Employers
are being asked to celebrate Einstein’s birthday by encouraging staff to think
creatively and help improve UK businesses.
National
Ideas Day, which takes place tomorrow, was founded to get UK organisations to
launch suggestion programmes where staff can turn ideas into money-saving
schemes.
The
concept has been developed by ideasUK, a not-for-profit association of private
and public organisations, which last year helped save its members £156m by implementing
ideas thought up by staff.
Steve
Procter, operations director at ideasUK, said: "There is a huge amount of
untapped potential among employees of UK companies. Many firms don’t realise
how creative their employees can be. Ideas schemes, if implemented properly,
can be a great way of unleashing that potential and helping make UK companies
more competitive."
Examples
of companies in ideasUK that have improved efficiency following staff
suggestions include:
–
The RAF – saved over £500,000 a year from a new method of re-fuelling,
suggested by maintenance engineers
–
3M in Bedford – saved over £88,000 after introducing a new roll replenishment
scheme, suggested by a warehouse worker
–
Northern Ireland Electricity – saved £20,000 a year by getting sheep to control
grass growth around its plant.
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