How to Empower Your Employees to Be More Productive
Every business wants their employees to be productive. But productivity is a tricky thing – it cannot be forced upon anyone. Productivity is, in fact, driven by the exact opposite: human empowerment. A 2005 study found that employee empowerment is the only true sustainable advantage companies can enjoy.
So, how to empower employees in a way that helps them be more productive? Here are a few strategies that will help your organisation successfully boost productivity through empowerment.
Avoid micromanagement
People don’t like micromanagement. If you are constantly watching over the shoulders of the employees, you won’t get good results. It can hinder employee motivation and happiness,
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Encourage teamwork
The work environment is an important part of the productivity equation and one of the key elements of it is the team. If your employees don’t get along with each other, then motivation will suffer consequently. In fact, around 60% to 80% of workplace difficulties can be attributed to strained workplace relationships.
It’s crucial to encourage team bonding. Not everyone has to become best friends but you do need everyone to get along and respect each other. You want regular team-building activities that involve both work and non-work activities. If your budget allows it, you can take employees off premise every once in a while but this isn’t necessary. You can also encourage team bonding with office games and relaxed workdays.
Harness the use of technology
Technology is a powerful tool when it comes to productivity. There are countless gadgets and software solutions that can automate certain tasks and leave more time for creative work. As a result, productivity often goes up.
But there is another aspect to the use of technology. It also empowers the employees to work harder and better – it boosts collaboration and often improves teamwork.
It’s important to allow the use of diverse technology within your organisation. You don’t want to limit the use of technology. The more connected and digital your employees are,
In the paradigm of management, empowerment is viewed as losing authority and control over people and resources. Generally, people resent being driven, controlled and being seen as part of company equipment. This breeds apathy in employees towards the organisation’s intents in the market place and destroys accountability.
Capital Power is an independent power producer, based in Edmonton, Alberta, but with operations across North America. It has an aggressive growth strategy with the goal of tripling its
In many ways, empowerment embodies principles effective managers and leaders have practiced for years. Two new driving forces in business, increased diversity and high-speed change, magnify the need for empowerment. Empowering people is now indispensable for effective personal productivity and maximum team success.
Employee empowerment is defined as giving employees a degree of autonomy and responsibility for decision-making. The benefits are
Good communication such as team building, team cohesion, praise and empathy form a good working relationship as people can be more engaging and are more likely to pay attention, resulting in accurate passing/receiving of information and a full understanding of the tasks required.
Another very importance aspect is the working environment at the office…it should be a relaxed and informal place where employee, team member should have the time to think and explore new ideas. Mutual trust and respect where disagreement is based on issue rather than personalities in this case conflict become productive to generate new ideas instead of causing problems.
The single most important component associated with managing a successful organization, entails the empowerment of employees. People that are empowered are able to make smart decisions without always having to rely on authority, to point them in the right direction. Creating an empowered organization involves interest in the workplace; minimal absence from work, high retention rates; loyal and motivated team members; as well as efficient results and effective communication amongst team members. In the book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Employee empowerment is to give workers a greater voice in decisions about work-related matters. Their decision-making authority can range from offering suggestions to exercising veto power over management decisions. The range of decisions could go as far as: how jobs are to be performed, working conditions, company policies, work hours, peer review, and how supervisors are evaluated.
A manager who focuses not on the structural aspect of technology but on the human resource implications would also see much positive value in the increased communication and networking. Framing the company as a family, the human resource approach would see technology as fulfilling the need for relationships and belonging that according to Maslow’s hierarchy need to be met prior to self-esteem needs and self-actualization. People will be most productive and happy when they feel interconnected in a web of relationships and communication. The principal trap of technology is that it can put an end to face-to-face meetings. This is important to avoid, and keeping people informed and involved in the decision making process requires both technological interfaces and traditional means. Still, technology is one very important tool, particularly in connecting geographically diverse
In many companies, operational employees also need information to handle tasks and make decisions that were assigned to supervisors. This trend, called empowerment, gives employees more
Over the years, technology has become a major part for a business and for an individual as well. Technology has become so advance that it has made a major effect for the staff as well as for the customers. New technology has helped in many areas such as data and information storage, advertising, transportation and communication.
The impact of computer technology in the workplace has been enormous within the past decade, both positive and negative. Distant communication through the use of computers and mobile devices have overhauled the office setting completely. Email, social networking sites and the world of the Internet have opened a whole new avenue of communication. Technology has changed the entire workplace environment, the relationships, and how things get done.
Empowerment is the best way to promote a good long-lasting employee-customer relationship (Fragoso, 1999). Empowerment can also bring certain benefits to employees of an organization. It makes the employees give more input to company improvements; it promotes higher productivity, and is a good balance between their personal and professional lives. It exercises employees’ minds to find better solutions to problems on the job and increases the employees’ potential for promotions and job satisfaction. It results in personal growth, feelings of confidence and control in themselves and their companies. It makes workers utilize their potentials and it enables them to stand behind their decisions, assume risks, participate and take actions. It is a win-win-win situation: customers benefit from employees, organization benefit from the employees and the customers, and employees benefit from higher confidence and self-esteem (Fragoso, 1999).
Empowerment is an important tool for progression and FWD needs to exercise it often when expecting employees to work together towards a global objective. Empowerment can be defined as providing employees the chance to exercise autonomy in making decisions (Vogt, 1997), which is rarely implemented at FWD.
Although production needs are being met, improvements in productivity are always at the forefront of management’s thoughts. Doing more with less is a constant effort for middle management and hourly laborers. Over all the