The Boots Suggestion Scheme

The collection, evaluation and implementation of ideas within the manufacturing areas of the factory buildings at Beeston (Nottingham) and Airdrie (Glasgow) goes back many years although records were only kept from 1986, when individual factory arrangements started to come together as a cohesive suggestion scheme. By 1993 this had been launched as a single scheme into the now familiar format of AIM (All Ideas Matter) on a single in-house software package run centrally from Beeston. The scheme had a ‘traditional’ rewards format with £25 Encouragement Awards, an Intangible Awards scale and Savings Awards (up to £15,000) based on a percentage of first year savings.


Up to 1992 the scheme format was ‘traditional’, with ideas being submitted on paper into a suggestion box. The collection of ideas then evolved with the introduction of ‘fold and post’ forms that use the company’s internal mail. Further technological advances were made possible by the purchase of an off the shelf ideas tracking software package. An in house Intranet Website was then introduced to add to the publicity & promotional options and provide up to date information for evaluators and submitters. This now allows both submitters and evaluators to have direct access to the software for submissions and for decisions on adoption. As a consequence paper usage has dropped considerably. Paper input is steadily being supplanted by on line input to the software database via the Intranet site and contributions via home e-mail.


In 2003 the pressures on the manufacturing areas increased and ‘Lean Manufacturing’ policies were introduced. Management saw that rewards for ideas cut across the way they wanted to effect lean manufacturing and the suggestion scheme was modified to remove most of the cash awards.


Up to this time the retail part of the company, Boots The Chemist, had resisted the introduction of a suggestion scheme. However, 2003 saw the arrival of a new CEO from ASDA who asked for the creation of a Stores Suggestion Scheme. Because at the time the company was downsizing and cutting costs, the scheme was set up without any rewards and rolled out to cover the whole company. Whilst a no reward scheme was well received in the new areas (without any expectation of reward), in the manufacturing departments the scheme died. However, to put this in perspective, at its peak the manufacturing scheme served around 5000 staff which is now little more than 1000 whilst retail staff number in excess of 60,000.


Since 2004 original retail scheme has expanded with the merger with Alliance Unichem and the merger of Boots Opticians with Dolland and Aitchison. Boots already had a strong recognition process, run by HR, and this has allowed AIM to evolve in a wider ideas arena. One of the key tools for our stores is their Intranet (MyStoreNet – MSN). Through this, ideas can be submitted and the opportunity was taken to also handle ‘feedback’ from that same source. The random nature of feedback, that the subjects mirror those of ideas and as we have used the same software has allowed us to exploit synergies to extract more ideas, reduce handling and provide better support for our colleagues most of whom are out in our stores.


The suggestion scheme is open to everyone, employees, contractors & in-house partners (eg IBM) in over 2500 locations, stores, warehouses and our two support offices at Nottingham and Feltham. There is an ongoing evolution of the scheme as it ‘infuses’ itself into the business. Short term projects and development often involve the scheme as a means to get creative input and through this and other activity the profile is kept high.


Whilst manufacturing ideas regularly brought in high tangible savings the nature of the retail environment keeps values low. What has been identified is that the existence of a route for colleagues’ ideas is in itself a major factor in colleague satisfaction. Management also value it as a means to improve communication, safety, working conditions, environmental impact and a greater overall involvement of each employee in the future success of the Company.


The scheme is also a model of low cost. Without rewards or expensive advertising the running costs are low, giving an ROI in excess of 5:1


For nearly 20 years Boots has been a member of ideasUK and has sponsored a trophy in the Annual Ideas Competition. We have notched up successes in poster competitions and ideas competitions and currently sponsor the Customer Service Trophy in the ideas competition. The evolution of the scheme has been done, not in isolation, but with the awareness of other schemes around the world through the association. In effect membership has varied frequently between taking and giving; taking advice and benchmarking with others and then sharing our experience for the benefit of others.


For more information contact:

Andy Beddows

Suggestion Scheme Manager

Boots
D90 East F08
Nottingham
NG90 1BS
0115 959 2653

aim@boots.co.uk

May I Suggest a Suggestion Scheme?

