What is employee empowerment?
Employee empowerment is a management philosophy that emphasizes the importance of allowing employees to make their own decisions and then act on them by themselves. In essence, employee empowerment is the opposite of micromanagement. This is made possible because companies provide their employees with the tools and resources that they need to succeed.
There are a few things companies should do if they are interested in empowering their employees:
- Give employees a voice by encouraging them to submit suggestions and feedback, then acting on it
- Provide employees with opportunities to grow through more autonomy, additional responsibilities, or maybe even a new role
- Recognize and reward employees often to increase their motivation, engagement, and confidence
The benefits of employee empowerment
There are four key benefits of employee empowerment:
Motivated employees
By empowering employees through greater autonomy, this increases employee motivation. In fact, researchers have determined that when employees have more control over when, how, and where they do their work, they are more motivated.
Greater trust in leadership
Leaders who empower their employees are more likely to have employees that trust them compared to leaders who don’t empower their employees. However, empowering employees does not mean pushing work that managers don’t want to do onto employees. Instead, leaders who empower their employees act as coaches, encouraging their employees to do their best, and providing them with the support they need. Furthermore, empowered employees trust their leaders to recognize and reward their accomplishments.
Improved creativity
Leaders who allow their employees to make decisions themselves generate newer ideas. In fact, employees who feel empowered are more likely to take the initiative to complete additional tasks, and support their organization outside of their daily job responsibilities.
A stronger bottom line
Ultimately, companies that empower their employees perform better than companies that don’t. Additionally, organizations that have highly engaged teams have a 21% larger profit margin than organizations with disengaged teams.
Start empowering your employees with LeanSuite
It is important that companies take the time to find encouraging and exciting tactics to empower their employees. Doing so will make employees feel as though they are making impactful contributions to the company’s success.
There are two main factors of employee empowerment: collecting suggestions/feedback from your employees and recognizing them. Luckily, LeanSuite can help kickstart your company’s efforts towards employee empowerment.
LeanSuite is a lean manufacturing software that has built-in app called the Idea Management System. It is an idea management system that encourages your workforce to submit suggestions to help improve internal business processes.
The Idea Management System also empowers managers as well by reducing feedback loop times, and giving them the ability to take action in real-time. It also features a built-in recognition and reward system. It is designed to recognize top performers and motivate them by offering rewards that are unique to them.
