Employee Ideas

Last spring One Write sent a six-person team to the Printing Industry of America’s Continuous Improvement Conference. One of the principles we brought back was the importance of ideas. We learned that one of the most valuable resources for any organization is employee ideas. So we began to ask all of our people to give their ideas for improvement of our company. Each person who gave an idea to the review team had his or her name put in a drawing for dinner for two at the local restaurant of their choice. During the past six months all One Write employees have submitted at least one idea (and enjoyed a dinner out, too!)

Many of the ideas have already been implemented to help with process improvement. But one of the ideas was a little different and has had interesting results. This idea was that we create a walking trail around the perimeter of One Write’s property so that employees who wanted to could get some fresh air on their breaks.

The 2/3-mile gravel path was completed last month and everyone has had a chance to try it out. So far it has been well-received. Our town’s hospital, Fairfield Medical Center, noticed it and donated pedometers so that we can keep track of how many miles we log on it. Our Wellness Program includes walking path laps so that employees can benefit not only from the fresh air and exercise but also the cash incentives for various distance accomplishments.

Soon after the trail was opened, we received a call from our neighbor across the road, Ralston Foods. They wondered if the walking path was just for One Write or was it open to the public. We said they were welcome to use it and so most days find a number of their 400+ employees out on the trail.

As a thank you, Ralston invited our employees to join in with their Wellness Weight Watchers program. (This was good for us, because with only 40 full-time employees we have difficulty getting to the minimum number required to host that program ourselves.) Several One Write employees have already begun to benefit from that opportunity.

We are hoping to create a better work place and employee ideas are providing an innovative way to accomplish that.