Policies to Empower Employees
Managers in business organizations can create policies that will empower employees. Empowerment is about giving employees more authority to make decisions in the scope of their work. The success of empowerment policies depends upon management's belief that employees can make appropriate routine decisions. Policies might concern updating employee job descriptions and other aspects of workplace culture.
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Workspace Policy
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One way that employees can experience empowerment is to have a policy that gives them the ability to customize their own workspace, whether they work in a cubicle or an office. Employees can put items of personal significance in their workspace and arrange their own equipment, furniture and supplies for maximum comfort and efficiency.
Customer Service Policy
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Employees can make routine decisions when they provide services to the company's customers. For example, an employee working as a bank teller can grant an employee a refund for a routine error without having to consult a teller supervisor. This kind of flexibility is geared towards making the customer service be responsive to customers, but it might make an employee feel empowered as well. Employees might need a policy that gives them control over more than just routine decisions about their work.
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Work Strategies
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Employees can also become empowered by creating their own procedures for accomplishing their tasks and projects. This is not about serving customers but about structuring their own work routines. If an organization can give this kind of flexibility to employees, they will be focused on the results produced, not in the means used to get there.
Work Teams
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Employers also can create policies to enable flexible groupings of employees, giving them more control over their work. For example, employees in the same department can choose to form fluid work teams. Participation in these teams might be voluntary or required, depending on the policy. But flexibility is given to the team to accomplish its own goals. Each team chooses its own leader. Because a team develops its own methods of achieving projects and holding team members accountable for attaining goals, team members have a high interest in the group governance process. In some team workplaces, leaders also rotate for every project.
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