Empowering Employees-Watching
Watching
Don’t scrutinise your employees every minute of every day. Part of trust is letting them get on with their job without constant management observation and supervision. Being watched is a sign that they are not trusted, that management don’t believe they can do the job correctly.
Try leaving them to it, and they will feel more trusted, more valued, and will usually give better performance too.
Other Benefits
A side benefit of motivated / positive employees is that absenteeism and job dissatisfaction levels will fall:
- An employee who feels valued is less likely to try and avoid work.
- With the authority to complete their job, employees are far less likely to feel dissatisfied at work; leading to lower employee turnover.
- Happier workers will be more productive
“What would you do?”
Possibly the most important question you can ask an employee; never overestimate its importance in empowerment!
For example: You work in a small office.
A person phones you with a strong, justified complaint about an ex-member of staff and asks what action will be taken.
You go to the manager and ask what should be done.
The manager turns and says “What do you think we should do?”
Instantly, the manager is showing that they trust you, and respect your opinion.
The manager may know that the standard course of action is to inform the person complaining that the member of staff no longer works there and offer a 15% refund as a gesture of apology.
However, by asking the employee they are putting faith in their judgement. They are allowing the employee (who work with the customers everyday) to put forward their view on the situation.
This can sometimes reveal important information to management (e.g. A 10% refund may be just as effective if backed with a written letter of apology.) as well as making the employee feel very highly valued.
Employee Suggestions
Listen to your employees.
The frontline employees are the ones who deal with your customers, who use your equipment, who follow your management, everyday. Who else is better placed to make a suggestion about the business?
Responding
Don’t just listen. If you believe the suggestion will not work, say so. Tell the employee why it won’t work, and thank them for putting it forward. If you believe the suggestion could work well, then tell the employee, and act on it.
Few things feel more empowering than when a company listens and responds to your ideas.
Culture
If you create a work culture where employee suggestions are appreciated, not ignored; then employees will respond.
When talking to staff, ask if they have any ideas. As a minimum, leave a suggestion box (they do work) where people can place ideas. Actively listen to and follow up these suggestions, and employees will feel respected, as their opinions (even if not carried out) were listened to, and treated as important.
It’s all about communication between management and staff. Remove the barriers to communication and employees will become more open and confident.
Remember
- Give employees the authority necessary to complete their job.
- Empowered employees will work harder, will be absent less, will produce better results, and will provide better customer service.
- Customers like empowered employees. It makes them feel more valued, as well as giving them confidence in the employees ability to do their job.
- Give employees trust, and they will rarely let you down.
- Try asking “What would you do?”
- Actively encourage suggestions and management communication. This makes employees feel more appreciated as well as allowing money saving/productivity increasing ideas to surface much more easily.
- An empowered worker is tomorrow’s manager.
- “Responsibility without authority is not empowerment”
Good delegation of authority and trust will create happier, harder working employees, as well as providing more satisfied customers, and less hassle for management.
With an effective, sensible system of empowerment, everybody wins!
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