a product, discover a new market or implement a business strategy. None of this is possible without teamwork and communication. Effectively communicating your goals to your employees creates transparency, trust and motivation throughout the office. This also spurs a much-needed feedback loop from employees to managers to executives.

How Employee Suggestion Programs Can Help

If you want employees to listen to you then why not try listening to their ideas and suggestions for the company? Since employees see their organizations flaws up close and personal, they’re often best suited to propose solutions.

Smart organizations realize that everything can improve, including communication. Here are three ways that employee suggestion programs facilitate communication and improve employee engagement.

Involvement

Having an employee suggestion platform shows employees that you’re ready and willing to listen to their ideas. People who normally wouldn’t be identified as innovative or a problem solver can now share their thoughts. Employee idea programs can help bring your team together. When you give employees the chance to take part in the development of the company you’ll see morale and productivity increase. Employees who feel they’re genuinely listened to are 5x more likely to have high job enthusiasm and 21x more likely to feel committed and connected to their company.

Collaboration

Allowing your staff to submit suggestions opens the doorway to collaboration. Employees can come together through shared ideas and work on proposing the best solution to a defined problem. Your team recognizes inefficiencies and ways to improve, but it’s quite possible they never have had a place to discuss them.

Transparency

Communication is almost impossible if you are leaving employees in the dark on large initiatives. Through an employee suggestion program, organizations can communicate their biggest challenges. This way employees, managers and executives can all work together to find the best solution. When employees are included in the conversation they are more likely to be motivated to work harder.

There’s no doubt that your team members are your biggest asset and not listening to them could be a mistake. As Jim Harter of Gallup said, “Companies constantly evolve, and they need new ideas all the time. Engaged employees are a lot closer to the best ideas. They're thinking about the whole company and how they fit into it, and their ideas lead to better decisions."

Employee idea initiatives connect engaged employees with the decision makers in their company. This, in turn, streamlines their ideas and makes them actionable items for executives. Through an employee suggestion initiative, employees are able to speak with team members that they normally wouldn’t. Once these conversations get started, they make communication much easier throughout the entire company.