Employees can immediately walk out of employers who don’t see their worth.
The success of the organizations – their profitability and marketing brand – is dependent partly on the management and performance of its employees.
Several studies have already shown the link between empowered employees and productivity. It is therefore crucial for organizations, especially today in a fast-changing business environment fueled by innovation, to look at empowering employees as one of the effective ways for keeping your company agile and re.
Employees’ training, development and empowerment have become among the most effective tools to encourage workers to deliver their tasks and responsibilities more efficiently and productively.
But is there really a right formula in empowering employees? Here are some of the points that may help employees achieve peak performance.
1. Avoid Micromanagement
Employees that are constantly being monitored, corrected, and told what to do – in short, babied – are not going to feel empowered. Rather, they are going to feel high on their toes, they will have lower morale and their desire to become leaders will be far-fetched. Let them do their job.
2. Schedule Coaching and Mentoring Sessions
Some level of management is necessary since they must be given the right direction, apprised of goals, and held to the standards of work and deadlines. Effective coaching and mentoring sessions result in greater focus, greater self-awareness and awareness of others, and greater alignment and goal clarity.
3. Increase their Responsibility in accordance with their Position and Remuneration
Empowered employees should be up for a challenge. As they gain more experience and prove their capability, increasing their levels of responsibility fit to their salary and position, in support of long-term goals, will further challenge their boundaries, learn, and grow within the organization.
Introducing every employee to the jobs of those one step above them will ensure their continuous improvement, and also serve as their preparation for promotion.
4. Set Clear Expectations and Rewards
Empowering employees and improving performance will only work if a clear path is set for what is required, and what employees stand to gain by living up to (or exceeding) expectations. Setting expectations is one thing, and allowing employees some liberty to plan and make decisions on how they will accomplish the tasks assigned based on working deadlines is another.
It must also be noted that a performance backed with outstanding outputs may require some level of reward. This may be in the form of office perks, cash bonuses, paid vacation leaves, or that much-awaited promotion.
The top management, with the assistance of the HR department, will have to carefully decide what would mutually work for the organization and the employees in the course of setting expectations and rewards, and communication must be made very clear to ensure higher chances of success.
5. Offer Ongoing Employee Education
Education is one of the most essential factors in corporate success.
Employees tend to be a lot more confident if they have enough to offer. Allowing employees to attend seminars of their interest or encouraging them to participate in in-house training related to their job descriptions will make more room for development and productivity. When your workers have sufficient training to perform their jobs well, they feel valued and stay engaged with your company’s mission.
6. Encourage Employee Feedback
There should always be two-way communications between the management and employees. All feedback is valuable and can be a starting point in establishing a culture where strengths are celebrated and opportunities to learn and grow are updated and identified.