Internal suggestion system collects, evaluates and rewards employee ideas

First, the human resources department met and defined the path that an employee suggestion should take through the company. During this planning phase it became clear that there were many opportunities for errors in the process, from wrong formulation, to supervisor review, to the selection of an appropriate reward. An analysis was made to identify possible points in the process where questions or ambiguities might come up and where steps should be inserted for clarity and control.

In addition, a bonus system was designed to increase employee motivation for suggestions and to reward ideas that ultimately contribute to the company's success. The requirements that came out of this planning phase flowed directly into the implementation of the process.

Since the introduction of the internal suggestion system using JobRouter®, the  company has enjoyed the active participation of its employees. JobRouter® is highly accepted and used intensively. In the six months since the system went live, far more than 100 suggestions were submitted by employees.

If an employee wants to submit a suggestion, they simply starts the "MasterIdea" process in JobRouter®, enter their idea into the free text field and hit send.  The suggestion is first sent to the Head of Safety and Quality (HSQ) for review. At that point there may be questions which can be answered using the query function in JobRouter®. If there are no questions or all questions have been answered, the HSQ forwards the suggestion to the relevant supervisor. The suggestion is then returned to the HSQ as either approved or denied by the supervisor. Once approved, the suggestion reaches the respective department.

In the course of approving the suggestion, the reviewer also selects a bonus from a prepared bonus matrix. This is handled in a separate step in the process.

Afterwards the suggestion, with it’s approvals, notes and bonus selection is send back to the HSQ who will check if all data is complete and forward it to the works council. A final vote concerning the bonus is held in a short meeting between the works council, the reviewer and the HSQ. Finally the HSQ presses the Send button one last time. After that, everything happens automatically. For example the personnel department will be informed about which bonus is to be paid to which employee and the employee receives a notification about the final approval and bonus.
 
There are escalation rules in the entire process, reminding everyone involved if they miss a deadline. Additionally, it is possible to request further information or send an instance step back at any point, i.e. if a wrong reviewer was selected. At every point of the process, the flow is designed to ensure that no gaps can occur and that the process runs correctly.