Consult, Involve, Participate and Empower

Our research has shown that quite often, for employees to have higher levels of employee engagement, employees want to be consulted, involved and participate in organisational decisions and change, especially if it affects their role directly.

Employee involvement is an idea practiced by organisations that gives their employees a stake in decisions that directly affect their jobs. This often goes hand in hand with employee empowerment, a corporate structure that allows non-managerial employees to make autonomous decisions.

The main benefits of employee involvement and empowerment are higher levels of morale and productivity and the development of healthier co-worker relationships and creative thinking.

Improved Morale

There is a greater chance of significant increases in workplace morale if employees are involved in decisions and policy changes that directly affect their job, whilst at the same time empowering employees to be more autonomous. When employees are treated as a valued asset and their input is listened to and given consideration, confidence increases among every team member, and the organisation is more likely to see significant gains in different aspects such as performance, productivity and advocacy.

In addition, this improved morale can increase employee retention. The longer the employee is associated with an organisation, the more experienced they become, making them mentors to new recruits and essential to managerial staff.

Increased Productivity

Increased productivity translates directly from employee involvement and empowerment. With an investment in the organisations best interests, employees’ roles intensify within the organisation, nurturing and bringing about a stronger work ethic and more motivation to increase performance.

By giving them independence and an expectation to be more self-sufficient, employees will, overtime, become more efficient as they learn to handle their responsibilities with less disruption and reliance on managerial direction. This, in turn, allows managers more time to get on with duties other than giving assignments to juniors and lessens micromanagement, which hinders productivity.

Team Unity

Whilst employee empowerment is, on the whole, designed to give each employee autonomy, it likewise fosters healthier relationships between each employee, along with their managers. This is because employees that are given more independence and freedom within their roles, tend to form better working relationships. They see each other as mutually and equally benefiting from their working relationship. Also, more self-governance in the workplace lessens the dependency on managers and redirects that reliance to co-workers.

Innovation

Employees that have a stake in the company’s growth, success and sustainability will produce more ideas and problem-solving solutions when difficulties arise, thus cultivating innovation. As an employee meets specific challenges or realises improvements in policies, procedures or products, they will develop more vital and imaginative thinking as well as fostering growth. By allowing employees to be involved, they may see a particular issue differently than that of their manager and be able to suggest an improvement or think of a creative answer to a problem, which may have not been considered in a closed circle of managerial staff.

If you would like to know more about how you can increase employee engagement levels in your organisation, then contact us on +44 (0) 1255 850051.