4 Ways Employee Empowerment Can Help Your Organization

Employee empowerment is giving employees power to take action and contribute to the workplace freely. Empowering employees allows workers to adapt to situations in the office. Empowerment is predicated on the idea that open communication and trust between organizational leaders and their employees will lead to effective outcomes and a positive work environment. Below are specific ways in which empowering employees helps businesses and organizations.

Open communication and trust between organizational leaders and their employees will lead to effective outcomes and a positive work environment

1. Better Perception of Your Organization

Though obvious, it is important to note that providing employees with more freedom, trust, and dialogue leads to a better perception of your organization among employees. Employee satisfaction generally leads to improved productivity and business outcomes, so it is crucial that employee satisfaction be maintained. Empowerment is critical in employee satisfaction. The Society for Human Resource and Management conducted a study which found that 67% of employees found respectful treatment very important to their overall satisfaction, compared with only 63% who find compensation to be very important. Empowerment is a gateway to employee satisfaction and all its organizational benefits.

67% of employees found respectful treatment very important to their overall satisfaction

2. Better Customer Service

Another benefit of empowerment in the workplace is that customer service is improved. The Journal of Service Research has noted such a phenomenon and details why better customer service is a byproduct of empowerment. Employees need to be free to adapt to the feedback from customers. If employees are powerless to respond to customer complaints and criticisms about their service, then the service can be slow to or unable to improve. Employees who are empowered are able to adapt to such criticism and the result is better customer service on the part of the organization.

Employees need to be free to adapt to the feedback from customers

3. Increase of Corporate Wellness

A study done in the Graziadio Business Review (GBR) found a link between employee empowerment and corporate wealth. The study found that companies in the S&P 1500 seek to maximize corporate wealth, and attributes this wealth accumulation to unique corporate cultures that foster the development of individuals within the organization. GBR believes that the ability of corporate culture to teach and grow its employees will result in the retention of high-performing employees.

The ability of corporate culture to teach and grow its employees will result in the retention of high-performing employees

4. Better Customer and Employee Retention

The aforementioned benefits contributes to an overall satisfaction of both employees and individuals. The core of the increased corporate wealth benefit of employee employee empowerment is that employees who are given tools to learn and grow in their job stay with the organization. This is evident in empowerment leading to employee satisfaction.

Customer retention is also achieved as a result of employee empowerment. The Gallup Organization has shown that customer loyalty is 50% higher in organizations that practice empowerment. Employee empowerment leads to customer retention, and customer retention certainly contributes to an increase in profits. Because customers are retained at a higher rate, resources needed to retain customers are reduced.

Employee empowerment leads to customer retention

Bottom Line

Employee empowerment is beneficial for both the organization and the employee. In short, employees should be flexible to make their own decisions in their work and especially when dealing with customers. Employees who have to reference and adhere to a strict set of organizational rules will be less able to adapt to situations at work, and the organization is worse off as a result. Managers who behave less like managers and more like leaders will see growth without stifling the ability of their employees to make decisions for themselves.

By John Carley