Communication, engagement key to employee empowerment

Employee empowerment helps establish responsibility and drive engagement levels in the workplace. However, some critics contend that employee empowerment programs rid managers of the responsibility to lead and control the progress of their organizations.

“This is not the case,” objects Anthony Emerson for the Credit Union Times. “Empowerment is actually a culmination of many of the ideas and tenets of employee satisfaction that are discussed and analyzed frequently in a variety of books and periodicals focused on the subject.”

But what exactly is employee empowerment? Most experts define it as the process of enabling an employee to think, behave and control their work in more autonomous ways. Emerson argues that this leads to the development of entrepreneurial traits and encourages employees to make their own decisions, thereby fostering the belief that they can take control of their own destinies.

To cultivate an environment of personal responsibility and initiative, managers need to communicate with their workers. Managers must be willing to explain every aspect of the enterprise to its staff members in an open and honest fashion. This includes elements of strategic planning, financial performance, growth metrics and daily-decision making, among others.

Greater communication means managers will need to solicit criticism from employees and work to better the working environment for everyone.

“In addition, it will require that management honestly evaluate the communication styles and methods that are being used in the institution to ensure the most efficient processes possible,” Emerson notes. “Communicating and sharing information accomplishes several objectives that are not only important for the empowerment process, but also for overall employee satisfaction with the organization.”

A recent study by the American Psychological Association concluded that employees who feel undervalued in the workplace are more likely to grow disengaged and may even start searching for jobs elsewhere. Roughly half of respondents who do not feel valued plan to look for a new job over the next year. Only one-third of these workers feel motivated to do their best, and a mere 38 percent claim to be engaged. But these figures soar to 93 percent and 88 percent, respectively, among employees who do feel valued.

A sense of value to an organization is clearly a consequence of empowerment, wherein workers are responsible for their own well-being or for the success of a project.