EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION PROGRAM IS ONE OF A KIND

When a person is hired by the Dana Corp., he or she not only becomes an employee but also an integral member of a team.

During the first week of employment at the Cape Girardeau plant, workers are introduced to the "project teams" of Dana Corp.

Each employee is assigned to a team. Their primary goal: to come up with and implement suggestions to improve the workplace, the product and any other aspect of the working environment which may need fine-tuning.

The result: Last year, 217 Dana Corp. employees came up with a total of 6,603 suggestions; 6,314 were implemented and continue to be in place. That averages out to about 39 suggestions per person and a participation rate of 94.9 percent.

"We are not just paying for our employees' blood, sweat and tears, but for what they have between their ears," said plant manager Dave Blanchard. "Our workers are the ones out on the floor doing the job; we need their input on how to improve daily operations to make us more efficient."

Larry Schwenk, human resources director for the Cape Girardeau plant, added: "We get all kinds of requests from other agencies on our suggestion system. Most of them can't believe we rely so heavily upon our employees for ideas in improving the workplace."

There is a large focus on self-implementation at the plant, Schwenk said.

"We don't want people to come up with an idea and pass it off on someone else to implement it," he said. "We expect the individual or the team to follow through with their ideas as best they can."

Employees have been broken up into 25 teams, which are required to meet at least a half-hour per week. Each team member is also required to spend a half-hour per week implementing a suggestion in their work area. Teams are predominantly work-area focused, and many have adopted team names to reflect their position at the plant.

Each team is assigned a coach and elects a captain and a recorder from within their ranks. The positions are rotated periodically so that every employee has a chance to lead the group.

"We believe employees best know how to improve their work areas and the way they do their job," said Blanchard.

Schwenk added: "Each team also has the authorization to spend up to $500 per suggestion without clearance from management. It's really something to be proud of -- the employees really are very good."