The Way of Employee Empowerment

 

Why empower employee?         

If you are an individual show, empowerment is not an issue. Even with two or three employees, you can make all the decisions quickly. However, as your business grows, you will no longer be the only decision-maker. You have a hierarchy under you, so it will take time to make decisions. In any circumstance vendors or customers  would not  be agreed to listen to "wait, I have to ask from manager"(Sherman, F.2021)

Employee empowerment can lead to greater confidence in leadership, encourage employee motivation, lead to greater creativity, and improve employee retention. Empowering employees through greater self-control is directly linked to increasing employee motivation. Experts agree that employees who have more control over how, when, and where they do their work will work harder and their work will be more attractive.(Wong, k.2020)

How empower employee?

Employee empowerment is a culture. It requires an increase in trust, clear communication, and a strategic mission. Below steps are recommended in the journey of empowerment.

1. Delegating 

         Delegating means responsibility for specific tasks from one person to another. From a management perspective, assignments occur when a manager assigns specific tasks to his employees. By assigning those tasks to team members, managers free up time to focus on activities that are of greater value and engage employees with greater self-control. (Landry, L.2020)  Delegating gives a great opportunity to make decisions in a critical or risky situation. Appreciating decision-making is a main characteristic of empowerment.  

2. Clear on the expectation

        The aim or ultimate goal has to be very clear for all levels of employees. The modern organization leadership does not hide the final destination, well defined and well explained  If the manager does not provide the clearance to his subordinate, then he has to direct him to the target which is to put more effort. If the employee is very much clear on the manager's end task, he would be driven by self, which has low effort comparatively.   

3. Provide employee autonomy over an assignment  

4. Provide necessary resources.

    Many leaders complain that when they begin to implement employee empowerment policies in their organizations, they still expect employees to come to their offices and solve their problems magically for them. Instead of that offer tools as to soundboard, resources, and ideas.

5. Continue constructive feedback 

    This is a very important part of the journey of empowerment. Feedback can improve the confidence of both the party employee and manager. 

6. Encourage ideas and Inputs

    The employee has to  feel free to open his idea or thoughts as well as should give a value to the idea,

7. Recognition and appreciation 

    all the time employees should be motivated by recognition or appreciation for their commitment or any achievement.   

( Bosworth,P.2016)osworth

How to measure employee empowerment?

In literature, we can find many methods of measuring employee empowerment, 

1. Employee Empowerment Questionnaire (EEQ)(Hayes, B.2014)

    Bob Hayes has developed an Employee Empowerment Questionnaire (EEQ) that includes 8 questions that you can use in your employee survey to measure employee empowerment. The EEQ is designed to measure the level at which employees believe they have the power to act on their own to improve quality.

As per Hayes EEQ,  8 questions are below.

1. I am allowed to do almost anything to do a high-quality job.
2. I have the authority to correct problems when they occur.
3. I am allowed to be creative when I deal with problems at work.
4. I do not have to go through a lot of red tape to change things.
5. I have a lot of control over how I do my job.
6. I do not need to get management’s approval before I handle problems.
7. I am encouraged to handle job-related problems by myself.
8. I can make changes on my job whenever I want.

(Hayes, B.2014)

The EEQ is calculated by generalizing the rating across eight questions. EEQ scores can range from 1 (no empowerment) to 5 (high empowerment). Studies using EEQ show that it has high reliability.

Apart from the above question in the generally factory climate survey, employee turnover rate, quality of work, employee collaboration, production and profit, monthly Kaizen or new ideas, carrier promotions, compensation level, organization yearly CSR project, level of training and development also can be taken as other indicators that indicate the level of empowerment.

references

1. Peterson, M., 2022. Employee Empowerment in the Workplace: 6 Steps to Take Today. [online] Limeade. Available at: <https://www.limeade.com/resources/blog/importance-of-employee-empowerment-in-the-workplace/> [Accessed 1 May 2022].

2. Hayes, B., 2022. Improving Employee Empowerment Begins with Measurement. [online] Businessoverbroadway.com. Available at: <https://businessoverbroadway.com/2014/05/20/improving-employee-empowerment-begins-with-measurement/#:~:text=The%20EEQ%20is%20calculated%20by,85%20and%20.> [Accessed 1 May 2022].

3. Verburg, S., 2022. Why Employee Empowerment is Important in Workplace Culture. [Blog] Thought Leadership, Available at: <https://ocdalecarnegie.com/why-employee-empowerment-is-important-in-workplace-culture/> [Accessed 1 May 2022].

4. Wong, K., 2020. Employee Empowerment: Definition, Benefits, and Factors. [Blog] Achievers, Available at: <https://www.achievers.com/blog/employee-empowerment/#:~:text=employees%20is%20impossible.-,The%20benefits%20of%20employee%20empowerment,in%20a%20better%20bottom%20line.> [Accessed 1 May 2022].

5.Bosworth, P., 2022. 8 Tips to Empower Employees in the Workplace | Leadership Choice. [online] Leadership Choice. Available at: <https://leadershipchoice.com/empower-employees-in-the-workplace/> [Accessed 1 May 2022].