A successful local bank adapted a suggestion system which they concluded to be effective. The employees were encouraged to submit their ideas like on how to develop or improve its banking services or on how to save cost expenditures and other recommendations related to banking.
The suggestions came from different departments but more came from employees directly in contact with bank customers. Aside from the monthly suggestion system winner, there is also the annual winner who was chosen to be the best among the best winners. All winners are given rewards and recognitions and are featured on the bank’s bulletin or circular
Keeping employees’ involvement at the suggestion level should be part of management policy. Input and final implementation are the employees’ jobs; decision-making and analysis of any new proposals rests with the executive committee,
To get the suggestion system more effective, the following must be applied:
- Encourage employees to formalize their suggestions. These are the ideas that came from their years of experience in a particular job.
- Maintain a strict policy on the qualities of the suggestions. Emphasize that recommendations should be specific and the problem involved is clearly defined.
- All qualified suggestions will be thoroughly screened and evaluated by a committee before the best suggestion is presented and approved by higher management for implementation.
- The employee with the best suggestion should be publicly recognized or rewarded to inspire others to follow suit.
It is important to note that participation caries its own rewards for employees. Being asked to make suggestions, getting a little attention and receiving even a simple “thank you” from management are all motivators that usually result in improved productivity.
A normal human being avoids conflicts as much as possible. However, in every organization, tensions between employees may result to positive benefits. As such, conflicts can be used in creating new or improve existing policies and procedures in handling employees.
Before taking any action, the executive must examine the motives of the conflicts between the concerned subordinates. Then, the decision must be made whether it is a healthy conflict or could cause damage to the company.
A healthy conflict happens when two employees, having the best interest of the company in their heart, have contradicting ideas on how a job should be done. Both of them feel that it will easier and become more productive if the other person would cooperate. The good intentions of both parties will lead to a healthy resolution from the manager who acts and decides objectively.
The other conflicts that may arise in the office are as follows:
- Destructive conflict- arises on the personalities of the people involved.
- Positive conflict-usually the result of stimulated communication and ends up with solution.
- Negative conflict-leads to an exchange of insults concealed but without facts.
It will be easy for a manager which course of action must be taken once the kind of conflict is clearly identified. If it is personality problem, it should be treated in the same manner as any other infraction of policy guidelines. When the conflict seems to be leading to a larger issue, the manager should start meeting with the persons involved to be able to disclose more information.
In the meeting, the manager must set some behavioral rules to avoid further clash between the concerned personnel. All issues must be honestly open for discussion. The meeting will serve as a brainstorming session and with the help of the subordinates, alternative solutions will be achieved.
Whenever conflicts arises, the manager must retain objectivity and a most valuable role – that of a mediator.
Majority of managers are conscientious about the effect of their total personality (good grooming, poise, social decorum and communication skills) in their chosen career, but have neglected the set-up of their office and how it affects their visitors.
The selection of office furniture and how they are arranged is part of the nonverbal communication which is the “language of objects”.
The following queries can assist in determining the impact of an executive’s office to visitors:
- Where is the desk located in relation to the chairs intended for the visitors? An open arrangement with the desk against the wall foster the impression that the officeholder is more confident, friendly and extrovert in nature than someone who blocks off an area to visitors with a desk.
- Is the office neat, messy, or somewhere-in-between? A very neat office is regarded as too sterile for genuine use, and the visitor feels that the office holder is on display like everything else in the room. A messy office implies that the visitor has intruded, or that the occupant is not interested in impressing guests. The somewhere-in-between office, according to study, is the most acceptable degree of neatness.
- Are there plants or aquarium in the office? Living things off-set the non-organic nature of the office setting. Visitors will find this kind of environment more inviting, and are inclined to think of the officeholder as friendly. Those executives who display posters, paintings or wall hangings are also regarded as having strong interpersonal skills.
What does the office reveal about the officeholder? Are the guests invited to sit down and make them comfortable, while the executive is seated behind a clustered desk in a barrier position? How is the office influencing the visitors’ willingness to speak openly or to air grievances? Is the office arrangement consistently communicating with what is presented through the words and actions of the officeholder?
A better outlook and assessment of he above settings can contribute to the success of the person behind the office.
A marketing manager was hired by a commercial bank located at the heart of a financial hub. The manager was given the task to create new systems and procedures and submit for management approval and implementation. The initial action done was to observe the front line operations in the branches as well as in the head office.
In due time, the manager submitted the evaluation report and recommendation for the following:
Re-build the image of the bank in the industry. The need to standardize the branches’ appearance, the bank’s logo and corporate color and to activate representation in the bankers association.
Improve the system in servicing bank customers by adapting the numbered queuing system, the first time to be implemented in the banking industry.
Develop monitoring of branch managers’ activities and evaluation of performance vis-à-vis attainment of goals.
Personality enhancement of personnel. The frontline personnel need total re-orientation on good grooming, visual poise and communication skills.
The manager did not expect that top executives will agree with all the recommendations. There were those who commented that it might not work. While the others, reacted about the expected expenditures for the projects.
The following were highlighted by the manager for the approval of the above projects.
- Since there were those who are troubled in accepting the idea, the benefits were illustrated with examples based from previous experiences.
- People initially respond to the demand for change by sorting out blame for the original problem. The job done by the manager was to focus the discussion on what’s wrong and how to fix it; not who’s wrong.
- Through persistence. When the message is repeated over and over again, it eventually gets through.
Finally, all projects were approved by top management and successfully implemented.
The benefits being in the forefront of a movement for change carries with it a deep sense of satisfaction from knowing that someone has contributed something for a better organization.
All kinds of business benefit from a comprehensive reporting system. The advantage of having a standard reporting system is that, it can easily identify problems, trace who are responsible for errors and it definitely serves as guide for comparing budgets and goals vis-à-vis actual performance.
In most of companies, reports are usually coming from every department like purchasing, sales, production, accounting, finance and others. The different departments at every level ranging from the supervisors to top executives hand in reports to their respective superiors. Every department head has to study and get the necessary needed information from the report of the subordinate directly under his supervision and be able to include in his own report.
Through this reporting system, the report that reaches the President or CEO is already a summary, highlighting only the overall operations of the business and the needed necessary revisions should there be any. The report will also reveal any impediment, unnecessary or over expenditure and be able to immediately identify the concerned person/department.
A standardized format with moderate technical terminology based on clear, descriptive headings and titles will surely allow the readers to easily identify specific items.
The reports required from the different department and levels of origin are given different deadlines. There are reports that need to be submitted daily, weekly, monthly and even quarterly depending on the nature of the business and when there is a great need of monitoring the business’ cash flows.
The reporting system must be always simple, quick to understand and easy to prepare. In so doing the problem can be identified easily and resolved at once.