Here is an example of a document put together by a potential member organisation after taking part in an International Ideas Week event and talking to some of our members.

May I Suggest A Suggestion Scheme? - August 2009

This paper discusses staff suggestion schemes and some of the questions and answers gleaned from some research with organisations that currently use such schemes, for example Bupa, Diageo and Boots plus talking to the national charity that helps organisations with schemes, ideasUK.

What is a suggestion scheme?

A suggestion scheme (UK) or ideas programme (Europe/USA) is a mechanism for gathering ideas from employees to improve the business.

Who does it benefit?

If put together well, everyone! It can save the organisation hard money, make its systems and processes better & more cost effective, can make the working environment better and give employees recognition (maybe even reward) for their ideas.

Are there any rules we would need to follow?

Only where money is involved! One ‘unwritten rule’ that has been identified is that whilst you can start a scheme without any financial rewards (and add them later if you want), you cannot start with rewards and then take them away (there is hard evidence that this will kill a scheme). If you do give rewards the Taxman will let you pay so much tax free subject to certain conditions.

Do we need rules for the employees?

Some schemes have very complex rules but opinion seems to support simplicity. We should aim for less than a dozen rules. We could widen the scope in time by including the existing feedback cards as, whilst items submitted as suggestions can sometimes be no more than feedback, feedback can sometimes be a valuable suggestion.

What resource would we need to start a scheme?

With only xxx employees we are unlikely to be inundated with ideas so I believe that we could operate a scheme with the involvement of two people; an existing manager, to oversee the scheme and an existing Admin member of staff to enter idea submissions and progress letters from ideas.

Do we need systems?

Standard Life was recently quoted £xk for a software system and Boots are currently looking at systems between £xk and £xk. To be realistic we should simply put together an Excel spreadsheet to log the progress of each item. Added to this we should develop some standard letters to send: acknowledgement and final closure (used or not used), together with standard emails to send ideas to evaluators. With a little expertise in Word/Excel these letters could be personalised.

What is an evaluator?

We would need to identify some subject specialists to establish idea feasibility:

Process?

The ideas would be sent in via internal letter or email: Suggestion created > Suggestion sent via email > Entered into central database > Letter created for the contributor > Suggestion sent to subject specialists > Suggestion adopted yes/no > Further letter sent to contributor if successful


How do we promote the scheme and collect ideas?

We would promote through locally created posters (ideasUK may help us share from other organisations) and paper forms in staff areas plus the facility for employees to e-mail ideas from work or home to a scheme e-mail address. To help sustain interest in the scheme we could choose certain subject areas over the year (a monthly special every quarter).

Reward and/or recognition?

Certificates or Team Awards
• A good starting point for recognition is the presentation of for ideas that are used. This could also be extended to adopted suggestions receiving a certificate from the Chief Executive and photo put in the news letter.
Cash Reward
• In addition we could consider rewards but these would require a budget.
• Rewards could be a percentage of savings (eg 10% first year), a reward matrix (word description equated to cash) and these can be direct to an individual or into a collective ‘pot’ (‘gain sharing’) for all employees to share.
Prize draw
• All qualified suggestions would go into a hat (so to speak) and each quarter there would be a draw for three high street voucher £50 - £30 - £20

Do we give the scheme a name?

Yes, a name gives it some local ownership. Have a competition to find one or
‘borrow from another organisation: DODGI department of dam good ideas (Body Shop), GEMS (MoD), AIM all ideas matter (Boots), One Life (Bupa), Eureka (Various)

Another suggestion could be to initially launch a suggestion scheme by asking
staff to suggest a name.

Types of suggestion

Suggestions could be categorised
• Health and Safety improvements
• Reducing costs and overheads
• Improving the working environment
• Enhancing the student experience
• Improving customer service
• Improving quality

Value

Engaging with staff and encouraging them to participate would lead to increased staff morale levels and ownership, whilst giving an opportunity of enhancing staff general wellbeing.

CRB EUSA Aug 09