Your employees are a gold mine of free money -- if you are willing to mine their brains for new ideas in an employee involvement and suggestion program.

Imagine how much new money you can free up --or generate for your business or organization --if you'll ask for, encourage, welcome, and reward new employee ideas.

An example:

Marshall Hospital, in Placerville, CA, got ideas worth nearly $300,000 in savings from just 12 employees!

Suggestion Program Saves in Hospital

Dennis Bietz, manager of the intensive care unit at Marshall and coordinator of the employee suggestion program, explained that Marshall Hospital had a suggestion program for several years, "but we're pushing

cost saving ideas now because we have to." Some of the ideas:

• Nurses have to use protocols of care (nursing care plans) for each patient. The hospital was having all this paperwork printed outside. The simple idea - copy the paperwork in-house. Savings: $50,000 a year!
• Attorneys and others ask for copies of patient records. In the past, this copying was outsourced. Again, a simple idea. Do the copying in-house. Savings: Another $20,000 a year.
• "We were giving away free coffee in the cafeteria to the staff, to visitors," Bietz said. "It was a tradition. But someone suggested switching to charging for the coffee. We didn't want to do it, but we were spending $40,000 a year giving away coffee." They switched, and are saving the money.

Suggestion Program Saves off Texas Coast

Another example: Dixie Carriers, at its Houston, TX, location, saved hundreds of thousands of dollars a year with ideas from employees. The Houston location had 250 employees operating
52 towboats. That's four or five employees on a boat. Though separated into small units, these employees still came up with ideas to save money and improve the operation. Cathy Hooper, quality/office supervisor, gave some examples.

• Hooper told how cargo is loaded through big, giant hoses. The cargo (chemicals, gasolines, liquid) flows through the hoses. "Some of the liquid would remain inside the hose, dry, and then polymerize into a hard coating," she said. "We had to get them cleaned out. It was very expensive." A mechanic came up with the idea. Put dry ice into the tubes. It prevents the polymerizing. Savings: $250,000 a year or more.
• The procedures and duties for the captain on a boat are in a manual. The idea -organize these procedures and duties in daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly sheets. Said Hooper, "Now, every duty is right in front of them. It helps them in documenting the duties being done, helps the boat crew learn duties better."

What Marshall Hospital employees and Dixie Carriers employees have done with their brains...your employees can do with their brains, too.

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