Empowering Employees to Improve Business Processes and Bottom Line
For many companies, the thought of empowering employees to improve the business processes and increase the bottom line is impossible.
For at least one Machine Job Shop in Cincinnati, Ohio, this is exactly what they are doing. Professional CNC Machinists, CNC Programmers, Carbide Saw Grinders, and Welders in the industry are getting more and more difficult to find and retain. To attract more professionals in the field, Pride Tool empowers employees to do their best. Trusting employees and earning their respect, while providing the tools needed to get their job done are the keys to starting the process.
Start by empowering your employees. It requires that employers trust in the employee’s ability to perform the work. Help employees make good decisions. Train employees to understand the impact of their decisions, so that they are willing to take measured risks. It is extremely important to use mistakes as learning opportunities for improved decisions in the future.
The common reasons why companies do not empower their employees are:
- Poor leadership and management
- Lack of clear goals and objectives
- Lack of trust in employees
- Fear of losing control
- Resistance to change
- Inadequate communication and training
- Inadequate systems and processes in place to support the empowerment
- Limited resources and budget
The first step in empowering employees is believing they can handle the work. Once managers show they trust their employees and provide clear goals and objectives employees are encouraged to act. To reinforce their effectiveness, it is important that employees must have the proper training and an open channel of communication for proper decision-making. These actions allow employees to be independent thinkers and to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.
When employees are empowered, they are engaged. When employees are engaged, their hands-on knowledge of how processes actually flow is price-less. Developing improvements that can have a significant impact on strengthening a company’s bottom line is greatly improved.
Employing employee empowerment is a simple matter of building mutual trust with your employees. When you provide the right tools with clear instruction, guidance, and training as needed, you demonstrate your confidence in their ability to succeed. The better the company does, the better everyone does. Once you have trust, empowerment is easy. You can see the culture of the company change and with it the profit margins increase while the cost ratio decreases. What more can you ask for?
This makes it sound easy, it really isn’t. What worthwhile venture isn’t entangled with some level of challenge? Employee empowerment and the results it can produce are definitely worth the investment.
Try it in your business. Small steps starting with communication and training could open the keys to the kingdom!
Let us know how you are improving your business processes and if employee empowerment has fueled your progress.