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To be published in the January/February 2003 edition of Competitive Edge.

Opportunity For Improvement System Empowers Employees

By Casey Goodman

ATLANTA – When peeling back the layers of top-performing companies, what did we find to be a common link? An effective OFI or Opportunity for Improvement system. Soliciting feedback from employees and actually implementing their ideas creates a link between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction, because the emphasis is on employees trying to improve systems from the customers’ points of view.

The modern day suggestion box seems to work best within organizations that promote business excellence or continuous improvement. Fostering an atmosphere that emphasizes employee feedback has helped organizations such as Turner Studios or Baptist Health Care of Pensacola to win local or national quality awards. Turner Studios won Georgia’s 2002 Oglethorpe Award, while Baptist was identified as one of the ten best companies to work for by Forbes Magazine.

Turner Studios’ Susan Moye O’Neal realized the broadcast truck crews sometimes had to pay their credit card bills long before getting their expense reimbursements, and felt there was could be a better way.

As Office Manager for Turner Studios Field Operations, O’Neal had to go through 15 steps, including two car trips, to get the approvals, copies and filings needed to process expense reports.

 

What did she do? She submitted a proposal through an internal OFI system to streamline the expense process to eight steps, cutting the average turn around time from 15 to seven days and saving Turner as much as six hours of labor a week.

Charlie Cornett is responsible for purchasing supplies necessary within Baptist Health Care’s operating room and hospital surgical center.

He noticed that an infrequently used item was ordered for a particular procedure and not used. The surgeon suggested the item remain in inventory until he performed his next similar case.
Cornett, however, calculated it could be several months or more before it might be needed. His suggestion was to return the item to the vendor for a credit of almost $8,000, a move that also freed up storage space for more frequently needed items.

Typically, employee suggestion systems are offshoots of a fairly extensive employee and customer satisfaction research program conducted by companies like Atlanta’s Polaris Marketing Research, Inc.

“The OFI System augments our staff satisfaction research to identify not only their level of satisfaction but what people would do to improve our organization. Employees often speak on behalf of their customers to recommend improvements that positively impact both clients and staff. They are encouraged to focus on creative solutions, not complaints. We require that they have some idea or solution to steer us in the right direction.” said Paige Lillard, Turner Entertainment Operations’ Vice President of Business Excellence.

“You can take an OFI system to the bank,” says Saranne Soule, director of marketing research for Baptist Health Care.

Last year alone, Baptist Health Care estimates they received almost two ideas per full-time employee and saved about $2.9 million.

“It’s pretty powerful that people feel they can share their ideas,” Soule said. “There are a lot of companies out there that are not leveraging their employee’s knowledge.”

How do you get ideas flowing? Front-line employees are rewarded for submitting the most OFIs as well as implemented OFIs. Prizes range from company-wide recognition to Key Lime pies to discounted meal tickets. The best suggestions earn the employee an OFI in the Limelight Award, as Turner coins it, or becomes an Allstar Team Member at Baptist Health.
Methods for collecting OFIs can be as simple as a paper-and-pencil suggestion box or as sophisticated as a web-based program on the company intranet. Automation can provide employees with updates on the status of their OFIs, reminders for managers to follow-up on OFIs that are submitted, and email distribution lists to facilitate communication within even a large company. This takes care of the administrative work and keeps the focus on process improvement.

Ongoing research will help determine the key drivers to employee satisfaction. Often times, the key drivers are communication and empowerment. It makes perfect sense, then, that successful companies promote an employee OFI system that specifically addresses those concerns.

Casey Goodman is a former director of project management for Polaris Marketing Research, Inc. Polaris specializes in helping companies get the most out of their ongoing employee and customer satisfaction programs. For further information, contact Polaris Marketing Research at 404-816-0353.