Why is employee empowerment still only a buzzword?

There is no dearth of research that proves there is a direct correlation between employee satisfaction/productivity and empowerment at work. Yet, empowerment remains a buzzword in most large organizations. What is empowerment, what are the pre-requisites and how can we truly empower our employees?

What is empowerment?

There are several definitions for employee empowerment. At the end of the day, at the core of empowerment is trust and accountability. Employees need to have a certain degree of autonomy to take decisions on their own. To let employees to take decision, managers need to trust them to take decisions. And to let managers trust employees, they need to take the accountability of the decisions. Catch 22 situation?

How can we empower employees?

Start with why – Those who have not read Simon Sinek's book Start with why, I strongly recommend it. Every organization need to have a strong WHY to truly empower the employees. I had the chance to ask a senior manager who said the WHY is growing the numbers. Growing the numbers? Really? How will the employees ever translate that into action?

Each manager needs to take the WHY of the organization and start creating boundaries for their teams. The individuals in each team can operate empowered within these boundaries. As a manager, you can also trust the employees to operate within this frame.  

Managers as micro managers

When there is no clear WHY, there is no clear focus. When there is no focus, there is no trust. When there is no trust, managers turn into micro managers. As managers, the key role we must play is set a clear path and direction for the employees to operate and keep clearing the path. This not only builds trust but also employee accountability.

Empowerment as a buzzword: Example

One of the organizations I worked for was very hierarchical however senior managers believed that every employee was empowered because they said so. One the worst hit departments was HR. for every benefit approval, the local HR partners had to check with the CHRO. I was one of the impacted employees and I asked my HR partner, if she was really empowered why would she have to check with her manager. She replied saying there was no clear guideline and every request was decided on an ad hoc basis, so she had to check with her manager. Wasn’t the core of every HR employee convenience and employee satisfaction? Was it too difficult to create a frame for each HR partner to operate, which would then truly empower them? The local HR partners were closest to the business and the people and giving them a boundary to operate would not only empower them but also help them take the best decisions for the employees.  

How are you creating trust and accountability in your teams? Are you teams empowered?