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Employees can tell you what is wrong with your organization by letting you know what they found wrong in your company and how they fixed it. The problem with their approaches, although innocently performed, is that they are normally wrong and bad overall for the company. They find themselves in a bind so they make up their own rules. This is bad.
It is important to get the information to understand what was initially flawed. Their information tells you how your organization chart is flawed, what procedures are lacking definition, how workflow is hindered and which positions and functions are dysfunctional. Here are some examples of these potential problems.
Examples of employee roadblocks and their solutions (wrong or right):
Initial problem #1: Your billings clerk could not complete billings with customer purchase orders in your system, so in order to get invoices out she substituted other numbers in the field to force the system to generate invoices.
Underlying problem #1: Sales was not completing their assigned task of providing all data in order to complete the billings function. The billings clerk sent out an invoice that may not be paid or, if paid, will be paid very late. Collections will discover the customer purchase order was left off delaying payment for the invoice by 30-60 days (when the late invoice was noticed).
Initial problem #2: The receiving guy is overwhelmed today with incoming trucks and is working by himself. Trucks are backed up wanting to unload, so instead of independently verifying incoming receipt of materials, he signs the prepared customer packing slips to speed up the deliveries.
Initial problem #2: Material handlers open stacks of material or boxes of material and discover shortages of material. Instead of supervision pulling others into receiving temporarily to help verify receipt of goods, the order to unload trucks overrides good receiving procedures.
Initial problem #3: The collections person is yelled at by sales personnel or sales managers not to upset customers when he calls for past due invoices. The collection agent now is forewarned and very cautious when calling.
Initial problem #3: Given this internal threat, when the collection person hears all types of complaints about late shipments, quality of goods, shortages, rude truck drivers, shoddy craftsmanship, wrong freight charges and other complaints throughout the day, he is cautious and says nothing. He does not convey these issues to anyone so as not to create problems. Sadly, these types of complaints are ones your company needs to hear immediately so you can take corrective action and improve your product, your internal procedures and more importantly, your vital customer relations.
