8 Tips for Empowering Employees in the Workplace

When you allow your team members to make decisions and take action within your organisation, it’s known as ‘empowering employees’. It’s quite important to empower your employees if you wish to have a sustainable business. The real growth of an organisation takes place when you have multiple individuals working together instead of just relying on the hard work and dedication of a few.

Empowering employees is an organisational culture in itself. The key steps involved in empowering employees include clear communication, trust, and strategic delegation. If you wish to empower your employees in your organisation, here are a couple of tips for you:

1. Delegate work with the right intent: Delegating work for the sake of taking work off your plate is not the right approach. You must delegate work to your team members with the intention to grow and develop the capabilities of your team members.
2. Always set clear expectations: Before empowering your employees, you must define the boundaries where your team member is free to act. When you set clear expectations with your team, you are allowing them to make informed decisions aligned with organisational goals.
3. Give your employees the freedom to work on their assignments: Whenever you delegate work, you must be mentally open to accepting their way of accomplishing the task. It may be different from the way in which you would probably do the same assignment. Refrain from micromanaging your employees. Be accepting of the fact that your way may not be the best or the only way to complete a task.
4. Provide your employees with the required resources: A common complaint amongst organisations first implementing employee empowerment practices is that they still have employees who walk into the office expecting their issues to be solved magically for them. You need to understand that you have to provide the required tools and resources to them.
5. Always offer constructive feedback: You should always be specific and thoughtful about the input that you provide while debriefing on a project. Instead of merely telling someone that they did a good job, you must be specific about the attitude or actions that you would love repeated from their end.
6. Include your employees in goal setting and decision making: Always involve your employees at the time of decision making or goal setting. If you feel you can’t involve them during these preliminary processes, at least stay open to their input or ideas.
7. Clearly, communicate the vision of the organisation: It is becoming increasingly important for employees to feel that their efforts are contributing towards building something which holds significance from an organisational perspective. Hence you must clearly communicate the vision of the organisation to your employees. By doing so, you empower them with the knowledge that they are making a difference to the organisation with their contribution.
8. Appreciate your employees for their hard work: If you appreciate your employees for a job that’s done well, you increase the chances of them performing well again in future. Your appreciation will encourage them to take action, to be innovative, and to be proactive while solving issues.

Your organisation will no doubt be able to attain a certain level of growth under your direct management. But for the sustainable growth of an organisation, it definitely needs a team of empowered employees.