How can you involve your employees in identifying business problems?

Most small businesses don't have a large board of directors waiting to give advice, or a bench of talent waiting to be put into the problem-solving game. Small businesses have to rely on those closest to the work to find solutions. One of the best ways to involve employees is to ask them. Team meetings or town halls are a great place to gather this information. To prevent these meetings from becoming gripe sessions, use the ICES model. I - What is the ISSUE the problem or gap C - What problem does it CAUSE for the customer or company E - Show an EXAMPLE of the problem S - Propose a SOLUTION The ICES model helps find issues that waste effort and resources, and creates an enviroment where everyone is responsible for process improvement.

Employees everywhere in the company- either on the shop floor or in field or at desks often have many sound suggestions on how to reduce costs, cut process times, simplify process or add value. The bureaucracy and hierarchy often mires them from bringing their creative suggestions out. Even in small businesses, one very effective way to capture and promote the employee creativity is to organize regular team meetings encouraging everyone to speak up, and promoting new thoughts and taking action on it. Feeling that everyone gets heard makes them feel a part of team, and bring their best to the table.

Foster employee involvement in identifying business problems by promoting open communication channels for feedback and ideas. Empower and train employees to think critically and contribute to discussions. Facilitate collaborative problem-solving sessions to gather diverse perspectives and creative solutions. Recognize and reward employees for proactive problem identification. Establish feedback mechanisms to track outcomes and promote continuous improvement. This inclusive approach harnesses employee insights, boosts morale, and enhances organizational performance.

Ray - Employee engagement is mutually beneficial to the business and employees. Employees like to feel they have an impact/ownership to the business.

Recognizing and rewarding is how we keep our employees interest in the continuous improvement alive. Specially in old legacy family businesses, change management is very difficult without having proper incentive structures in place. A great way to bring fresh ideas and productivity to your business is to share gains- one has to be sure mindful of sharing as much as the business can afford to pay or is a % of additional benefit generated; and at the same time shouldn't be distraction from day to day activities and duties of employees and take the employee culture for a toss.

Empowering team members to broaden industry knowledge. Technology has brought rapid transformation in industries. Specially for manufacturing businesses, technology adoption becomes key to survivability. Small businesses often lag at this. They should encourage their staff members to visit industry trade shows, conferences, subscribe to industry journals to broaden their knowledge and gain more experience. If we bring fresh ideas to our team members' minds, they will get something to think about in their routine jobs and find ways to implement it along with above.