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I-Improve

What is the I-Improve program all about? Why does it even exist?

• We established this program as a means to enable everyone in the company, but especially those that DO the work, to offer their ideas and suggestions on how to improve their work.
• We want to reward and incentivize every employee to offer good suggestions that will make the company better.
• And, in particular, we want each employee to especially offer suggestions and ideas that will make their job easier, help the customer more, or bring about a better business outcome for the company as a whole.
• One way to think about suggestions is this: What if Sarita were to sit down with you for a spell and just ask that you show her how you do your work. Naturally, she would ask lots of questions, like what prompts you to do that? Why is this step necessary? What if we did this or that, could we still get the job done and done well? Etc.
• Well, if you were to do the same, I expect you would find ways to improve what you do. That is exactly what this program is intended to capture. We want everyone to dig a little deeper to really find ways that would improve our service to customers.

The details of the Program:

1) All employees may submit as many or as few suggestions as they like.

2) As an employee comes up with an idea to improve their existing job--primarily, they will fill out an I-Improve form for each suggestion. You can find the I-Improve Form in the Human Resources-Forms section.

3) Feel free to discuss the idea with your supervisor before implementing the suggestion or if you think it is a great idea, go ahead and implement it.

4) You are in charge of tracking your suggestions and ensuring that you complete a form with each suggestion or idea. At the end of the quarter, please submit all of your I-improve forms to your supervisor.

5) Your supervisor will then determine how much of a payout you recieve based on how well you did that quarter.

6) Payout for suggestions submitted and approved will be made each quarter, at the end of the quarter.

Preparation and Celebration:

• We will announce (with some fanfare) all exemplary suggestions implemented and we will regularly share sample suggestions implemented.
• We will share the reasons for the program and the kinds of suggestions/improvements sought as a part of regular training and mentoring regularly.

FAQs

1. Can you help me understand what kinds of suggestions you are looking for?

We want suggestions that will make your job easier, smarter, and help the company be better. We are not so interested in suggestions that offer to change the color of a wall or move a desk (though we will review these if they are submitted). We want suggestions that reduce the number of steps one must take to solve a problem, or make the experience of the customer something that WOWs them, or something that causes our company to be the best of the best. And, we believe that there are many improvements in each person’s job that will do just that. If everyone makes an improvement in their area, the whole company soon becomes stronger, better equipped to help our customers, and more profitable.

2. Can you give me an example of a “fluff” idea? Sure, let’s put a marker board on the wall next to each meeting room and ask everyone to note who is meeting when.

We did this and it was implemented. Do you see the marker boards anymore? Did anyone actually use them?

And, besides that, the way to reserve a room is available electronically, so we don’t need to duplicate that. Another “fluff” idea would be to change all trash cans from off white to red.