Your employees should help to take your business to the next level, but that’s not automatically the case. You’ll need to ensure that you’re hiring the right employees, for starters. Once they’re on board, it’ll be up to management to ensure that staff are empowered and can work to their highest level. After all, your employees can’t thrive if they’re being held back by inefficient ways of working or don’t have the tools they need to succeed.
In a competitive business landscape, it’s your employees that’ll ensure your business can get ahead. Below, we’ll outline some handy tips on how to get the most from them.
Why Empower Your Employees?
Before we get into how you can empower your employees, let’s think about why you should. There’s a long list of advantages to going through the staff empowerment process, and really all it costs is a little bit of time and effort, and a relinquishing of some control (this is a good thing!).
Here are just some of the benefits that you can expect:
- Increase productivity
- Improved employee retention rate
- Better customer satisfaction
- Improved work culture
- Increase profits.
That’s a pretty good return on what is essentially just a minor shift in the culture of your business. Indeed, done correctly, empowering your employees can lay the groundwork for a successful future.
OK, with that out of the way, let’s take a look at how you can do it.
Let Them Work Their Way
You’ll have outcomes that you want or need from your employees. But really, how an employee reaches that outcome shouldn’t be overly important. Remember that everyone has their own way of working, and while you can’t grant your employees complete freedom, it’s wise to offer as much flexibility as possible. Just because you have an idea of how things should be done, that doesn’t mean that your employees will agree. If you find it difficult to hold back your views, then just remember that your actions might cause problems for your business — employees are much more likely to leave when they feel micromanaged!
Provide Support That Allows Them to Deliver Their Best
If you’ve hired correctly, then you’ll have a team of employees who have the potential to do great things for your business. It’s up to management to nurture that potential. Your employees should be given the platform and support they need to do their best work. Your sales team will perform better if there’s a sales enablement strategy in place; your marketing team will get better results if they can use the leading marketing software. If you’re not sure what your employees need to succeed, then consider asking them directly.
Offer Feedback
Employees feel empowered when they have confidence that they’re doing the right thing. It’s much easier for them to work well when they know exactly what you’re looking for. When giving feedback, it’s best to be as specific as possible with your praise — a thumbs up might indicate that you’re broadly happy with the work they’re doing, but it won’t be much use for the employee moving forward. On the other hand, if you can outline the parts of their work you liked/didn’t like, the staff member will have a better sense of what they can do next time around.
Include Them In The Decision-Making Process
Employees want to feel like they’re important members of the organization that they work for, and that can’t happen if they’re continually on the outside of the decision-making process. At that point, your staff will simply become vehicles for the decisions that management has made. It has to be that way sometimes, but certainly not all the time. If there’s a decision that’ll impact your employees and they can be involved, then do so. It’ll show them that they’re valued members of the business and help to give them a sense of ownership over their work.
Be Flexible
People work better when they have a sense of autonomy. It shows them that they have a sense of control over their working lives. The pandemic showed that it’s more than possible for employees to work remotely — in fact, in some cases, remote workers worked even better than when in the office. If you’re in a position to grant flexibility regarding when and where they work, then do so. Setting up a remote work program at your business is easier than you might think — there are plenty of tools available that’ll smoothen the transition — yet can have a transformative impact on worker output and happiness.