Employee Empowerment

What Is Employee Empowerment?

Employee empowerment is a business philosophy that emphasizes the importance of allowing employees to have greater autonomy and control over their day-to-day duties.

Managers who lead through employee empowerment give their employees various resources to make important decisions on their own but still provide a level of guidance. Employee empowerment is the direct opposite of micromanagement.

Learn more about how to empower employees, how empowerment can benefit your teams, help you keep top talent happy and how to encourage the idea in your business.

Why Is Employee Empowerment Important?

Empowered employees are more likely to feel invested in their work which can lead to various positive business outcomes.

When employees feel that their actions, decisions, and efforts matter, they may feel greater job satisfaction and thus, are  more likely to stay with the company. In fact, a Gallup report found that engaged employees are up to 43% less likely to seek other jobs.

Higher employee retention allows employees to be  more productive  in their specialty as opposed to spending their time training new team members. The company can focus on improving the quality of services it provides which in turn, can  increase customer satisfaction.

How To Empower Employees

While empowerment in the workplace can look different across companies, there are a few common practices that managers can implement to give employees the chance to operate independently.

Clear Processes and Structure Are Key

Managers first create a structured environment  with clear job responsibilities, guidelines, and goals for their employees. This foundation allows employees the freedom to perform their duties in a way that works best for them.

Opportunities to Communicate and Feedback Are Necessary

Managers and employees have consistent  two-way feedback conversations  in which employees can share new ideas and challenges, and managers can coach and recognize employee achievements. Employees also feel comfortable approaching management for support if necessary and aren’t left to find solutions to everything alone.

Development Opportunities Are a Must

In addition to encouraging employees to take ownership of their current roles, it’s also important to  provide professional development opportunities. Resources such as mentorship programs, job shadowing, and continuing education classes can help employees grow their skills and advance their careers. Building in time into employee workloads to accommodate this is also important.

Recognize Going Above and Beyond

If employees are working independently and continuing to complete tasks to a high standard this should be recognized. Celebrating wins and achievements improves team morale and makes staff feel valued. It could simply be praise in an all-team meeting or small gifts to acknowledge a job well done.

Allow People to Make Mistakes

If you’re not involved in every aspect of your team’s day, then mistakes may happen and these must be allowed. Mistakes give you something to learn from and small errors should be seen as opportunities to grow and develop. Support any team members who make mistakes, show them how to avoid them in the future and then move on. An empowered workplace is one where employees thrive.

What Is an Example of Employee Empowerment?

Employee empowerment can take different forms across roles and industries. Here are some examples:

• Team Cross-Training:  If team members know how to do the basics of their colleagues’ jobs, the department can still run efficiently even if someone is out sick, on vacation, etc.
• Customer Service Decisions:  In customer-facing roles, employees need to have some authority to make on-the-spot decisions instead of inefficiently running every decision through management. An example is allotting a monthly dollar amount that each employee can use to selectively refund customers to solve customer service issues.
• Professional Development Time:  Consider allowing employees to spend a specific amount of their work time on whatever they think would benefit your company such as learning new skills or attending conferences. For instance, Google’s 20% rule has led to innovative breakthroughs and revenue streams such as Google Maps and Gmail.

All in all, employee empowerment encourages individuality and growth which allows for constant innovation across the entire company.

Are Your Employees Empowered?

Take a moment now to consider if you’ve been empowering your team to work independently. Are you still involved with all comms? Are employees afraid of raising issues or errors? If the answer to these is yes, then there may be work to do.

How To Tell If You Have Empowered Employees

There are some clear signs in a business of employee empowerment. Empowered employees do the following:

• They’re engaged and on board with the company’s values.
• They take the initiative to solve problems without waiting for instructions from more senior team members.
• They own their work—and their mistakes.
• They’re open to feedback and actively seek out development opportunities.

Employee engagement is a clear sign of empowerment within a team. Consider sending out an employee survey to understand how your team is feeling, what could be done better and if there is anything that can be done to give people the confidence they need to feel empowered in the workplace.