Are You Actually Willing to Empower Your Employees?

 

Everyone seems to agree and supports the idea of empowering your employees.  Leaders want to empower their people. But while empowering sounds good and beneficial, not many leaders are actually empowering their people. 

Much of the frustration that people have today with business is that no one seems to be empowered to get anything done.  Why?  Simply because the reality is that giving up control is insanely difficult. In the business world, empowerment can mean giving up control of tasks, embracing an employees’ suggestions, or even using ideas that come from outside your current company.  We are all guilty of not wanting to give up power. 

In a study conducted by Leadership IQ entitled “The State of Leadership Development” some interesting findings were as follows:

• Only 29% of employees say their leader is always open to using ideas/practices from outside the company to improve performance.
• Only 16% say their leader always removes the roadblocks to their success.
• Only 20% say their leader always takes an active role in helping employees to grow and develop their full potential.
• Only 29% say their leader’s vision for the future always seems to be aligned with the organization's.
• Only 27% say their leader always encourages and recognizes suggestions for improvement.
• Only 26% say their leader always responds constructively when employees share their work problems.
• Only 20% say their leader always shares the challenges we're facing.

 If you truly want to empower your employees, consider the following three statements:

When employees give me alternatives, I avoid telling them which one I want. Instead, I ask for their suggestions. 

I’m open to using ideas/practices from outside the company to improve our team’s performance.

I encourage and recognize my employees’ suggestions for improvement.

If you are brutally honest with yourself while considering these statements you’ll discover where you are on empowerment or if you struggle to empower. 

 

66% of Recognition Programs Canceled?

 

A “Pulse Survey at the end of 2020 by Incentive Research Foundation found that only 34% of incentive and recognition programs continue to operate with minimal change.  As the pandemic lessens, that figure has grown, but it is important to look into some of the reasons why this happened. 

Essentially, in these uncertain times, executives will always look to reduce or delete budget items that are not considered essential to the growth of the business. Unfortunately, some incentives and recognition programs are always in that group.  The 34% of the programs that have remained are those that have are more likely to be considered critical to the organization. About 12% of respondents say their programs are viewed as even more important because of the pandemic.  

Frankly this has been a flaw in incentive and recognition planning for years.  The vast majority of programs implemented did not do a good job of developing, implementing and then measuring and researching the program objectives.  That is still very much the case within generic employee recognition programs where it is a given that these programs produced results.  Some respondents even noted that program growth goals were reduced in order to maintain a “employee motivations.”  

We cannot emphasize enough that proper goal setting accompanied by using a program design with the focus on the goals and then the measurement and reporting of the results is what will keep your program in place.  Not tying your program to overall corporate success can easily put it on the “cancellation list.”

What Does It Take to Become One of the “100 Best Companies”?

The “100 Best Companies to Work For” list is administered by an organization called the Great Place to Work Institute, which accordingly calls itself the “global authority on workplace culture.”  We thought that sounded a little arrogant until we looked into the steps you have to take and the investment in time and money you have to make to be on the list.

To be considered, companies have to go through a strenuous application process which includes an extensive heavily-weighted employee engagement survey, and as many as 15 open-ended essay questions on topics like trust, values, and communications. From what we could determine the questions we very comprehensive, compelling and complex.

The Best Companies Had These Attributes.

Just about all every company has a mission statement, but in the “Best” ones the mission is not just a statement—it’s—well, a mission. These organizations know just what they do better than anyone else, and employees understand exactly where they fit in this picture. They know not only what they are doing, but why.

Values are taken seriously.

The “Best” take corporate values seriously and the employees are rewarded for living the values. Leaders at every level are held accountable for modeling them. In some cases, employees even have a hand in developing or refining them.

Communication is king.

At 100 Best Companies, communication is multi-faceted and multi-directional. It’s happening all the time, both formally and informally. Leaders talk—candidly—about what’s going on. Perhaps more important, leaders listen. And employees from the bottom-most position on up know if they have an idea, it will be taken seriously.

Compensation is fair and inclusive.

At 100 Best Companies, having competitive compensation is just a starting point. Pay policies are transparent and even-handed. They are regularly analyzed and adjusted to ensure equity across gender, race, and more. Profit-sharing is common and applies to employees at every level, regardless of their role. Benefits policies are similarly not stratified  but any policy differences are not based on role or pay structure (i.e., hourly vs. salaried).

 “Thanks” is not a four-letter word.

The best organizations recognize employees for their hard work, cultivating both formal and informal cultures of recognition. There are awards ceremonies, trophies, and prizes. Rewards are often thoughtful and creative, like a day off at the end of busy season, or ice cream for all when that big account is clinched. Managers are expected to thank employees early and often, and teams are encouraged (and often funded) to celebrate their successes. Perhaps most importantly, when the organization has a win, everyone celebrates it.

Careers matter.

“Training and development” is not just a department it’s a way of life. Every employee can see clear options for advancement and clear paths for getting there; development planning is personalized, and a decent amount of resources go into supporting it

So do personal lives.

100 Best Companies understand the work-life balance. Employees have the flexibility to do their work where and when they see fit, without rebuke. Workloads are reasonable, and long hours and weekend work are done by choice, rather than the rule. Employees are given the paid time they need to grow and care for their families. Other supports are in place as well: back-up dependent care programs, concierge services, lactation support, adoption/surrogacy reimbursement and so on.

Cost and Benefit

Research has shown that not every 100 Best company models every single one of these traits. But many of them get surprisingly close. And most of these companies are highly ranked in their industry. However we have not found any empirical research to show the correlation of financial performance to making the list.  When considering applying to be the “Best” you should consider putting together a good cost benefit analysis.

Not Another Employee Engagement Survey - Please

Are you really thinking of doing another employee engagement survey?  Do you really want to take on this huge annual project spend many months analyzing the data to  spend another couple months planning what to do with it in order to take action a year or more after on whatever was driving those scores in the first place?

Maybe more frequent data collection to uncover short term issues with a program designed to address performance improvement issues on the spot would be a better use of your time and money?  These frequent short term surveys, referred to as pulse surveys, offer the ability to quickly and frequently measure feedback within entire groups.  You can judge real time engagement and react accordingly. Think of these as a way of gathering data that is current, rather than on an annual basis.  Reacting in a timely manner can often make all the difference.

Traditionally, employee engagement data has been reported in the aggregate when it is really a metric about individuals.  Why not design the survey to specific needs and challenges and not ask everyone the same question? This would lead to more targeted action, better supervision of performance improvement issues, and the ability to use proven techniques of employee recognition to drive results. The one area of concern in an individual approach is that the data would no longer be anonymous, but frankly, there’s not much about attitude and performance that is anonymous in any case.  If you want to improve discretionary effort you can look for the signals of them in the data that point directly to it.

The safety industry for years has been using the psychological based principles of behavior to improve safety performance.  This approach observes performance that can lead to accidents and rewards individuals who perform those safe behaviors in the described manner.   This just in time approach to changing performance can be done to improve performance on any number of the issues that help to build employee engagement throughout the organization, not just safety.

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Instead of another employee engagement survey, and considering the new technologies and analytical tools we have, isn’t it time to experiment with new approaches to determine what kinds of data might help with that?

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net