The core of a successful business: Empowered employees 

Driving all performance management strategies is a recognition that workers are some of the most powerful assets a company has. Businesses depend on their employees to achieve goals, meet deadlines, uphold quality and satisfy customers. Team members are often the face of the company, manning the front lines while interacting with consumers. Therefore, it’s important for leaders to be able to bring out the best in their workers and formulate strategies that keep talent in-house.

Unfortunately, many talent management strategies fall short. For example, managers may try to listen to their workers’ concerns by issuing employee engagement surveys, but they don’t carry out the right responses to the results. Whether supervisors are trying to encourage greater dialog and collaboration, motivate their teams to reach high goals or energise their workers through a more positive company culture, it’s the action that comes after surveys that really counts. And these initiatives should be focused on empowering employees.

What’s an empowered employee?

Management experts talk a lot about engaged workers, motivated teams and a whole slew of other ideal types. Shining the spotlight on empowering employees gives attention to whether workers have the resources, tools and environment they need to apply their own talents and act independently. The goal is to draw out the best each individual has to offer while also freeing up supervisors from needing to micromanage their teams. In other words, with the right information, training and opportunities, empowered employees have the capability and freedom to solve problems and complete their tasks with minimal supervision. Tie in the right employee culture, values-driven workplace and employee engagement, and workers will also be personally driven to take responsibility and perform well.

Josh Cohen, CEO and founder of The Junkluggers, an eco-friendly junk removal company based in New York City, explained in Forbes magazine how his company has found success by empowering its workers to take ownership and get things done their way. He advised focusing on the end-points and goals – not the specific methods or processes to get there – and then trusting employees to achieve results in ways that they think are best. Not only does this give team members the freedom to adapt processes based on their own strengths and working preferences, it also opens the door to greater innovation, problem-solving and creative thinking. Rather than treating workers as cogs in a wheel, this approach takes advantage of the collective brain power and varied ways of thinking within the organisation.

Workers need resources, not micromanaging

To empower their employees, managers should focus on the tools and knowledge workers need to do their jobs. Giving team members greater insights into the way the company runs, its goals and its status in terms of successes and company culture can make workers feel like valued parts of the community and invite them to contribute to making the organisation better. That’s why it can be helpful to share the results of an employee engagement survey with workers, for example, so they can be partners in expanding on strengths or addressing issues.

Business Management Daily emphasised that empowered workers can be excellent decision-makers, but they need to be fueled by information and tools to get their jobs done well. The source advised giving workers more responsibility and encouraging them to take ownership, but also noted that this autonomy should be accompanied by knowledge to fully inform their choices, support and guidance from management through regular check-ins and an environment of open communication so they feel that they can ask questions or express concerns whenever these arise.

By empowering their workforce, companies can capitalise on talented employees, validating them for their contributions and helping them to feel more invested in their jobs.

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This post was written by David Bator from http://www.tembostatus.com/