The IdeaTracker™ Kit is the brainchild of Jim Collison. Jim is President of Employers of America, Inc. So what’s the story?

Employers of America, Inc., exists to help employers. Says Jim, “For years we provided in-depth information and guidance to employers about all kinds of workplace issues. And repeatedly, employers would ask us ‘How can we reduce the headaches we get dealing with employees?’”

“Frankly,” Jim says, “I got tired of helping employers put out fires.”

Jim explains what happened next:

“I realized that what employers needed more than a fire brigade — to put out fires — they needed an employee idea harvesting machine. I realized that employers needed to take advantage of their employees’ smarts.”

So Jim and Employers of America began researching employee involvement programs — such as employee suggestion programs, employee idea programs, and continuous improvement programs. And they began sharing their findings with employers in newsletters, eletters, publications, and on the organization’s Websites.

Next, Jim realized he needed to practice what he preached. So he started a suggestion program in the Employers of America workplace. He administered it — recording all the details relating to employees’ ideas and suggestions, the decisions and the outcomes — entering all this information on paper spreadsheets.

“You know where this is going,” Jim says. “I began working with a developer to create software to keep track of all the information relating to the employees’ ideas and suggestions. That became the IdeaTracker. And to make it easy for any employer to start or restart a successful suggestion and employee idea program, I wrote The Complete Suggestion Program Made Easy manual.”

So think of the IdeaTracker Kit as your own employee idea harvesting machine.