Employee Empowerment has become an increasingly popular way of working for many organisations in direct contrast to the control and command strategies of the past.
Jan Carlzon, the ex CEO of SAS, famously said:
‘That to free an employee from traditional business controls, was to unleash a whole range of resources previously unknown to the organisation or the individual’.
In my experience it is well worth taking the time to sit back and take a long hard look at your organisation, business unit, division or small team, and honestly assess how empowered your people are. As we describe below, there are many advantages to having an empowered workforce, but it is not an area that one should jump into blindly, there are a number of associated costs, and of course not everyone wants to be empowered!
Here are some of the main benefits of adopting an employee engagement strategy:
1. Increased intrinsic motivation
If you grant an individual worker some level of freedom in the way they work this automatically says to them, either consciously or sub consciously, that you trust them. This could be the manager who is given 15% of his time a week to spend on creativity, as per the 3M model, through to the team of cleaners who are able to work out their own shift rota.
This will create greater intrinsic motivation and lead to:
2. Higher levels of Trust for the employer
The empowered employees who have had this trust bestowed upon them will reciprocate and the employer will experience enhanced levels of trust from these workers.
This will then lead to:
3. Higher levels of commitment and a more flexible workforce
This workforce is able to respond quicker and more effectively to both external and internal customers, getting things right first time. This will have the effect of increasing satisfaction levels and reducing rectification costs.
4. Increased knowledge sharing
The increased levels of trust will lead to a freer sharing of knowledge and greater levels of mutual respect and support, leading to a safer environment in which to work.
5. Internal and External network creation
These higher levels of Trust, Commitment, Motivation and Flexibility will automatically lead to increased networks of trusted colleagues in the individuals network, both internally and externally.
6. Creativity
All of the above outcomes, deriving from the empowered employees, create a, situation that gives the further significant benefit of developing highly Creative Individuals, Teams and Organisations.
The costs of Employee Empowerment
1. Not all employees want to be empowered, and for some it can have a detrimental effect, and lead to an unhappy and de-motivated worker. This could then be detrimental to the climate and culture of the organisation.
2. Empowerment encourages debate. This can lead to longer decision making processes and even mutiny in the wrong situation.
3. The costs associated with recruiting and training the right people, who will fit with the more empowered environment.
4. Salaries are likely to be higher if recruiting a potentially ‘higher calibre’ workforce.
5. The additional costs of sharing information throughout the organisation.
6. Empowered lower grade managers can reduce the position and power of middle managers having an adverse effect on their authority, and therefore their intrinsic motivation.
Conclusions
On balance I believe that the advantages of an empowered workforce far outweigh the associated costs.
However, and as with most things in business, it is always highly contingent upon the context within which it is implemented. In the wrong environment, empowerment can do more damage than good.
If you have any comments on this article or would like to discuss any aspect of it please contact me at john.thompson@transcapital.co.uk or on 0845 689 8750.
John Thompson is Managing Director and founder of Trans Capital Associates
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