[tab name=’Guidelines’]

Guidelines : Inviting them for Employees

Inviting Suggestions from Your Employees and Customers

Guidelines and Alternate Phrases

• Briefly pave the way for your request for suggestions.
• We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Our employees make the company what it is. And we are again asking for your help.
• In an effort to update our library and its usefulness to you as employees, we need your input on the kinds of periodicals most beneficial to you in performing your jobs.
• We need your help once again.
• May we count on you? Do you have five minutes to spare?
• As you are well aware, we have undertaken to reach some goals that most of our competitors would think are impossible. We need your suggestions for reaching them.
• Be as specific as possible in what kinds of suggestions you want.
• We’d like you to respond to the enclosed questionnaire about your perceptions of waste in your own department.
• We ask that you simply telephone Marg Atwell (453-6687) with your comments about cost-cutting measures you’ve taken in your own department.
• We’d like you to attend the upcoming cocktail hour in the lower lobby and visit with our senior managers about what you perceive to be our biggest challenge in 19–.
• Would you drop a brief memo to Marcell Whitley, our training coordinator, telling how many seats your department should be allocated if budget were no problem?
• Make it easy to respond; remember that their cooperation is voluntary.
• The questionnaires do not need to be signed.
• You can drop your suggestions into designated boxes at each elevator bank.
• We will keep all comments confidential; please feel free to be as frank as possible.
• These letters will be opened only by the administrative assistant in that department and forwarded to us in a batch with all names removed.
• We’ve set up a special number and operator just for your calls on Friday.
• Point out how individual employees and the organization as a whole can profit from the suggestions.

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[tab name=’Example 1′]

Example 1: Sample letter for request suggestion from employee

Company Name or Letterhead
Address
City, State Zip

Date

Addressee
Address
City, State Zip

To the Southern Region Sales Staff:

Help–or at least help us help you!

From what several of you tell us, you are beginning to feel very comfortable using the new closing techniques we introduced. Your attitude and efforts have been super!

But here’s where we need help: The greatest stumbling block in closing more sales is effectively handling a customer’s objections. I’m working currently on a program to handle these new objections and want to make sure my ideas are right in line with the “real world” of your marketplace.

Would you take a few minutes to jot down the most difficult objections you are hearing. Specifically consider M-Text, Nu-Deltron, and DexNdiasti. Please have your ideas to me by March 14.

For everybody who sends me a list of at least 20 objections, dinner at the next staff meeting is on me.

But most important, we think our united efforts to come up with the best script for handling key objections will make you even more successful. Keep closing.

Regards,
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[tab name=’Example 2′]

Example 2: Internal correspondence letter

Memorandum

TO:

FROM:

DATE:

SUBJECT: Employee Benefits Package

We are seriously contemplating a major revision of our employee benefits package. We realize that changes could have a major impact on you. Because of this, we are asking for your help.

Please circle or place a check next to the options you would like to see offered. If there are benefits not listed that you would like us to consider, please enter them in the “other” category. We would also appreciate a current list of benefits that you are not satisfied with and why. You can return these sheets to your supervisors.

We appreciate your time. We want to provide you with the best benefits package we can, and only your input will make that possible.

__ 401 K Plan

__ Accidental Death Insurance

__ Dental Plan

__ Eye Care Plan

__ Hearing Checks

__ Standard Life Insurance

__ Employee Stock Program

__ Substance Abuse Counseling

__ Other

Please list below any current services you are dissatisfied with and why.
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[tab name=’Example 3′]

Example 3:Suggestion for employees

Memorandum

TO:

FROM:

DATE:

SUBJECT: Office Efficiency

We are conducting a survey on office efficiency, and we need your help. We are studying the division of duties within each department to determine how effectively assignments are being given.

Please help us by taking the time to fax the answers to the following questions to Michelle Geer in Resource Planning (the speed dial for her fax is already programmed into your corporate address book on your work station computer). Michelle has disabled the function which allows her to know where the internal faxes are routed from, so you may be sure that your answers to the questions will remain confidential.

We believe the results of this survey will help ensure fairness in assignment distribution in the future. If you feel there is a problem in your division, use this as an opportunity to inform us of it without fear of repercussions for you or for formal reprimands to your supervisor. Rather, we will use this information to suggest to each supervisor alternate assignment distribution.

We want this to be a positive experience that will improve the productivity of your division, and thus the productivity of the company as a whole. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
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[tab name=’Example 4′]

Example 4: Inviting suggestion from customer

Memorandum

TO:

FROM:

DATE:

SUBJECT: Choices For Employee Dress Code

Here at Con-Tech Corp. we try to involve our employees in as many decisions that directly effect them as possible. That’s why we need your help today.

In the following booklet are illustrations and descriptions of three dress code options for employees. Please take a moment to evaluate them. After each dress code, simply use the sheet provided to tell us what you thought of the choice. Please consider appearance of each choice to our customers, comfort level for employees, and if you think that particular choice would positively or negatively influence employee productivity. After you have evaluated all three dress codes, please list them on the last sheet provided in order of preference, with the most acceptable being your first choice.

Return the booklets to Jenny Kulbeth in Employee Affairs. The first fifty employees to do so will receive a certificate good for dinner for two at Linguini’s Italian restaurant.

