When I visited one of our factories a few weeks ago they told us that they often ask the line workers if they see any opportunities for improvement in the system. While they have very intelligent engineers who spend their entire careers trying to understand the manufacturing process and improve it the people who see it everyday may be the best to develop the solution because they see the situation first hand. One of the individuals in my group asked if they compensate or have rewards programs for this innovation. They don’t. We were discussing it after the fact and we believed that because there was no incentive given to the line workers to be innovative or creative that they did not even bother. Even a gift card to Starbucks or movie tickets are rewarding and can often help to get the creative juices flowing.
4 comments:
Rewards are important in innovative environments because they foster competition. My friend was telling me about her theater job and the ways in which management changed the employee reward policy. The employees lost most of their external motivations (gift cards, bonuses) and has to settle for occasional verbal recognition. My friend said that there was no more reason for her to work hard and no incentive for excellent behavior. It wasn't enough to hear "good job." She wants external motivations in the form of monetary benefits for a job well done.
I believe that in everyday life many people having a God given gift for one skill are working in another field. For example, when I see traffic system, how the roads are designed, and how the road signs are placed at specific places, I can tell right away that this shouldn't have been at this place and such and such gap should have been present between the two land marks. But I happen to be working as a an IT consultant instead of a road architect. So if working part time as a road architect I get a good salary then I would definitely look into it, but I know that they dont pay good to even full time employees for this job then why would they pay me something I would be happy with. So thats why I never bother.
That is an interesting point. Most of my working experience has been on the “line.” The first thing that comes to my mind is FedEx. I was a package handler a couple years ago to make some money over the Holiday Season and there is a relatively complex and large system for sorting packages. The people who work on the line know a lot about the system, and they are absorbed by it everyday. It would make sense for there to be some type of reward or incentive program for innovative and practical ideas. This could be a cheap way to come up with new ideas.
Reward systems are also a means of quality enhancement and internal feedback. One of the most valuable types of information in a company is whether or not things are working. If there is a new piece of equipment, new system, new procedure, new product in action, it is invaluable to know whether or not it is working, and/or how it could function better. I say this as the one who would be giving that feedback, the front-line worker, the one who sees the business-end of a policy, and has to try, feebly, to explain to a customer why they have to do such and such, or why I cannot do such and such.
And I would certainly expect to see some benefit arise for the company, as well as for myself.
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