Employee empowerment refers to the ways in which organizations provide a certain degree of autonomy and control to their employees. Since autonomy and control are intrinsic motivation factors, the importance of employee empowerment cannot be denied. Empowered employees are more likely to walk the extra mile and remain motivated in troubled and turbulent times.
Employee empowerment can be enhanced by incorporating two concepts in the workplace:
- Job Enlargement: Job enlargement refers to increasing the scope of the job. It ensures that employees are included in a greater portion of the horizontal process. For instance, instead of asking an employee to just make power-point slides, the manager asks him or her to present them to the audience as well. Job enlargement is exactly the opposite of division of labor. Employees are asked to perform the entire process instead of breaking the task into smaller bits.
- Job Enrichment: It involves increasing the depth of the job. For instance, allowing employees to be a part of the decision-making process. Therefore, it involves including employees in tasks that were typically done by the top management team.
We will now discuss about the benefits of employee empowerment.
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Benefits of Employee Empowerment
Speed and Flexibility
Modern organizations need to make rapid decisions. In addition, they must be flexible in order to survive the market competition. Hence, it is very important to have empowered employees, who are confident and capable of making quick decisions. For instance, employees need to be very fast while attending to frustrated customers. The organization may lose customers if they are not able to respond appropriately.
Best use of human capital
Organizations spend a lot of time, effort and money into recruiting and selecting talented employees. Allowing them to express their feedback and work autonomously can help organizations reap the benefits of higher costs. In addition, educated and talented employees have an intrinsic need to feel competent in the workplace. Empowering them would increase the chances of talent retention.
Greater Engagement
Employee empowerment is significantly related to employee engagement. Such employees not only go the extra mile but also remain loyal to their workplace in turbulent times. In addition, engaged employees experience much less work-life conflict. Hence they are able to give their 100% effort and attention during work hours.
Happy Workplace
Empowered employees are happier than others. Unless employees have autonomy and control in the workplace, they are likely to feel exploited. On the other hand, empowered employees are likely to be filled with positive energy. Therefore, they are more proactive and altruistic in nature. They have greater positive affect, job satisfaction and engagement. Furthermore, they are likely to spread the message of happiness and positivity to their team members and juniors as well.
Greater Trust in Leadership
Employees have a need to for autonomy and control. When they feel that their leaders and managers are just interested in getting the work done and not concerned about employees’ career goals, they feel demotivated. On the other hand, employees are likely to notice and appreciate when leaders make an effort for employee empowerment. It also leads to increased employee trust in management and leadership.
Better Communication
Since empowered employees are encouraged to voice their feedback, communication channels open up in the organization. With open communication comes the benefit of fewer conflicts and misunderstandings. On the other hand, non-empowered employees are likely to communicate less and therefore, find themselves in more clashes and conflicts of interest.
Conclusion
Therefore, the importance of employee empowerment cannot be denied. Organizations should make active effort towards employee empowerment.