Why is empowerment important in business management

Toyota is another organization that has an empowerment culture. It hands over responsibilities of identifying and solving production problems to its shop floor employees.

They are encouraged to solve cause rather than firefight symptoms, and management know that workers are best positioned to do so. This responsibility runs so deep that any worker can halt the production line. Toyota conducts an anonymous employee satisfaction survey every two years, and its latest results show that employee satisfaction in all areas is the highest it has ever been at between With increased confidence, employees are more willing to share information and best practices with others.

Honesty and openness increase, and this directly impacts the ability of people to work as part of a team. Participation becomes more active and proactive, and this greater collaboration will, in itself, feed through to organizational capability to achieve strategic goals.

As confidence and self-esteem grows, and a more quality-focused and collaborative approach takes hold, productivity will increase. People who are accountable for their work become owners of process and product, and energy to do the job better follows. Organizations that have discovered the importance of empowering employees find that waste is eliminated, bureaucracy is reduced, and time is spent more efficiently.

A study by Zenger Folkman found that low empowerment leads to low effort. With so many potential benefits available, effective leaders should onboard tactics to encourage their people to be more empowered.

Here is a summary of five such tactics, which, when combined, create a powerful, overarching strategy to better empower employees. They want to know that their role within your organization adds value and helps to achieve its goals and objectives. Use one-to-ones and team meetings to emphasize individual and team contributions, and to improve understanding of how work fits in with the big picture. Most people are no longer content with working for a pay packet.

They wish to develop professionally, with learning helping them to meet their personal goals. Empower a learning environment by enabling people to decide in which direction their learning takes them, to help them develop at the pace that most suits them. Create a collaborative team spirit by encouraging employees to make decisions. Be more democratic by consulting your people on decisions that affect them, and relinquish responsibility to the team — while continuing to guide them to better solutions.

Leaders who embed employee empowerment tools into their armory are more likely to inspire collaboration. Qualities such as communication skills, emotional intelligence and influencing capability are key.

Eliminate fear of failure and improve innovation and creativity by ensuring that employees are not fearful of making mistakes. By empowering people to make decisions, it follows that you should also accept that mistakes will be made.

The important thing is to ensure that mistakes do not become elements for blame, but rather that they become learning experiences from which individuals and the team should benefit.

Employee empowerment should help to innovate more rapidly and productively. If people are afraid to make mistakes, willingness to try new things and innovate will deplete. By flattening the organizational hierarchy, you transfer accountability to the team.

However, employees generally require a lot of support for this process to bed in. Office politics will need to be dealt with, and rules of engagement kept simple to encourage the move from dependency on a manager to autonomous decision-making. To access these benefits, leaders should develop a strategy of behaviors that encourage autonomy, bravery and learning.

It requires a transfer of responsibility and accountability, which can be as difficult for the leader to do as it is for the employee to experience. Toggle navigation. The Importance of Empowering Employees. The importance of empowering employees is highlighted by reference to five big benefits that an empowerment strategy provides all organizations.

With these real-time insights that provide guidance for any situation, managers can take positive action by engaging in a post-pulse survey listening session where they and their team can collectively plan and take responsibility for the response to feedback.

Companies need to tailor their empowerment strategy to individual employees and their organizational culture.

Take the time to determine what employee empowerment methods work best for your team members. And empower employees to provide feedback to managers and senior leadership from the start of their time with the company, so they get into the habit and any early issues can be identified and addressed. Facilitating open, honest conversations between employees and leaders by using the right engagement solution is a key way to empower all team members and increase trust. Recognition goes a long way.

Employees who are recognized for exceptional work feel more empowered to do their best, and recognition has been directly linked to higher empowerment. Recognition improves motivation as well: 90 percent of employees say receiving recognition motivates them to work harder.

To empower employees through recognition, give them words of support, encouragement, and praise. Recognizing behaviors that are in line with company values incentivizes employees to keep doing them, empowering them with the confidence they need to live your values.

Using a recognition platform can foster an environment of empowerment, and make it easy for employees to feel good about taking positive risks.

Besides improving individual performance, employee recognition platforms have been shown to improve NPS scores and raise stock prices. Professional growth and employee empowerment are highly interconnected. But the need to focus on professional development is not limited by generation, as 40 percent of employees who receive poor training will leave their job within 5 years.

All companies must then invest in learning and development. Urging employees to share their knowledge, take on new responsibilities, and attend industry conferences or events gives them the power to learn and improve their skills.

When employees are exposed to these opportunities, they feel like a valued member of the workplace community.

Fostering professional growth also demands that HR establishes a clear path for career advancement at their company. Even if employees feel empowered, it can be discouraging to work towards an ill-defined or unattainable goal.

Promoting employees in-house shows that growth and success has tangible rewards at your organization, so all your team members can feel confident that they too can find a long-term home with your company. Companies also need to ensure there are plenty of coaching , mentoring, and training programs available to employees who want to achieve their goals. Mentoring and coaching more junior employees can boost morale and offer them a concrete sense of direction, but consider establishing other types of mentor relationships as well.

A new hire may have just as much to teach an experienced manager as the manager has to teach the new hire. Revamping your company culture to focus on empowering employees is no easy feat; it takes time and dedicated effort. Listening to and recognizing employees is a great start, but you need to practice them daily to spark company-wide change.

According to Dr. All levels of your company need to feel empowered, including HR, managers, higher-level leadership, and employees, as every team member should be set up for success. Developing an empowered workplace culture takes time, consistency and multiple efforts that include:. Chances are, your employees may stumble upon an empowering tactic you didn't expect; it may be a happy consequence of a special project or assignment. Embracing the tactic can be the most empowering move of all — a reaffirming sign that you believe in the people you hired.

And — if you now subscribe to the importance of employee empowerment — just wait for them to repay you tenfold. Mary Wroblewski earned a master's degree with high honors in communications and has worked as a reporter and editor in two Chicago newsrooms.

Wroblewski Updated April 29, Human Resources. Demonstrate greater loyalty and commitment to their employer. Follow company procedures and best practices. Be more productive and produce work of a higher quality. Look for extra ways to contribute and make their presence known.