Employee empowerment means giving your employees a greater level of individual responsibility and independence in their roles. While giving your employees the space and resources to learn and grow can help develop these qualities and some instruction and supervision is needed for the business to operate efficiently, managers shouldn’t be dictating everything their team does. Not only is it inefficient, it also stifles the team’s potential.

Your staff should feel like they are trusted to do what they were recruited for. With trust comes empowerment, which in turn, results in higher productivity. 

“People like to have a sense of belonging in every area of their lives, enabling them to express themselves and contribute. By empowering our employees, we will create a sense of belonging towards the company and its services,” explains Peter Chong, Managing Director, RGF Executive Search Indonesia. “This in turn will give them extra motivation to perform better, to go the extra mile and achieve more. In the long run, this sense will create a culture that will be passed to others coming into the organisation.”

The more your employees can do things on their own, the more capable they are of learning new skills on the job, making each employee a valuable member of the organisation.

“Empowering of employees will also increase their confidence in executing their task, daring to take calculated risk and learning to make decisions,” Mr Chong adds. “This will help the managers to assess their leadership qualifications for future promotions.”

Here are some tips on how you as a manager can empower your employees.

Know the boundaries

Employees who are continuously supervised and instructed on what to do won’t be motivated to take initiative and do things on their own. They will instead feel obliged to follow your lead and wait for instructions on what to do next.

Obviously, a certain level of management is needed but a balance should be struck. Employees have to have some sort of guidance to be in line with the goals of the organisation and be trained for the basic operations of the business. However, they don’t need you breathing down their neck every few seconds, doubting everything they do. Micromanagement only leads to lower motivation and talent left untapped.

Start with easy tasks, and build from there

Challenges and complex problems can engage the minds of your employees but don’t make them start the job with the most difficult task possible. This will only frustrate and discourage them from even trying.

Begin their roles in the organisation with relatively simple and basic tasks. Once they have proven themselves able, start assigning them with heavier responsibilities to learn and grow within the organisation. This ensures that employees are always improving themselves.

Communicate your expectations

While you should give your employees space to learn and grow, they will still need some sort of direction to work towards. Set your standard of work very clearly so that they know whether or not they have done a good job. This gives them the space to learn at their own pace while maintaining a high standard of work.

Incentives

A minimum wage with no benefits is just going to encourage your employees to do the bare minimum. You reap what you sow when it comes to your staff.

Give your employees a material goal to work towards. Bonuses can be given to those who achieve certain objectives throughout a given period of time. Employees who have gone above and beyond to elevate the organisation to greater heights should also be rewarded for their efforts. This can also inspire others in the organisation to work harder knowing that their efforts will likely be recognised.

You will have to define what these goals and targets are for the organisation. Interact with your staff to have a greater understanding of what they expect from the organisation when they work above their pay grade.

Listen with an open mind and heart

Create and provide avenues for your employees to provide feedback. Not only do you get tips on how to improve operations, but you also give your employees a voice to be heard. Employees who feel that their views and perspectives matter are more likely to feel sentimental to the organisation. This can improve their morale and work ethic as there is something more at stake to them than their wages.

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