You can do everything and anything you want, but if you aren’t creating a working environment that empowers your employees to do better, you’re wasting your time. There are plenty of ways to empower your employees at the workplace, from trusting them with customer interactions to cultivating a flexible working environment, and much more. 

Many organizations aren’t paying enough attention to empowering their employees, but statistics show that fully empowered employees make better decisions and are more creative in solving problems. Therefore, without the right empowerment level, it’s nearly impossible to increase productivity and this isn’t something we are looking for. 

In this article, we will learn more about how you can create an engaging environment at the workplace. 

6 Ways you can empower your employees at the workplace 

Telling your employees that you entirely appreciate them is an excellent way to start, but there’s a whole lot of difference between telling and doing. Employee empowerment is where true motivation comes from and it’s what allows employees to not only go to work and complete their daily tasks, but care about their work and its quality. 

Therefore, we’re going to show you the six ways you can empower your employees at the workplace. 

1. Delegate responsibilities

Delegation is what drives employee empowerment and let’s face it, when an employee knows their daily responsibilities, they take complete ownership of them. Delegation, in other words, is putting enough trust in your employees to get the job done. It’s what makes you stand out from other organizations – they’re usually too afraid to delegate. 

While this may seem like a smaller consideration for you, it means a lot to employees. Of course, when you trust your team, it’ll encourage them to trust you as well. 

2. Don’t leave anyone out in your meetings 

Nobody wants to feel left out, especially at the workplace. Try not to exclude employees from meetings, give them the opportunity to participate and voice their opinions.  This inspires a sense of belonging somewhere and contributes to employee recognition. 

The lack of social belonging can be an issue in the workplace with 40% of employees feeling isolated at work.Let’s face it, we all have a craving for social inclusion. Once employees are socially satisfied,from including them in relevant meetings and events , they’ll feel even more empowered to contribute towards the organization’s goals. 

3. Be consistent in your rewards

Empowerment can also come from consistency in rewards. Whenever an employer is consistent in everything they say and do, the employees will start to trust them. Good performance should always be rewarded and this is something every employer should contribute to. 

You can’t build a great team in one day. It takes time and trust, from both sides, and to solidify the experience, you need to have your employees putting enough faith in you. Small actions are what lead to big rewards and repaying employees for their hard work is what matters most. 

4. Encourage hybrid and remote work 

After the COVID-19 pandemic, many workers started following a remote working culture. Many employers realized benefits of this reformed  worldwide working culture and started incorporating a hybrid working schedule. Employers who didn’t adjust to hybrid and remote working schedules faced issues after the pandemic. 

In the US, more than 47 million employees voluntarily resigned from their jobs.The primary reason?A lack of work schedule flexibility.  Any employer in their right mind has adjusted to these changes by promoting flexibility at the workplace. 

If you want to offer this highly-lucrative working schedule to your employees but don’t know how to execute it, check out the many resources available online. Platforms like Remotework, provide a wide range of remote job opportunities that can help you embrace the hybrid work culture. Additionally, check out this hybrid work for beginners e-book to learn more about the new work normal.

Flexibility is important for boosting empowerment. Trusting your employees to be able to manage their tasks from home, without breathing down their necks, is invaluable.  

5. Avoid micromanagement 

Talking about breathing down necks, nothing destroys employee empowerment quicker than micromanagement. You’ve already set guidelines on how your employees should work, so allow employees to work freely.Empower them to be creative and to succeed further in their daily tasks. 

This not only empowers employees on a deeper level, but gives them enough freedom to do what they see best. 

6. Provide your employees with the right resources 

Giving your employees the right resources to work with is just another good chance for you to empower them. In other words, it’s giving your employees the freedom to work autonomously. 

In order to effectively allow your employees to take more control of their tasks, you should provide them with the right tools and educate them on how they’re used;  allowing employees to access whatever they need, when they need it.

Good examples of employee empowerment 

To give you a better understanding of employee empowerment, we have come up with some examples you can look at to learn more about them. Here are some real-life examples: 

• Google: Google encourages employee empowerment with its 20% time policy. With this policy, employees are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time pursuing the projects they are passionate about, even if they aren’t directly related to their assigned roles. This allows all employees to explore their ideas, contribute and innovate to the company’s success. 
• Southwest Airlines: They empowered their team members to solve consumer problems immediately. All the frontline employees are given the authority to immediately make decisions and take the necessary actions for resolving consumer issues without having to escalate them to a higher management level. 
• Patagonia: This is an outdoor clothing company that empowers employees to support their activism and encourages them to take action on environmental and social issues. Additionally, the company grants paid time off to allow them to participate in these activities. 

There are plenty of examples, but these are the top examples, in our opinion.  Maybe these examples have succeeded to give rise to  new ideas you can consider using in your organization. 

4 Top benefits you’ll receive when empowering your employees

The success of any business depends on how empowered their employees are. When managers start to give everyone a chance on improving the processes and systems in the organization, that’s where everyone wins. 

Let’s dive deeper and see which benefits you receive when you create an environment of freedom and encourage empowerment in your workplace. 

1. Higher productivity rates and self confidence 

Employee empowerment focuses on building a team of independent team members that can make decisions for themselves when their managers aren’t around. Granting your employees enough autonomy allows them to get creative when you aren’t around, encouraging them to develop new ideas. This not only increases productivity rates but also the team’s confidence at the workplace. 

2. Higher trust at the workplace 

If there’s one thing that is important at the workplace, it’s the amount of trust the staff members have between each other. It’s hard to build up, but can easily be lost when employees feel like they are being taken for granted or unappreciated for their hard work. 

An organization that follows an empowering leadership style avoids this by ensuring that the entire team is contributing towards the organization’s goals. Showing appreciation and celebrating accomplishments together are what directly contribute to mutual trust and create a higher sense of empowerment throughout the workplace. 

If you’re not so sure about building trust and empowering your employees, you can try incorporating the following practices: 

• Involve your team in the decision-making process

• Ask for ideas and feedback 

• Give out positive feedback 

• Create more leaders 

• Focus on your team’s strengths 

• Educate and mentor your team 

• Encourage open communication 

After you put these steps into practice, it’ll automatically increase mutual trust and thus, be more beneficial for you and your team in the long-term success of the org

3. Enhanced experience for your customers 

Customers always seek a good experience when interacting with employees about issues they’ve encountered. However, too much back and forth between the employee nad their manager disrupts the quality of the customer service.

A business that can easily handle consumer complaints prospers is one step ahead of its competitors. One way you can do this is by empowering your employees to take on more responsibility in solving incoming customer issues.  

4. Better business reputation 

Employees that are empowered and engaged are much more likely to recommend you and your team to others and contribute to your business in the long term. Employees are valuable assets to your brand and they’ll only understand, agreeing with your organization when they are empowered enough to do so. 

When your business reputation goes up, it means that your company will attract more top talents, decreasing the amount of money you need to spend on recruitment. Additionally, it helps you retain your employees much longer and increases their job satisfaction. 

Why empowering your employees should be your priority 

Employee empowerment has long been a discussed topic amongst business owners and many don’t put it into practice. However, you need to know that employee empowerment is what keeps your business together and what contributes to your productivity levels. 

Not only will your employees feel more motivated to work, but they’ll also feel more engaged and recognized. This is what matters in your organization and even though it may take some time for you to see the results, they’ll be there for sure. 

Tony Ademi is a freelance SEO content and copywriter. For roughly four years, Tony has managed to write more than 500 SEO-optimized articles and most of them have ranked #1 on Google. When writing, Tony’s main focus is to carefully do research and make sure that his content is high-quality.