Psychology in the workplace: 10 ways to make your staff feel empowered
The term employee empowerment has become a buzz-phrase at the heart of management best practice – yet its interpretation can lead to mixed results.
A workplace culture that fosters a spirit of trust and gives employees control over their working lives delivers a happy and productive workforce; at the other end of the scale, empowerment can be simply used as a pretext for abdicating responsibility.
So how can you ensure empowerment become ensconced in the workplace in a form that establishes you as an employer of choice and boosts business performance?
A few key steps will lay the foundations to ensure employees feel more committed to both their jobs and your company. PMI Health Group advises businesses to adhere to the following best practice principles for successful employee empowerment.
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Delegate authority, not just work. The delegation of work is all too often accompanied with a direction of what to do and how to do it. Employees should be given the freedom to complete tasks in the manner of their choice so long as the desired results are achieved.
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Reward and recognise. Do however coach employees to develop their skills, and provide constructive feedback, not only with a view to improving their abilities but also to rewarding and recognising their achievements.
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Offer freedom of benefits choice. To ensure benefits are relevant for employees, give them a say in the benefits package they receive. Flexible benefits (Flex) schemes, in particular, can go a long way to creating a real sense of empowerment. Flex schemes enable employees to vary their pay and benefits package to suit their own personal requirements and can be very effective when structured to offer a good variety of popular options. Regular staff consultations should ensure that the benefits offered are valued.
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Knowledge in power. Be as clear and open as possible when communicating, and educating employees, about benefits provision so they are best placed to manage their personal and financial affairs and to make informed decisions.
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Flexibility engenders trust. Where feasible, take steps to enable employees to manage their own working hours rather than being forced to adhere to customary nine-to-five arrangements. Providing opportunities for flexible working will allow staff to manage their own work-life balance and demonstrates a company’s trust in its workforce.
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Heed employee goals. Encourage career development and demonstrate your commitment to this by making it a core element of the employee appraisal process. Employees invariably feel disempowered when their status and remuneration doesn’t reflect their efforts and talent.
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Engagement = productivity. Share the company’s vision and strategic plans with staff and maximise opportunities for employee involvement in team and company goals. When employees feel a part of the bigger picture, rather than reacting to one-way directives, they will feel a greater sense of pride in their achievements and be empowered to deliver more.
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Resolve, don’t rebuke. Where problems and errors occur, address the work processes that caused the failures from staff – rather than identifying and rebuking individuals. Employees will develop if they’re given the freedom to make mistakes and to learn from them.
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Listen and learn. Failing to listen to staff, and overlooking their creativity, will dishearten and disempower. Ask employees for their suggestions into the business and better ways for accomplishing tasks and projects. Where possible, empower them to put their ideas into practice.
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Smells like team spirit. Employees take their lead from management and will be motivated by an honest, energetic, happy and supportive workplace. Support is vital for employees to feel suitably empowered to carry out their tasks and this should come from management, leading by example, and from fellow members of staff. An investment in team building exercises can help to promote a team spirit culture.
