Employee empowerment: boosting engagement and performance
Dec 18, 2024
Employee engagement is the fuel that drives culture, productivity, and employee retention in organizations of all kinds. It is the key to creating a human centric workplace that values and respects individual contributions.
Without engaged employees, organizations struggle to achieve business objectives and find themselves dealing with a revolving door of talent — an expensive prospect that also contributes to low morale and the erosion of intellectual capital.
One of the greatest employee engagement drivers is empowerment.
The American Society for Quality (ASQ), defines empowerment as “the ways in which organizations provide their employees with a certain degree of autonomy and control in their day-to-day activities.”
It’s a combination of policies, processes, and management actions that develop autonomy and self-reliance among employees — the sense that they are respected and responsible for making decisions and getting their work done without an abundance of oversight, or micromanagement. When employees are empowered, they take ownership of their work, feel free to make decisions, contribute ideas for improvement, and feel a sense of pride and confidence in their work and their potential for growth.
Empowerment is employee centric and is essential for modern workplaces not only because it serves to keep people engaged and committed, but also because it increases efficiency by spreading responsibility for goal achievement across the organization and through all levels.
As we’ve noted, there are a number of things that contribute to an employee’s sense of empowerment — like trust, accountability, and autonomy.
When employees feel their managers trust them to make the right decisions and provide support when they face challenges or uncertainty. That trust is aligned with accountability — empowered employees understand that they will be held accountable for their decisions and actions, even when things don’t go as expected. They also know that these organizations — and their managers — have their backs. Mistakes are lessons to be learned from not opportunities for punishment. Given the autonomy to make decisions and take action without having to seek approval helps employees take ownership of their work and removes red tape and barriers that can slow down processes, waste time and hamper productivity.
The benefits of employee empowerment in the workplace are threefold: businesses benefit from boosted productivity and retention; employees benefit from the opportunity for autonomy and personal development; and customers benefit from a more nimble and focused service culture where employees know they’re trusted to make decisions on their own and are committed to improving the customer experience.
For organizations, the benefits of empowerment include improved engagement, satisfaction, and productivity. In addition, employee empowerment contributes significantly to employee well-being. In truth, there is really no downside to creating and nurturing a climate that empowers employees.
The autonomy, freedom, and flexibility from being empowered to do their work independently leads to greater job satisfaction and higher morale among employees. They take ownership in their work, have pride in doing a good job, and are committed to working effectively and efficiently with those around them to achieve company goals and objectives.
When employees are micro-managed and bound by a myriad of rules, regulations, and policies they’re unlikely to step outside of their comfort zones to suggest improvements or new ideas.
The potential for innovation and creativity is one of the prime reasons that many organizations are mandating return to office (RTO). They know that when employees are together it boosts collaboration and innovation among team members — not only allowing them to share ideas, but also supporting them in an environment that focuses on teamwork and togetherness.
There are a number of steps that companies can take to build and sustain an environment that leads to and supports employee empowerment. It doesn’t just happen by chance. Here’s how to build a positive work culture where employees can thrive and are empowered to achieve their personal and your organizational objectives.
1. Foster a Culture of Trust and Transparency
Open communication and an environment where employees feel free to share suggestions and constructive criticism creates trust and transparency. When employees trust their leadership, they are more likely to be forthcoming and more committed to working as a team to achieve organizational objectives. The importance of connection in the workplace can be supported through trust and transparency.
2. Provide the Right Tools and Resources
To be successful in their jobs, employees need support, tools, and resources to ensure that they can do their jobs effectively and efficiently. For instance, technology tools. Today’s technology-rich environment means that organizations have access to a wide range of tools that can help streamline employees’ work and improve productivity. Along with these tools, though, must come training and access to information and resources to help ensure they can do their jobs free of barriers and roadblocks.
Employees also benefit from a supportive environment with peers and team members that can be bolstered through employee resource groups (ERGs) to give them a voice and a sounding board to share experiences.
In addition to these forms of support, having access to an easily accessible Community Manager — a person or team dedicated to creating an engaging and positive workplace experience — offers a “go-to” resource employees can turn to for help and answers to questions.
3. Set Clear Goals and Expectations
Employees can’t operate in a vacuum and can’t be successful if they don’t know what’s expected of them. Setting clear goals and expectations ensures that employees know what’s expected and what success looks like. Clear goals give them a target to work toward and a measuring stick to judge their own contributions and achievements.
4. Encourage Continuous Learning and Development
Today’s employees value learning and development opportunities, saying that they would even seek employment elsewhere if those opportunities aren’t available in their current jobs. In fact, lack of access to career opportunities or development tops the list of why employees leave a job.
Promoting skill development and ongoing learning also benefits organizations as they invest in continual re-skilling and up-skilling to address changing environmental impacts both internally and externally.
5. Recognize and Reward Initiative
As we’ve seen, employees value recognition and will expend extra effort if they work in an environment where their contributions are recognized and rewarded. Acknowledging employee initiative encourages further empowerment, and there are a wide range of ways that companies and their HR leaders and managers can do that in both small and large ways.
Organizations shouldn’t take their employee empowerment efforts for granted. It’s important to have methods in place to measure and monitor the impact of these efforts. Tying empowerment to both your talent retention strategy and overall company performance can help identify both best practices and opportunities for improvement.
Some key metrics of empowerment success include employee satisfaction, retention rates, and levels of innovation — for instance, the number of new ideas submitted, or the number of new ideas that lead to product or service improvement. Ongoing monitoring provides insights into where impacts are being made.
Sustaining empowerment requires ongoing attention, feedback, and communication. Empowerment isn’t an event — it’s a process. It’s a process that is “owned” by everyone in the organization, from senior leadership to the HR team, to managers, supervisors, and employees themselves.
Employee input and feedback is important to ensure that empowerment efforts are having their desired impact. Two-way communication in an environment of openness and transparency supports employee empowerment in the workplace while ensuring the organization has the input it needs to generate desired results. Regular feedback provides the insights needed to adjust empowerment initiatives based on employee input as well as the metrics being monitored.
A focus on employee empowerment is an important part of any organization’s employee experience strategy. By taking proactive steps to nurture a strong and supportive culture that prioritizes employee empowerment, organizations can reap the rewards of commitment, productivity, and retention.
