Employee Motivation and Communication Methods

Abstract

This paper discusses the compelling reasons for involving all employees in the plant energy conservation effort, offers suggestions on how to implement and maintain a plant-wide, people oriented conservation program and provides examples to illustrate the methods involved and benefits possible. Three areas will be stressed: publicity, or communicating down the ladder, through newsletters and the use of distinctive logos; communicating up the ladder, by means of employee suggestion programs and discussion forums; and training, necessary to free employees from a pre-Embargo approach to manufacturing.

Current technical literature is full of information on how to reduce energy use. Consider energy management systems, waste heat recovery or heat pumps - all the facets of the design, construction, and operation of such equipment and many other new devices takes up an ever-increasing amount of our time. No one can deny the benefits achievable through capital investment and new technologies, but there are other, oft-neglected aspects of energy conservation to be considered. The development and use of an effective energy management organization and the involvement of the entire plant in the conservation effort can and should go hand-in-hand with the physical improvement of the operation.

I'd like to share with you my experiences as a member of one very successful energy management organization - explaining how we are set up to implement energy conservation and detailing a number of programs we have found effective.