We appreciate your help in this matter. You have the opportunity to give “dressing for success” a whole new meaning–one that we know will benefit our company.
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[tab name=’Example 5′]

Example 5: Inviting them for Employees

Memorandum

TO:

FROM:

DATE:

SUBJECT: Promotion For Upcoming Niktron Line

By now you have all had a chance to see the new Niktron Line. We are excited about the launching of this line, which is projected for the beginning of next year. We need your help to make sure that it gets the recognition it deserves.

As our front line sales staff, you know more than anyone what sells well, and after dealing with our customers day in and day out, you probably have a good idea as to why. That’s why we value your opinion.

Please take a moment to review the advance advertising campaign that the Marketing Department has put together. We know you are busy and don’t have the time for a lengthy written response, so all we are asking you to do is put in a brief call to Doug Kincaid in Marketing (ext. 259) and give him your feedback on the campaign. Tell him what you believe will appeal to our customers, as well as any flaws you may see.

The work you have done in sales this past year has been phenomenal. We appreciate you sharing your front lines expertise with the Marketing staff, and hope you realize how much your input will benefit the entire company. Thanks, folks.
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[tab name=’Example 6′]

Example 6: Department issue letter

Memorandum

TO:

FROM:

DATE:

SUBJECT: Departmental Budget Issues

Yes, folks, it’s that time of year again. The department is putting together its new budget.

This year we would appreciate it if all faculty members would look at the following categories and rank them in order of importance in regards to funds allocation. Please be realistic in rankings. While we would love the vast majority of moneys to be allocated for salaries and travel expenses, we must remember the mundane things, like making sure we have enough copier paper to get us through the semester.

By ranking these items, you will give the budget committee a clearer picture of just which areas are most important to you as a faculty member, and thus will allow us to serve your needs more effectively.

Thank you for your input; the better informed we are of faculty viewpoints, the better we can make our case to the “higher powers.”
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[tab name=’Example 7′]

Example 7: Memos example

Company Name or Letterhead
Address
City, State, Zip

Date

Addressee
Address
City, State, Zip

To All Area 4 Employees:

We have recently been reviewing the budgets of all area offices, and it is our belief that the people who are working day to day in each area are the ones who are best equipped to inform us of how we can improve our budgeting allocations. You know what your office needs, and where it could improve if a greater amount of money were directed to the right projects.

Therefore, we are requesting your help. In the remaining space on this memo, please list at least three areas you feel would not suffer from budgets cuts, along with a brief sentence or two of explanation. Then list at least three areas you feel deserve a budget increase, and why. Please place all suggestions in Hank Teach’s mail box.

We will be looking closely at these suggestions, and allocating funds accordingly. Your input will have a direct impact upon your area office, and the company as a whole. Thank you for taking the time to help make such critical funding decisions.
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[tab name=’Example 8′]

Example 8: Inviting suggestion from customer

Company Name or Letterhead
Address
City, State, Zip

Date

Addressee
Address
City, State, Zip

To All Customer Service Reps:

We need your help to make your jobs less hectic!

The company has recently experienced a real growth spurt, due in no small part to the outstanding efforts you have put forth as a customer service team. We have been receiving numerous letters and calls commending your department’s efforts. We realize, though, that the increase in clients we are experiencing has created added difficulties for all of you in promptly meeting the needs of customers.

We are asking, then, that you choose a delegation of six members from your customer service team to attend an electronics fair Quick Systems is hosting. Since you are the ones using the equipment on a daily basis, we feel you would be best equipped to attend the various demonstrations, and then choose a data link that you feel would help speed up your response time (don’t worry, we will also be hiring some new reps!).

Please hold a staff meeting and choose six delegates by ballot. Report the result to Natalie Burke (ext. 999) and she will make the arrangements for the electronics fair.

We are excited about the possibilities of implementing a new system, and we appreciate the knowledge and experience you will be providing.

Regards,
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[tab name=’Example 9′]

Example 9: Letter for suggestion

Memorandum

TO:

FROM:

DATE:

SUBJECT: Addressing Employee Concerns

Although we hold staff meetings regularly, we are aware that many of you are sometimes hesitant to bring up issue that you feel may be of a sensitive nature. We feel, however, that it is just such issues that need to be addressed by our managers.

Catch 22, isn’t it?

Hopefully we have found a solution to this problem. By each bank of elevators you will now find a locked drop box, in which suggestions or concerns regarding your job or department may be placed. Only managers on the Employee Concerns Committee have access to the boxes contents. Signatures are optional, and be assured that requests for confidentiality will be respected.

We want you to be able to honestly address your concerns without fear of repercussions. If matters are not addressed, they will adversely affect morale, something we do not wish to happen.
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[tab name=’Example 10′]

Example 10: Inviting them for Employees

Memorandum

TO:

FROM:

DATE:

SUBJECT: Access To Necessary Information Sources

I realize that in order for you to be able to provide us with the best documents possible, we need to be able to provide you with adequate support materials. We now have a library containing approximately 500 volumes. We also have current subscriptions to six trade magazines. However, we would like to offer you more.

I know that many of you surf the Internet after business hours, and would appreciate it if you could track down web sites that would be of practical use to you in the work place. If you could get the group of die hard surfers together and come up with a list of 75 solid web sites, management has informed me that they will provide us with Internet access.

I don’t have to tell you how much this could assist us in our document creation. The ideas we could generate from the Web are endless.

So please, give me a list of two to four volunteers who are willing to do some research on their own time. Do you think you could have a working list by next week? If so, it means we may have Net access as early as the beginning of next month.

This chance is just to good to pass up…the potential increase in our department will mean increases for the company as a whole, something that will not go unnoticed by the management team here.
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