2018 Suggestion Scheme

Bright Ideas!                                                          Inspire

Introduction

The Council recognises that the people who know our business best and who have the greatest impact on what we do are our staff.  We want to provide a way to encourage every individual to put forward their ideas and be recognised for their contribution so that we create a culture of innovation and change that helps us adapt and deliver council services in the challenging times ahead.

Purpose

The purpose of the Council staff suggestion scheme is to encourage employees to put forward original ideas for savings and service efficiency.

All ideas are welcomed whether big or small ideas but ideas that contribute to the council’s priority and help in delivering our services where money is tight are really what we are looking for.

Some suggestions might need investment upfront before the improvement can be provided.  So, ideas can also be submitted to bid for resources, people, money or expertise to help to take forward a development that would lead to an improvement.  For these suggestions, it will be important that a real, specific benefit is provided as a result of the idea.

There will be a whole range of areas where employees might have ideas that could save costs or improve efficiencies.  These might include suggestions to:

• Reduce costs without adverse impact on quality
• Improve efficiency, effectiveness or performance  of the service, maybe by doing things in a different way
• Eliminate or reduce waste
• Prevent accidents by improving safety
• Improve efficiency of use of equipment or resources
• Identify and remove areas of duplication of work

Eligibility

Suggestions can be submitted by any council employee and may be submitted by individuals or teams.

If a suggestion is within the scope of the employee’s normal duties they should discuss the proposal and implementation with their line manager in the first instance.  If the service manager is unable to progress the idea within the service, it can be submitted to the suggestion scheme e.g. if it requires resources that cannot be released in the service in order to proceed.  

Only original suggestions will be considered i.e. no repeats or duplications from the previous year’s submissions.

Priorities for the Suggestion Scheme

Provide cost savings and economic benefits    

Improvements that provide greater efficiency in service delivery

Procedure

Suggestions should be submitted using the suggestion form either electronically or via a paper copy. Where this is not available, suggestions should be put in writing clearly headed “Suggestion Scheme”, signed and dated with contact details provided.

Completed forms should be returned to HR by 31^st August 2018.

HR will undertake an initial sift of suggestions and will consult with the relevant service manager for initial evaluation and recommendation.  A decision will be taken in conjunction with the service manager whether the suggestion will proceed to the next stage or not. 

A variety of suggestions and the management evaluation will be referred to the workforce to gauge opinion.  This will be done online using a comment/voting system if possible.

Evaluation Criteria 

Suggestions will be considered against the following criteria:

• Cost saving and/or benefit generated
• Degree of impact on the service (outcome produced)
• Cost and feasibility of implementation  
• Efficiency
• Effectiveness
• Quality improvement

Response to Suggestions

Every suggestion will be acknowledged and feedback will be given on the outcome for all suggestions. A selection of suggestions will also be published on Interchange.

Suggestions that proceed to implementation will be credited to the employee(s) who made the suggestion.

Bright Ideas Timeline

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