Joe Terrell Productivity Award Program

Procedures and Application

The Joe Terrell Productivity Award Program is designed to stimulate innovative thinking and provide monetary awards or paid leave days to employees or employee teams who develop suggestions on ways the County of Wayne can save work time, reduce expense, reduce waste, improve work methods or quality of services, enhance public relations or working conditions.

Every active employee on the County payroll is eligible to submit suggestions and receive awards for those suggestions.  Employees are encouraged to submit their ideas and proposals that reach beyond the scope of their immediate functions or assigned duties.  Any suggestion from a group or team that meets the criteria for an award will be treated as if it were received from an individual employee.

Click here for the Joe Terrell Productivity Award Suggestion Form.

Eligible Suggestions

• Combination of operations or functions; creation of new designs or methods
• Elimination of duplication, labor, equipment or unnecessary operations
• Reduction in downtime, costs, waste or safety hazards
• Improvement in service, efficiency, methods, inventory and communications
• Savings of time, space, labor, utility and materials.

Ineligible Suggestions

• Personal grievances and complaints
• Individual employee compensation or position classification
• Changes in legislated fees or taxes
• Routine maintenance
• Ordinary requests for supplies
• Duplication of a suggestion previously submitted
• Matters which are considered part of the normal job responsibilities of the employee and within the employee’s authority to implement
• Opinions which do not offer a specific solution or procedure for implementation
• Matters which are the subject of assigned or contracted audits, studies, reviews or research
• Suggestions that recommend a specific brand or product.

Awards

Awards are based on two different types of ideas:  tangible ideas or intangible ideas.

Tangible benefits are measured in terms of a dollar-savings of at least $5,000 per year resulting from implementation of employee suggestions.  Awards are based on first year net savings (12 months following implementation).   First year net savings are defined as the total annual savings less the yearly cost of implementation. Tangible savings may result in an employee payout of 10% of actual first year savings (with a maximum of $2,500).  Tangible group/team suggestions will be awarded as if it were to an individual.  

Intangible suggestions are ideas that may have an overall benefit but whose benefit cannot be measured in dollars or have a savings value of less than $5,000 per year.  These suggestions may involve improvements in working conditions, changes in procedures, revision of forms, improvements in employee morale, or employee health or safety.  Types of awards may include 1-2 paid leave days.

Awards are subject to federal, state, and local taxes.

Award Procedures

• Suggestion must be submitted on the Joe Terrell Productivity Award Suggest Form and presented to the Human Resources Director
• Suggestion must be signed by the person submitting the idea
• Suggestion must propose specific method of implementation
• Tangible suggestions must include a formula for cost savings.

When two or more persons submit a similar idea or proposal independently of one another, the proposal received first will be the one eligible for review.  All other duplicate proposals will be ineligible for consideration until the life of the first proposal has expired.  The active life of a proposal is two years.

Suggestion/Proposal Procedures

• Human Resources Department will receive all proposals and present to the Associates’ Activities Committee for initial screening to assure program criteria is met. (This committee will meet once per month to review proposals).
• The Associates’ Activities Committee will notify employee and department head of proposal’s receipt and confirm adherence to guidelines.
• Proposals that meet criteria will be forwarded to the County Manager’s Management Team for review of new suggestions and monitor those that have been implemented;
• County Manager’s Management Team will forward all proposals to the County Manager with their recommendation; 
• County Manager will be responsible for approving all ideas sent to him for consideration of an award; and, 
• Applicants will be notified within two weeks following the County Manager’s decision.  

Associates’ Activities Committee Responsibility

The Associates’ Activities Committee is comprised of a representative from each County department.  This committee will review all proposals.  This review by a committee of peers will insure adherence to program guideline.

County Manager’s Management Team Responsibility

The County Manager’s Management Team is comprised of approximately six (6) department managers, selected and serving on a rotating basis.  This committee will validate savings and feasibility of proposals and make recommendations to the County Manager for acceptance.

County Manager Responsibility

The County Manager will determine final acceptance of proposals and present the proposal for any other approvals deemed necessary.

Human Resources Director Responsibility

At any point during the process that a proposal is determined to be ineligible, the Human Resources Director will be notified and will handle notifying the submitting employee(s) and their department head.  The Human Resources Director will also be notified when a proposal is approved and will execute the awarding of the paid leave time or monetary award, whichever is applicable.