Are You Ready for an Employee Involvement Program?
Employee involvement refers to those programs and systems that present employees with a structured process to have input and influence decisions that impact their work. Examples of employee involvement include formal quality of work life programs, quality control circles, labor management problem solving efforts, employee problem solving task forces and teams, continuous improvement teams, and structured suggestion systems.
Employee involvement programs have been in existence for well over seventy-five years. To be effective these programs demand management time and attention as well as careful program design and implementation. Training for supervisors and employees is a necessary part of the process. Senior management sponsorship and interest is crucial. Employee involvement must be viewed as a systematic process that needs to be managed.
In short employee involvement programs require an investment of time and money. A reasonable question to ask is, “Do these programs have a positive impact on the organization?”
Researchers at the Applied Research Branch conducted a comprehensive review of articles that addressed the results of employee involvement programs. These articles clearly demonstrated that employee involvement has a positive impact on workplace productivity and company performance. They concluded that employee involvement increased performance between 5% and 7%.
What could you do with a 5% to 7% performance improvement?
