NCThinks in the News

The following article was featured in the May 2009 issue of Ideas & Inspirations publication from the national Employee Involvement Association recognizing the NCThinks program for its innovation.

Lots of Ideas Is The Goal

You don't get to be one of the greatest chemists of the 20th century by having just a few ideas. As Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling states in the quote above, "The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.”

So how do you generate a lot of ideas? Circumstances surrounding that "how to" question can greatly affect how many - if any - ideas will be suggested. The most creative and clever people will keep ideas to themselves if they feel the organization is not one that treats their ideas as it should.

The key to receiving lots of ideas is to remove the barriers that are keeping them from getting to you. Some of these barriers include:

• Corporate culture - Are you truly encouraging ideas and showing support from the top down?
• Training - Have employees, supervisors and evaluators been given all they need?
• Complicated processes
• Slow response times
• Communication
• Eligibility discrepancies - Read on for an example of how the North Carolina Office of State Personnel addressed this particular barrier

Case In Point

At the 2007 EIA conference, NCThinks Coordinator Sherry Joyner focused intently as one of the presenters shared a list of 10 barriers that hinder the success of any suggestion program. “With every barrier he discussed, I saw opportunities to improve our program,” Joyner said.

Armed with a conference' worth of ideas and improvement tools, Joyner returned to her office in North Carolina intent on making the State Employee Incentive Bonus Program - now called NCThinks* - much better. It would be a 15-month journey involving coordinators and personnel from dozens of agencies, community colleges and universities, web development and design members, IT staff, a State Review Committee, and eventually the Governor.

But as all journeys do, it began with a first step, which was for Joyner and her team to dissect the barriers within their system.

"Because we’re part of the state government, much of what we do is mandated by state law. We began focusing on what was within our power to change rather than things that would require legislative action by the General Assembly,” Joyner said.

From there, Joyner condensed the issues into five priorities:

1. Tie the suggestion system to the mission. The suggestion program gives employees both an opportunity and an incentive for seeking better ways to conduct state government services. The purpose is to provide organizational solutions through employee involvement by recognizing ideas for increasing efficiency, reducing waste or saving tax dollars that are linked to organizational strategic objectives.
   
   Joyner said, “We learned the importance of developing a strategic suggestion system, one that links suggestions to specific agency goals and objectives. This gives managers a tool for solving specific organizational challenges; it focuses employee creativity; and it produces a higher percentage of feasible suggestions. Since each agency has its own unique challenges, each can solicit suggestions to meet their greatest need.”
2. Use a top-down approach. For NCThinks, that means support, encouragement and recognition from leaders all the way up to the Governor. Leaders and coordinators across the state understand their roles and communicate the vision. “Before,” Joyner explains, “employees would have to push their ideas up. Now that the message is given from the top down, it encourages more participation.”
3. Make a user-friendly online suggestion system and database with email notification and suggestion tracking. This has simplified the process immensely and improved tracking and feedback. With the new online submission system, employees receive an automated email notification shortly after submitting a suggestion that confirms that the suggestion has been received. In addition, employees receive further email notifications as their suggestion passes through evaluation and other stages within the process.
   
   * the catchy moniker NCThinks is used for what technically is still titled the State Employee Incentive Bonus Program.
4. Provide more plentiful, informative resources. This included everything from forms, letters and checklists to promotional materials, certificates and an administrator handbook. (See page 4 for an example of one of the auto-generated letters.)
5. Clarify job description eligibility. For a suggestion to be eligible in NCThinks, it must reach beyond the scope of the employee’s regular job responsibilities. Joyner explains that stating this rule is one thing, but measuring it was much more difficult. Before attending the EIA conference, the issue of defining job description eligibility was an unresolved challenge. At the EIA conference, Joyner learned that the key to solving this barrier was looking at the scope of the idea. Now three pre-eligibility screening questions enable employees to gauge if they are submitting an eligible suggestion.

1. I am not expected to develop a solution to this problem
2. I would not be held accountable if I did not perform this task
3. I need approval from my supervisor to implement this task.

By addressing the eligibility question in this manner, Joyner says it clears up ambiguities early and protects against what could become bad feelings later on. This in turn keeps the employee in a contributing frame of mind.

The new face of NCThinks was launched in January of this year, and Joyner reports that the website has enjoyed an increased number of hits with each new month, just as you would want in this type of results-driven culture. The streamlined suggestion process seems to be fulfilling the vision, one idea at a time, in an employee-friendly way with customer service at the forefront. It’s win-win, as North Carolina realizes significant savings, increased employee engagement and productivity, and safety improvements.