Employee Empowerment: The ‘Secret Sauce’ To Revenue Growth
By: Lauren Justin, Head of People at Active Digital
Contributors: Rachel Roebuck & Tamra Puchalski
‘Employee Empowerment’ is a hot phrase right now but the idea of empowerment at work is not new. Continued pandemic pressures highlight how important it is for companies to pay attention to ways they can engage employees at work, not just for the health of the individual but because engagement and empowerment directly tie into increased revenue opportunities.
“ Gallup estimates that an empowered and motivated employee adds 21% more to profit, 20% higher sales...”
- Forbes
Empowerment is a powerful performance accelerator however employees need to be given the right tools to feel empowered. Tools that drive performance range from establishing safe, trustworthy relationships to being given the right education and system access to succeed for the task or project at hand. By pairing the right people with the right knowledge of systems in a supportive environment, it would be hard to assume these employees would be disengaged or unsuccessful.
Organizational psychologists are quick to point out managerial shortcomings as one of the main reason for employee retention issues, but surely poor management isn’t the only frustration point in the workplace. Employee empowerment goes beyond simply trusting your people to do the right thing at the right time and requires a focused effort by leadership to pay attention to the actual needs of their people.
If we click down one level, past the well-intentioned but potentially not-so-great-at-their-job manager, we may actually find employees feel like they aren’t set up to do their job correctly. Of course, this feeling may be driven by said manager but when an employee feels ill-equipped to be successful in their role, it stems from much more than the manager-employee relationship.
“Research has regularly demonstrated that when employees feel empowered at work, it is associated with stronger job performance, job satisfaction, and commitment to the organization.”
- HBR
Companies who successfully equip their people with the right tools see an increase to job performance which may lend itself to a shorter lead time from project creation to completion. This means the speed at which employees complete their work, and the quality of work that is delivered, can improve end-customer satisfaction with the company. By increasing customer satisfaction, companies can build positive brand recognition and repeat business opportunities which is nothing short of a win-win for everyone.
So, how do companies create a productivity-driven, revenue-increasing, engaged workforce?
Let’s start with the basics:
Why should empowering employees matter to corporations?
Bottom Line: Revenue. Research has proven that when employees feel like they can do their job well, with the correct tools and support, they will be more productive. Another cost savings opportunity that is a byproduct of empowering employees is higher retention. Employee Benefit News reported in 2017 that each employee who leaves their job costs the company on average ~33% of the salary they were maintaining while being employed. This costly break up is needed to recover recruiting and onboarding efforts to find a replacement as well as lost productivity from the individual who exited. That can add up. Quickly.
How do you create trust with employees and how does this lead to empowering employees in a corporate setting?
Employees need to feel that their opinions matter, their ideas matter and that the work they do directly has an impact on the company’s overall success. Without creating foundational trust between the employees and leadership, employees will never be able to feel empowered in their job, even if leaders provide excellent hard skill set training. Trust and providing a safe space for employees to be human in the workplace will allow leaders to then focus on which tangible training and support system need to be in place. Building trust in a safe corporate setting and providing educational opportunities for the workforce to be successful in their roles are not mutually exclusive when attempting to empower employees.
Can you repair trust with employees if it is broken?
Yes. But it is much harder than building it from scratch. If there is a lack of trust between employees and their employer, employees are not able to feel fully supported in their role and the company is not able to reap the benefits of having an empowered workforce. If it feels like trust is broken with employees, there are three areas that may identify what is causing the friction:
1. Employees feel like they can’t be vulnerable at work (vulnerability=feeling safe amongst peers=less distraction from trying to save face);
2. Employees aren’t comfortable stating they have a different opinion than their superior (humans aren't robots and being able to share ones’ opinion is important to building relationships);
3. Employees are provided with and encouraged to continue to grow their knowledge base around the tools they use for it to be easier to do their job.
Creating a way to measure these areas and launching programs to counteract these shortcomings should put the employee:employer relationship back on track
Empowering employees is vital to sustaining a successful business and a healthy company culture. If leaders take time to invest in their employees, arming them with the support, knowledge, and structured autonomy to be successful, the joy of the organization will be unavoidably addictive to customers. The secret sauce to revenue growth is simply letting your brand show through the actions and the attitudes of your employees.
Resources
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2020/11/10/empowerment-is-the-new-mantra-for-growth-six-tips-to-empower-your-employees/?sh=1518c3e45d6e
https://hbr.org/2018/03/when-empowering-employees-works-and-when-it-doesnt#:~:text=Research%20has%20regularly%20demonstrated%20that,and%20commitment%20to%20the%20organization
https://www.hrdive.com/news/study-turnover-costs-employers-15000-per-worker/449142/