Research shows that empowering your workforce improves employee engagement and productivity by more than 20%. Workforce empowerment means giving your employees the skills and tools to do the job, allowing them to accomplish more with their time at work.
Empowering your employees makes them happier, and it also makes them more willing to work overtime when you need help. So, how can you empower your employees? Follow these tips to start.
The Empowerment Trifecta
When empowering your employees in the workplace, the success of the exercise comes down to three key factors;
- Autonomy
- Trust
- Communication
Each element is a driver by itself, but together they make up the trifecta of workforce empowerment.
Increasing your employee autonomy requires you to –provide a statement of what you expect from your employees. You issue them with the skills and tools they need to be effective in their position and then move out of the way.
Top managers understand that there will be direction and coaching required, but the effort they put in ensures the team has the authority they need to make crucial decisions by themselves.
When your employees feel that they have the power to make decisions, they focus on thinking creatively and achieving their business goals.
Trust is another part of the empowerment trifecta for employees. When you trust your employees, they make better decisions. Therefore, micro-management or heavy-handed supervision is no longer necessary, and managers can focus on providing employees with encouragement and constructive feedback.
Valuing your employees goes a long way in improving their attitude towards work and the organization. Managers need to learn the correct body language, actions, and words to provide teams with support. By showing your employees that they add value to the company, they are willing to go the extra mile for you.
Communication is Key
Every organization needs to work on communication – it’s the key to higher employee engagement and retention. Guide employees by asking relevant questions while creating a transparent and open dialogue between management and employees.
Create incentives and reward those employees that offer thoughts and ideas that can improve processes.
Does Flexi-Time Slow Workplace Empowerment?
Trust and communication are a vital part of what makes a business work in today’s economy. However, autonomy is playing a more significant role as we move deeper into the digital era.
More than 4-million American employees work from home for at least 50% of their time.
Therefore, employers need to trust that employees are getting work done away from the office. In the past, employees worked in an office, with planned and unplanned meetings occurring regularly.
Employees would create plans together in the physical presence of managers and colleagues. However, the digital age revolutionized this aspect of business communications.
Today, it’s possible to jump on a conference call using your mobile device, from anywhere that has internet service. As a result, there’s no longer any need for the traditional office environment. Today, employees have instantaneous access to a variety of workplace platforms geared to enhance communication.
