Dear Colleagues,
As you may know the costs of business are increasing due to many outside factors. During these unprecedented times we are reaching out to all members of our team to learn new ways to become more competitive and remain ahead of the curve. As we strive to maintain our premium brand status, we continue seeking ideas and thoughts to keep our costs and pricing strategies competitive. As an organization we encourage you to take a step back and look at our business and processes and share any insight that can make our process more competitive. AS members of our team we feel that you are our most valuable asset and often times remain untapped.
In efforts to foster our new mindset and promote open communication, we would like to start by holding monthly town hall meetings as well as weekly departmental toolbox meetings. We are committed to increasing the communication flow and collaborating to maintain our premium brand perception in the market place as well as reducing our input costs. As our input costs remain volatile it is critical for the immediate and future success to remain vigilant in cost reduction and process improvements.
Hi Steve,
ReplyDeleteIt looks a very good briefing showing mindset of process improvement. From my experiences, I would mention one point which probably can be viewed differently. About meetings, especially the frequency of meeting, I always try to communicate information through online tool such as e-mail, sharedrive, or sharepoint. It saves lot of time and probaly number of meetings goes down. But based on the nature of work, there might be the need of face to face meetings. I also think, this change should be emphasized by supervsors/managers instead of individual employees.
I appreciate your suggestion and while that way work in a service or banking industry it most likely will not in a manufacturing environment where employees do not have access to computers or the Internet
ReplyDeleteI also work in a manufacturing environment Steve and I think your propositions in this memo are of great value. I have witnessed how manufacturing employees often have insightful ideas that are never heard or acted upon. You have a great message here and I believe it would be received well in my organization. The town hall and departmental toolbox meetings you suggest could unearth some great findings while increasing employee morale, and therefore productivity, since the workforce knows their voices are being heard.
ReplyDeleteI have worked in a manufacturing environment as well and I know firsthand that there are many untappped ideas amongst the workforce. The key is to demonstrate that the ideas are of value through implementation and giving them credit for the idea. Often the big guys at the top will take credit and this is detrimental to moral. While I am not a fan of a lot of meetings, I like the town hall approach, as long as the big boss isn't in the back of the room taking notes and shaking his head.
ReplyDeleteSteve I liked how your memo communicated the problems your organization is facing. I also liked how your communicatione indicated the actions that your organization was going to take to ensure your commitment of open communication by implementing town hall meetings and biweekly toolbox meeting.
ReplyDeleteI like how you said we're reaching out to all members of our team. It makes people feel like they are a part of a bigger team than just employees, and like their input matters. One of the biggest downfalls of my company is we often feel like our opinion falls on deaf ears.
ReplyDeleteSteve, this is a good memo outlining the rationale behind the new meeting strategy. It is a concrete step toward soliciting employee input. I felt you statement of market forces was a bit vague. Consider including more concrete statements about forces threatening your business.
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