How to get employees involved (increase awareness) with ISO 9001

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Jeri Mackay

Does anyone have suggestions on how to get employees involved (increase awareness) with ISO? One suggestion I was given was to make it a game where ISO questions are asked and whichever "team" wins there is a monetary prize. We have a very diverse employee base (non-english speakers, some education vs. masters degrees etc...) and I need to figure out something which would work for all (or at least a majority).

Jeri
 
Hi Jeri,

Certainly. First of all, I suggest that you call it something else (Like quality awareness)... Focus on your QMS and your companys way of doing things for your reasons.

One thing is absolutley vital to get across: What's in it for the individual... Like for instance a better chance to stay employed.

A company does not have to work with quality improvement.... nobody ever said a company has to survive.

/Claes
 

SteelMaiden

Super Moderator
Trusted Information Resource
Hello Jeri,

For starters, don't teach people about ISO, teach them about your quality system. One of the worst things you can do for your company is to allow them to separate ISO from the rest of what you do. It's your quality system, ISO is just a portion of it.

As for some of the more fun things.... here's a few that I've done, the sky's the limit so go crazy:
1 At meetings - ask questions that might be asked during an audit, give the first person to answer the question a candy bar.

2 Walk around asking folks if they know the quality policy - give them a sticker to wear on their hard hat if they know it, if they don't just tell them to stop by your office once they've learned it and you'll give them their sticker (this helps to get people familiar with coming into your area also)

3 Do a lot of management by walking around, ask questions about what people are doing, and try to find out some info about them outside of the work area. Folks love it when you remember who they are and that they won the company golf outing.

4 Hand out some quality posters to put in highly visible areas.

5 There is a thread that tells about quality games and stuff, search through those and you'll find some you can use.

6 Challange different areas to contests of your choosing, put the winning team's foto in the company newsletter.

7 Go to the crew meetings, ask for a 5 minute time slot and do a quick "this is what we are doing" overview.

8 Most of all, whatever you do, make sure that:
you act like you are committed to quality,
you let everyone know it is a team effort and you cannot live without their input,
keep life fun, nothing is as boring as managing a system, so continue to find ways to keep it light.


Hope that this gives you some ideas.
 

barb butrym

Quite Involved in Discussions
take the quality policy, post it everywhere...and have a contest for a slogan that represents it........prize of course and a pizza lunch to present it. Have the slogan printed on somethong appropriate...Pens, magnets, cups....whatever makes sence....and make a poster, everyone signs, showing their support/commitment to the policy..........
 
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Brad Serangeli

Jeri,
We did something that was kind of fun and really got the intrest up. Randomly go thru your people and ask about your QMS, if the respond give them a scratch off lottery ticket. (this is after we have posted information all over). You will be surprised at how many people will want to tell you about your QMS. It will cost you very few $$ but the returns is more than you can guess!
 
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JaneB

Two suggestions:

1.Look for ways of sharing successes and wins.

('Quality' per se can get awfully boring and/or esoteric. Yes, 'everyone knows' it's a good thing... but sharing some real live company-specific examples can make it much more real. )

Eg, 'remember those widgets we got all the complaints from customer Z from? Well, after a fix it session, we found out that... and we did ABC... and now we're making it 10% faster and actually cheaper than we were before. And that means good things like we all to keep our jobs/more money for staff bonuses/whatever.'

2. Keep it short & focussed. I did a series I called '5 Key Things' - meaning the 5 key things everyone absolutely had to know about our system. Naming a specific number of things (no more than 7!) keeps it concrete & manageable in their minds.
 
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mirrorcrax

I gotta say first of all, good topic!.... and it's something which i thought about for quite sometime, but then i always ask myself, do i just want to catch their interest? or do i wanna win them over? do i wanna pretend? or do i wanna transfer my passion and dedication towards quality to spread all over the organization?

I guess bringing a couple of rabbits out of the hat every now and then does catch people's attention for sometime, but does it create a quality culture, i was so fond of slogans and candy and interesting reward programs that get people involved at times, but i soon realized that this is just a door opener, what you do with their attention next is what really matters.

I think the most important thing is to get to know the people, what their problems are, what they think and how they want to improve things .... do not just ignore all the apparent company problems and talk about things that make you seem like you live in lala land faraway from reality, you have to attack those problems and give people confidence that you're there to make difference! a real difference! not just print a couple of fancy ads! dress in a nice suit and tie and walk around preaching quality principles! ... people will automatically think..now here's a guy with a lot of time on his hands and nothing to show for, i've seen several companies where the people in the quality related positions, are usually overweight, lazy, pretentious people who memorize a couple of iso9001 terms and start blowing it all around the place whenever they're threatened,...i'm not saying everywhere is like this...i'm saying that having such a reaponsibility is such an honor that comes with a lot of responsibilities that whomever has it has to be up to it, or else step down!

Speak to the people in a language they understand! address their hearts and minds not their manuals and procedures! show them you care! ...only then you can make a difference
 
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