Section 6.2.2.4 Employee motivation and empowerment, states that "the organization shall have a process to motivate employees to achieve quality objectives, to make continual improvements, and to create an environment to promote innovation."

We have an employee suggestion program, which we promote heavily and which pays out on suggestions that are implemented. We also have profit sharing. I think both of these things encourage continual improvement and innovation. But, I'm concerned that this may not be enough. Has anyone seen any systems in place to address this requirement?

Not sure what you are talking about, 9001-2000 section 6.2.2 is as far as it goes? Maybe you have a DIS copy?

Gpanter, I think this is of second edition (draft) of TS, In our organization we use a Club of ideas that achievement of continous improvement, and some of them are about innovations.
We also have a trainning program in the year to promote the quality concepts, policy and objetives and also use the Balance Scorecard like a way to measure the effectivness of those programs.
Regards
Arte

Sorry - Arte was right. That is from the final draft of TS16949 and not from ISO9001:2000.

Does anyone actually have a system in place to assess current levels of employee satisfaction? Is that necessary, or am I reading too much into this?

Hi kerry, in our organization we use an anual survey, I don't know how i write in english but is like " Organizational Weather" if you need a copy a send you (is in spanish languaje), this survey assesment the objective, policy and other topics related with our QMS.
Regards
Arte:thedeal:

Motivation is kind of an ambiguous term. Motavated to work, stay, be nice, cooperate, etc...

The key to motivation is to keep employees stimulated (throw ice water on them, put their feet to the fire?), show an interest in them (scan their Email and web visits?), provide them intellectual activity (create new rules, thou shalt's and thou shalt not's?), earn their trust (use ifo from open door policy to burn the snitchers and snitchee's?) and keep them interested (new management scheme of the month?).

You want to know about motivation? Call some companies of 1,000 employees or better that have an employee retention rate of at least 98%, and employees with over 40 years of service. Find out what they do to motivate. That kind of company exists. I know because I'm consulting to one right now.

:bigwave:

Kerry,

You may want to do a search on Motivation. There is a ton of stuff here that migh help you understand what motivation is, and, is not.

Motivation is intrinsic. Only the individual can create motivation. The best management can do is to provide an environment where Motivation can flourish.

My thinking, if you learn more about motivation, you will figure out ways to detect whether motivation is there or not. Randy's comments are sadly true, but understand, throwing Ice Water creates Movement, not Motivation. I feel this distinction must be made.

Please read Fredrick Herzberg's paper "One more time: How do you motivate employees?" that you can find on the Internet in a few locations. It is worth your while.

Regards,

Kevin

Kevin i think that other people can influence strongly into other to motivate, for this reason exist lidership in the word. I agree with you that the Mangement shall create the "rigth" enviromental, but the other important part is that the management should be like they speak. It is like "lidership by example"
Ragards Arte:thedeal:

Arte,

You are correct regarding folks in Leadership roles inspiring folks to find the motivation in themselves. Leadership by example - is there another way? Hopefully, leaders can create the right environments, share a strong vision, and create the following necessary to make change happen.

Regards,

Kevin

In order for an organization to achieve it's goals, it is very important for management to understand motivation and the factors that affect motivation. It has been said "for every negative there has to be 100 positives to make up. Most organizations are deep in the hole.

Right you are!

Call some companies of 1,000 employees or better that have an employee retention rate of at least 98%, and employees with over 40 years of service. Find out what they do to motivate. That kind of company exists. I know because I'm consulting to one right now.
So - What's your opinion now (a couple years later...)? You're a 'Working Man' again. What are you doing to motivate people who work under you? Have you thrown any cold water on anyone lately? :lol:

I will say that companies of 1,000 employees or better that have an employee retention rate of at least 98% are few and far between.

Our company actually has a program to "motivate" the employee on the basis of improving quality by making more money. We actually track all internal rejections and external customer complaints back to operators. And with the goal of "a process to motivate employees to achieve quality objectives" Zero defects is their goal and making more money by acheiving it is a powerful way to motivate some employees. We have been running the program for over 6 months now and over half of our work force is level one certified (6 weeks without a rejection) and making $.50 more an hour. We also have had two employees that have reached our level 2 (6 months) and are making $1.00 more per hour. This has also shown an improvement in our external customer complaints. And internal quality levels. A program similar to this is a powerful way to motivate the work force.

Our company actually has a program to "motivate" the employee on the basis of improving quality by making more money. We actually track all internal rejections and external customer complaints back to operators. And with the goal of "a process to motivate employees to achieve quality objectives" Zero defects is their goal and making more money by acheiving it is a powerful way to motivate some employees. We have been running the program for over 6 months now and over half of our work force is level one certified (6 weeks without a rejection) and making $.50 more an hour. We also have had two employees that have reached our level 2 (6 months) and are making $1.00 more per hour. This has also shown an improvement in our external customer complaints. And internal quality levels. A program similar to this is a powerful way to motivate the work force.

I get suspicous of money rewards but I like the sound of this structure.

1. It directly links customer outcomes to their source employee(s).

2. The outcome (more money) seems to be realized through reducing defects in a spot-specific way; that is, reduce your defects and make more money by raising your company's profits and customer satisfaction. This is, of course provided that the zero-defects program is actually profitable. Does the data show this is so? I ask this because I've read many arguments pointing to a saturation point, where efforts in quality become too expensive to positively impact profits.

3. The employee seems to be empowered. The money aspect, seems to me, is just a result or indicator of that and is not meant to actually make the employee feel better. While employees do understand that money talks and most of us seem to want a higher wage, all I have read points to the claim that empowerment is a more influential motivator.

Thank you! :applause: