COMPANY FEEDBACK System lets workers say what's on their minds

Suggestions are key to company improvement, executive says.
WASHINGTON POST
You've been there. The company higher-ups did something that really made you wonder why they are in charge.
Or management created a system you think would work better if only your idea could be heard -- and heard without repercussions.
Things would be so much better if you could just tell someone, complain to someone, voice your opinion or shout out your idea.
But in many workplaces that can be a difficult thing to do. So many employees find themselves going through the motions of their workplace, just because that's the way things are.
Sure, they may wonder why they are that way, but what power do they have to do anything about it?
Richard Landry, chief executive of Conquest Systems, a Washington software developer, believes his company has found a way to remedy that. And, he likes to add, he thinks the company runs better for it.
With Conquest's intranet-based "blue card" system, anyone inside the company can anonymously write such a card, which goes to Landry, to a vice president of human resources and to a senior vice president of administration.
Landry answers promptly, sometimes to the entire company if he believes everyone should hear about a certain topic.
How this began
It started about five years ago. Back then, the company handed out actual blue cards, posed three questions related to the business and asked for anonymous feedback.
The bosses then collected the information and got back to the employees, acknowledging that there were some issues to be dealt with. And, said Landry, they dealt with them.
The idea of a blue card is nothing new. Landry believes the idea came to his company by way of a similar practice at IBM.
The blue cards, now electronic, are, as a rule, answered. Landry receives requests both simple and complex. Recently, one asked simply that he send out a memo with an update about year-end bonuses.
Other blue cards have directly led to flexible schedules, long- and short-term-leave benefits, and a change in the 401(k) plan.
An example of change
Right now Landry is dealing with several blue cards related to the company's annual retreat. Last year the retreat was at the Atlantis Paradise Island resort in the Bahamas. The company paid for airfare and rooms, but employees paid for the rest.
Several cards have come in saying the employees did not have the money to spend on the expensive meals and other items at the resort.
"The last thing I want to do is make this event a financial burden on someone," Landry said.
He is not sure if he would have heard that complaint without the possibility of anonymity. Now he is considering an all-inclusive location for this year's retreat.
John Powers, chairman of Corporate Communication Resources Inc. in Alexandria, Va., said the Conquest system and others like it are a great step toward better workplace morale and communication. The fact that a chief executive answers the problems directly is good, he said.
"I'm somewhat mystified ... that the general thought is [that] human resources is taking care of things. But HR folks tend to be overwhelmed by mainstream jobs -- benefits, recruiting and diversity," he said.
"They never get around to being trained or being able to devote the time it takes to resolve disputes correctly."
Resolving disputes
Powers believes companies should have both active and passive dispute-resolution processes. In a passive process, employees simply tell management about problems. Active is when management solicits opinions, the way Conquest does.
Landry said he receives about five blue cards each week, evenly split between anonymous and signed. He has found them very useful but thinks they should not be the only way employees can express themselves.
He makes a point of holding informal lunches each week, playing host to eight to 10 people in a lunch setting with "no rules."
Landry usually comes with agenda items, but "other than that, it is the opportunity for anyone in the company to ask me any question."
Landry claims a 95 percent retention rate for his company and credits open communication for it.
"It has to be part of the culture. There has to be a level of trust there, or [employees] will not speak up," he said.
"One of the things I always preach is that at the end of the year, there has to be a direct correlation between success and each employee's growth. The blue-card system, the lunches, the retreat ... are all part of that correlation."