Provide the right environment
Belkin doesn’t only spot trends with binoculars aimed at the horizon. The company’s employees are also a valuable resource.
Pipkin says his employees provide a wellspring of ideas on how to improve the company, and he actively encourages open discourse with a flat organization, free of layers upon layers of management.
“Our organization is flat in terms of the organizational chart but also in the way we communicate between layers of the company,” he says.
Belkin’s facilities in Compton and around the world are constructed with a minimum of interior walls. Most floors are comprised of what Pipkin calls a large bullpen area in the center, with management offices around the perimeter.
“We like to have senior management located throughout our buildings,” he says. “We don’t want them stuck up on a separate floor or at the other end of a long hallway.”
The open style of Belkin’s buildings allows management and employees to share common space, which helps provide those on the lower rungs a level of comfort in speaking to their superiors.
“Sometimes, I’m the one making the coffee in our break room,” Pipkin says. “It’s a good opportunity for someone to come up and speak to me at that point.”
If employees are comfortable with their managers, they are more apt to take risks by speaking up and expressing ideas if they feel the ideas won’t be immediately dismissed.
“The best way to reach out to employees is to teach people that they are safe,” he says. “By that, I mean that if an idea is proposed or suggested, that it is not belittled or ridiculed.”
Once an idea is suggested, Pipkin says management is obligated to deliver some kind of response to the person who suggested it.
“People gain confidence in being able to communicate only if they sense credibility in the organization,” he says. “If they don’t see things happen, the organization gains no credibility. But if they see things happen, it adds credibility to the approach. People quickly learn that and want to be recognized for their ideas.”
If an idea can’t be used by the company, Pipkin says the person who suggested it still deserves a response.
“If we can’t use an idea, we let them know why it isn’t going to be considered,” he says. “That gives them an opportunity if they want to adjust and resubmit it, or simply to have satisfaction of knowing it was at least looked at and not ignored. Ideas shouldn’t disappear down a black hole.”
Pipkin says an employee who takes the risk of suggesting an idea will always be someone who is admired at Belkin.
“We may not always get the idea, or get it the first time, but we want you to take the risk to speak up,” he says. “If a suggestion is not embraced, we want the person to come back to us with more. If we do that well, people recognize that we want it in a sincere way, that we respect it and admire it.
“When people feel that way, they are inclined to keep coming up with more.”
HOW TO REACH: Belkin Corp., www.belkin.com