One of the upsides of empowering employees is that there is a drastic reduction in turnover of employees. When employees know that they are trusted with responsibility, it becomes more difficult for them to just walk away. People prefer places where they are valued and empowering an employee is a clear indication that the one is greatly valued.
Empowered employees know that they are important to the success of the organisation and so they will not be in a hurry to resign. Rather than look elsewhere, empowered employees become invested in the future of the organisation. They eventually develop a sense of belonging and ownership that makes them look out for the success of the organisation at all times.
Another advantage of empowering employees is an increase in the morale of employees. There is an air of self-esteem, confidence and assurance that characterises a workplace where staff feel empowered. The gloom that is found in places where people feel they are only being used as beasts of burden dissipates when these same individuals become empowered. As a matter of fact, some scholars have argued that staff empowerment is actually a motivational strategy.
Closely related to the air of confidence that arises as a result of staff feeling empowered is the rise in creativity and proactivity. Studies have shown that when staff feel empowered their creativity tends to rise. New ideas begin to flow through the organisation. Because these employees know they are trusted, they will not wait for permission to move. They will take steps towards making that product of their creativity a reality. This is why some smart forward-looking organisations institute policies that give staff some creative freedom within set budgets to innovate. Out of such policies have arisen some wonderful products that have gone ahead to make the organisations lots of money.
The story of American multinational conglomerate, 3M and the invention of those ubiquitous yellow Post-It Notes is a clear example of what happens when an organisation empowers its employees. In The Evolution of Useful Things, author Henry Petroski hinted that 3M had a policy that allowed engineers “to spend a certain percentage of their work time on projects of their own choosing, a practice known as ‘bootlegging’.” It was through this form of empowerment that the Post-It Notes were invented.
The whole concept of intra-preneurship comes from organisations that advocate this form of empowerment. As a matter of fact, Petroski refers to companies with those kinds of policies as “enlightened companies”. I totally agree. It takes an enlightened company to tap into the power of employee empowerment. One of such enlightened companies has to be Google. It is claimed that the technology giant has a policy that allows Google’s engineers to spend 20% of their working week on projects that interest them personally.
Challenges to Employee Empowerment
It is clear that an empowered workforce leads to increase in the performance of employees which, in turn, leads to increase in profitability. So with all these advantages, how come many businesses fail to empower their employees, especially those employees who are the direct interface between the business and its customers? Why is employee empowerment not a default position of many businesses? What are some of the challenges to employee empowerment?
One of the many challenges to employee empowerment is the leadership culture. In most organisations, leadership is seen as a know-it-all, do-it-all kind of role. It is important to remember that empowering employees in general, and front line employees in particular, is not the default position of many business leaders. In other words, it is very difficult for any manager to just get up and give staff as much freedom as they want.
The default position for many business owners, managers, supervisors and leaders is the command and control mode. For many people, command and control is what being a leader is all about. The concept of industrial democracy is as alien to them as political democracy is to a dictator. Power sharing, in whatever shape, style or form, does not sit well with these leaders.
Delegation has been found to be one of the biggest challenges of many business owners and managers. When a person has been able to rise to the top, it is not too difficult for the one to feel like he or she is the only one with the brains to make the right decision. Such individuals struggle to let go off their hard-earned control in order to grant their employees the independence to act. For many of these kinds of leaders, self-managed teams are an alien concept. These are micro-managers who want things to be just the way they want it. To them, nobody else has the ability to handle the task at hand.
It takes a sustained commitment over a period of time before true employee empowerment can actually take place when you have such a leader. If the owner or founder of the business is not someone who understands and appreciates the importance of empowering employees, employee empowerment will take some time. In some organisations, it will never ever happen.
Leaders who are not confident in themselves, leaders who suffer from an inferiority complex, and leaders who are insecure in their positions can become the reason why personnel are held back from being empowered. In such a situation, there is really nothing much that can be done, if the leader does not change his or her attitude. In many cases, the organisation is destined to fail—and unfortunately, many of these organisations do fail.
I have also come across business leaders who say they fear to empower their staff because they feel the staff will leave for better offers. That reservation is understandable because by empowering employees their capacity improves. The new responsibilities would definitely appear on the one’s CV, making the employee attractive to the competition. However, I am of the honest opinion that the alternative—keeping staff on a leash, not empowering them, second guessing their every decision and micro-managing their every action—is far worse.
What these leaders fail to realise is that empowering employees is for their own good. An empowered workforce takes away a sizable chunk of the leader’s daily work load. Effective leaders are those who do not carry the entire burden of the business on their shoulders. They know that can lead to work place frustrations, eventually leading to burnout on the job. They therefore look for those they can trust and give them part of the workload to carry.
Finally, there are those who argue that empowering employees could cost the organisation money. That is very possible. Empowered employees can easily make decisions that can cost money. However, that is why some organisations, such as the one in the opening vignette, place limits on the amount of money that front line employees can play around with. This is not too different from what happens in many banks. Tellers are given limits as to the amounts they can pay out to customers without resorting to their supervisors.
The need for an empowered human resource should not cause organisations to jump on a bandwagon of full-blown employee empowerment drive. Employees must be empowered for the simple reason that it helps in giving customers a great service experience. Employees, especially those supposed to handle customers, must be given power because it helps them serve customers better.
Also when empowering employees, it should not be a one-size-fits-all approach. Not everyone should be given the same autonomy. Employees must prove themselves to be trusted with any quantum of power. There are some employees who will end up being a danger to themselves and the company if they are given too much power. Like we say where I come from, the power will “get into their head”. The power will mess them up. For such employees, empowerment can be more dangerous than restriction.
In addition, before staff are empowered, it is important that their skill-sets and competencies are tested. If they are found wanting in certain skills, knowledge and attitude, it is important that some capacity building via training and coaching takes place before they are vested with any power. Nothing can be more disastrous than empowering incompetence. It will be akin to giving a loaded gun to a child. The end result would not be too pleasant.
If after all the prepping, the leader still is not too comfortable empowering his or her staff, a different approach can be adopted. The power, rather than being vested in an individual worker, can be vested in a team. This will allow team members to check on each other. This was my exact experience in my first real job after University. I was fortunate enough to have a manager who entrusted power to a group of us. Being fresh graduates, it was important that we were “handled with care”. Our manager handled us so well that we ensured that none of us “misbehaved” on the job. We just did not want to hurt our boss’ feelings.
It makes sense that if the front line is an organisation’s first and last line of attack, then it is a no-brainer to empower that line. Doomed is any military operation that has a weak front line. The enemy will have a field day. The same situation plays out day in and day out in many businesses across the world. Front line employees, customer contact employees, customer-handling employees, those whose job it is to please the customers are left with no sort of power. Like robots without any protection, they are left at the mercy of the competition. Little wonder that these businesses end up being thrown on to the dump site of failed businesses after just a few months.
