Empowerment. It’s a strong word.
But what does it mean in a business context? Specifically, when we talk about empowerment strategies relating to employee development, which particular initiatives might we be referring to? And how can we tell whether they’re genuinely useful for improving business performance?
In this article, we’ll attempt to answer those questions. We’ll also take a look at a few practical steps you can take to implement empowerment strategies in your workplace.
Defining empowerment in the workplace
So, what do we mean when we talk about empowerment in the workplace? Well, the first thing to note is that it’s not exactly the same thing as employee engagement. The two concepts are closely related, of course, but there’s a crucial distinction.
To illustrate this, consider this scenario. Maybe you organize monthly social activities to foster team spirit. The odd bowling night or restaurant visit here and there can certainly be terrific for encouraging closer cooperation and driving engagement in the workplace. But it’s not empowerment in and of itself.
In essence, empowerment describes any kind of initiative where you put control into the hands of your employees. This could mean introducing hybrid or remote working, for example, so your staff have more autonomy to schedule their working day. Or it could mean introducing technology that centralizes data access, so your teams don’t have to jump through so many hoops to find the information they need.
In other words, empowerment is one important route to increasing engagement, but it’s not the only one.
For a workplace initiative to count as empowerment, it has to be literally about giving your employees more power, in one sense or another. Let’s explore why that’s a good thing for businesses.
The link between empowerment and ROI
It would be understandable if there were a little unspoken skepticism among those in the C-suite about how much workplace empowerment really contributes to business success.
After all, empowerment initiatives actively weigh against direct senior management control by definition. It’s reasonable to want to see some evidence of the tangible benefits before implementing any of them.
Dr. Motsamai Modise’s 2023 review of the current evidence on the subject makes the great point that employee empowerment has a direct impact on organizational effectiveness because it increases work satisfaction levels.
This simply makes sense.
When you hand your employees more control, not only are you demonstrating trust, but you’re also making it more likely that those staff will want to stick around. Boom – your employee retention rates just went up, saving you money on recruitment costs.
And a fundamental aspect of human psychology is that when people feel more in control of their environment, they’re happier. Happier, more satisfied workers demonstrate more commitment to the job. Boom – your absenteeism rates just dropped.
In fact, you can trace a direct link between empowering employees and improvements in all kinds of people-centered metrics. These changes add up to a significant material benefit to your business. And that’s a bigger return on investment in a nutshell.
Key metrics and data sources for measuring empowerment’s ROI
So you may be thinking: that’s all very well in theory, but how about in practice? Which metrics should you be tracking to establish whether your empowerment initiatives are having a positive effect?
A dual approach is best here. Monitor both short-term and longer-term impacts on your business performance using a variety of techniques. The metrics you opt to focus on will depend on the changes you’ve made, but may include some mixture of the following:
- Employee churn
- Turnover costs
- Absenteeism rate
- Sales and revenue
- Productivity
Finding the source data for your analysis should be relatively straightforward. You can use the reporting feature of your accounting software to generate key data such as gross profit and sales revenue. Monitoring the developing trends in these figures will give you an insight into the concrete impact empowerment is having on your business ROI as a whole.
Don’t forget about qualitative data as well. Sending out regular pulse surveys to get feedback from employees can be a very valuable exercise. It puts the numerical data into context and gives you a clearer picture of how the empowerment initiatives are faring on the ground.
How to implement and measure empowerment
Implementing empowerment in the workplace isn’t as simple as pushing a button and walking away. There’s a balance to be struck to make sure your initiatives effectively inspire change that’s aligned with your organizational goals.
Here are a few of the crucial steps to follow to make it work for your business.
Define your strategy and goals
If you make a lot of changes at once, it can sometimes be difficult to tease out the relative effects of each change. That’s not to say you shouldn’t, of course. Depending on your overall goals, it may very well be a good idea to launch several empowerment initiatives at the same time.
For instance, if you decide to permit hybrid working, adopting some good-quality employee communication software as well is a good idea. That’s an example of two empowerment initiatives that go together hand in glove.
The important point is that you need to have a clear vision of where you’re heading. Decide what your primary focus is going to be and concentrate on that.
Provide employee training and development
Committing to training your employees has two benefits. First, it ensures that they have all the technical skills they need to do the job. But it also has the potential to inspire staff loyalty.
This is because providing opportunities for good-quality training helps people with their career development. And boy, do they appreciate employers who are prepared to go the extra mile to give them that option.
According to LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report 2024, businesses with a strong learning culture average staff retention rates 57% higher than those that offer only the bare minimum. That’s a massive difference and one that no employer can afford to ignore.
Other striking figures in the report include the result that 7 out of 10 employees say learning increases their sense of connection to their organization, while 8 out of 10 say learning adds purpose to their work.
Create awards and accreditations
Empowerment isn’t just about being able to do more things; it’s also about being recognized for doing them. Acknowledging your employees’ progress and achievements goes a long way toward making them feel valued.
Everyone loves to get a raise, but that’s not the only route to showing appreciation. There are a number of ways of doing it, and one of the most effective is to implement a digital credentials scheme.
This involves making virtual rewards available to employees reaching defined goals, such as:
- Digital certificates for passing a learning course
- Digital badges for individual achievements
- Stacked badges for linked achievements like attending multiple work events
The gamification element of a scheme like this is highly motivating. It incentivizes employees to stretch themselves to reach the next target, which is good news both for their individual development and the effectiveness of your business as a whole.
Analyze your business data
Once you’ve collected the relevant data, conduct a detailed analysis. For this, you’ll need appropriate tools to help you consolidate all the information and use it to generate actionable insights.
A good option is ERP software. “ERP” stands for “Enterprise Resource Planning”, which is the process of centralizing all your data so you can deploy it most efficiently and update it in real time. You can use this kind of tool to combine your sales, HR and finance data in such a way that you get a deep understanding of the impact that empowerment has had on ROI.
Review employee feedback and surveys
Finally, let’s return to a point we’ve touched on already – getting employee feedback. What you want to achieve here is to regularly check in on progress. That way, if an issue arises, you can tweak your empowerment initiative if necessary to achieve better results.
Good options for requesting feedback include:
Pulse surveys: short surveys focusing on metrics such as employer NPS, which asks staff to rate how likely they would be to recommend the company as a good place to work. There may also be a couple of open-ended questions asking for thoughts. Pulse surveys should be sent out regularly so you can monitor how sentiment changes over time.
Digital suggestion box: it’s a good idea to have an “always-on” virtual suggestion box available on a dedicated channel. Ideally, employees should be able to leave comments anonymously if they want to.
One-on-one meetings: these give individual employees a private space to raise any issues they might have encountered, and the opportunity to explore their thoughts in depth with a manager.
Key takeaways
As we’ve established, empowerment in the workplace can be a game changer for businesses. When you empower your staff, you’re putting them in the driving seat.
Done well, empowerment initiatives have the potential to inspire your teams, increase employee loyalty, and help you meet your key business objectives. As a result, they can play a starring role in your drive to increase ROI in your organization.
Best of all, empowering your staff effectively is not a zero-sum game. Individual employees benefit, which means your customers benefit, and ultimately, so does the bottom line.
Get started with your own digital credentialing program to recognize your employee efforts and empower them to keep learning by requesting a demo with Accredible today.
