Empowerment Is the Key to Increased Employee Engagement

Every­one wants to feel like they make a dif­fer­ence at work. Every­one wants to feel that his or her opin­ion counts. That is where empow­er­ment comes into play. When you empower your employ­ees, you let them make key deci­sions regard­ing their jobs and cus­tomers. By giv­ing them some degree of own­er­ship over their work, you help to bring for­ward their good ideas. What’s more, you open the way for them to be more fully engaged in their work—and workplace.

Here are some help­ful tips to help you empower your employees:

• Always treat your employ­ees as professionals.
• Know your employ­ees’ strengths and areas of oppor­tu­nity. This will help you, the man­ager, with your expec­ta­tions of your employee.
• Ini­tially, show your employ­ees how to do some­thing. Many times employ­ees do not react pos­i­tively to empow­er­ment because they sim­ply haven’t yet learned the nec­es­sary skill sets.
• Ask employ­ees how they would do some­thing, rather than telling them how to do it.
• Allow employ­ees to take some risks. This includes allow­ing them to learn from their mistakes.
• Ensure that your employ­ees have all resources they need to be suc­cess­ful, avail­able to them.
• Share your knowl­edge and tips with your employees.

Make your­self avail­able to employees—and recep­tive to their input. The tips above will help you encour­age and empower your employ­ees to take respon­si­bil­ity for their jobs and career devel­op­ment. On the other hand, if you do not empower your employ­ees, you may not be doing all you can to cre­ate a suc­cess­ful envi­ron­ment. This can lead to a lack of moti­va­tion and feel­ings of powerlessness.

Keep in mind that empow­er­ing your employ­ees doesn’t mean that you are com­pletely out of the loop. You want to make sure you main­tain con­tact with your employ­ees and always let them know you are avail­able for them. You don’t want to micro­man­age, but you do want to encour­age and main­tain healthy com­mu­ni­ca­tion between you and your employees.

Coach­ing Tip

Really lis­ten to what your employ­ees are telling you. It is hard to know what your employ­ees want and need if you do not truly hear and under­stand what they are say­ing. Set aside a des­ig­nated time to meet one-on-one with each employee at least once a month. Dur­ing your meet­ing, actively take notes on what your employee is say­ing and ask­ing. Your notes will help you to lis­ten more effectively.

To learn more about how to increase employee engage­ment and reduce employee turnover down­load this free whitepa­per “Best Prac­tices for Improv­ing Super­vi­sory Skills” .