Professional speakers and industry experts have been educating ACA Convention attendees over the past three days, but some of the most valuable learning comes from fellow attendees. Beth Conklin and Irene Hoheusle led the July 19 Best Ideas session, during which attendees shared their ideas for cutting costs while maintaining high standards of excellence.
Ideas and tips shared by attendees included:
- Solicit ideas for improving corporate culture and processes, generating more income and decreasing costs for an employee wish list. Follow through on as many wish list items as possible.
- Start a university program, which offers employees credits for completing job-specific and general (nutrition, stress management, etc.) training. Credit system contributes to annual reviews and advancement within the company.
- Require all employees to develop a new process each year as part of their annual goals.
- Renegotiate rates with vendors. Ask them how they can save the agency money.
- Pay employees biweekly instead of weekly.
- Periodically review how notices are being mailed. Using a higher postage class than is necessary can be extremely costly.
- Offer bonuses to managers based on cost-saving efforts.
- To keep meetings short and efficient, hold them immediately before breaks or lunch, or require them to be conducted standing up.