Research has shown that while salary and
benefits are important to employee retention, job
satisfaction may be the most important factor of
all. That said, a major tenet of job satisfaction is
not just being a cog in the wheel, following the
commands of the boss to avoid reprimand or
firing, says Johnson. Rising generations of employees expect to be challenged, recognized, and
trusted for their talents, Johnson says. If they
don’t get it at your company, they’re prepared
to move on.
“Retention is all about people really enjoying being at work,” he adds. “They have to feel
needed, wanted, and that they are using their talent. One of the key things that creates employee
satisfaction is when a company allows people to
take initiative or be creative. Everyone wants to
be some kind of leader, but we all can’t be the
CEO or president. Empowerment allows them
to make some decisions and tackle some problems on their own.”
But empowerment strategies aren’t for management teams only. Frontline employees also
want to be challenged and respected for their
judgment and ideas, Johnson says. Plus, these
employees directly impact customer satisfaction
on a daily basis, making empowerment a critical
management strategy, too.
Bye-Bye hierarchy
The hierarchal structure that once dominated
the workplace no longer is the best model for
success in today’s increasingly customer-cen-tered market, Johnson suggests. “A mistake that
a lot of CEOs and higher executives make is that
they don’t really understand that they don’t have
to have all the answers,” he says. “That’s why
you surround yourself with a capable and competent team. A good leader hires people to help
compensate for [his or her] weaknesses.”
For empowerment to be a successful strategy,
CEOs must take the first step and implement it
with their top executive team members. Empowerment then becomes part of the corporate culture
and trickles down to all levels of the company.
Where empowerment breaks down is when
leaders can’t let go—often because they think they
can accomplish the task more quickly and better
than anyone else. “Many CEOs, presidents, and
members of executive management confuse delegation with empowerment,” Johnson says. “The
difference between delegation and empowerment
is rather than telling people what to do, you set
out the problem and let people figure out what
to do.”
Ultimately, empowerment can only work if
executives are willing to accept that employees
will make mistakes, Johnson adds. Those mistakes can cost the company money, but the loss
needs to be balanced with the benefits of empowerment, such as employee retention. Employees
feel valued and are more likely to stay when their
employer is willing to invest in their professional development.
Johnson advises companies to link empowerment strategies with
a coaching/mentoring program, so that mistakes are positioned
as learning opportunities that can help employees progress to the
next level.
Motivation Fuels empowerment
The Ritz-Carlton Co. is well-known for its service culture of “ladies and gentlemen serving
ladies and gentlemen.” Hampton Inn Hotels &
Suites has empowered staff at any level to authorize money back for a dissatisfied customer.
Still, companies must be careful not to offer
“pseudo-empowerment,” says Lizz Chambers,
vice president, human resources and training for
Williamsburg, Virginia-based Newport Hospitality Group (NHG), a hotel management company
that operates 25 upscale and mid-scale hotels
in the eastern United States. She describes a
“pseudo-empowerment management style” as
one in which associates are made to think they
have the power to impact company attitudes to
make them work harder, when in fact they don’t
really have that power. When Chambers teaches
empowerment classes, she often will hear employees say they lack empowerment on the job,
while supervisors and general managers say
they extend it. Employees know the difference,
Chambers says.
When employees are reprimanded for a decision contrary to what the manager would have
made or in some way they are not supported,
they say, OK, you told me I have the power, but I
don’t. “Once they feel they don’t have protection,
they stop making decisions,” Chambers says.
Chambers compares empowerment to motivation. Leaders must create an environment that
motivates or empowers, rather than try to control
everyone’s actions. In other words, managers
should guide employees so that they will learn
to lead themselves.
NHG employees are armed with three Ps,
which are posted throughout all departments:
“Permission to take care of guests” is the number one priority. “Power to do whatever is necessary to take care of guests, as long as it is
ethical, legal, and moral” is next. And lastly,
employees have “protection that if a decision is
made in the best interest of guests, an employee
will never be reprimanded or punished,” even if
the decision is not one the supervisor or manager would have made. The goal is to ensure
employees are able to handle a guest complaint
on the spot, never making the guest wait while they speak with
management or, worse, leave the property without resolving the
issue. Likewise, Chambers asserts that “empowerment begets
empowerment,” meaning that the more staff exercise their own
decision-making, the more they will feel empowered to do so.
Where
empowerment
breaks down is
when leaders
can’t let go—
often because
they think they
can accomplish
the task more
quickly and
better than
anyone else.
