Retain Your Great Employees by Empowering Them

It’s a complaint heard from offices all around the world. A handful of employees are constantly overworked and are unhappy about it, while another group is bored to death with their work. This is not a problem with the employees, it’s a problem with their management. And it’s not all that uncommon, either. New research has shown that a whopping 34% of American workers feel underutilized at work. And over half the workforce plan to leave their jobs in the near future, in part because they feel unappreciated or pigeonholed in their current positions.

Start by Empowering Employees

You’re probably delegating tasks, feeling that’s the most efficient way to get them completed. But if you allow your employees to form teams letting them work independently, you might be surprised at how well that can work. Creating an environment where employees feel comfortable working together and sharing ideas can lead to better innovation, which comes from the sharing of ideas. And by allowing them to arrange in teams, you’ll probably soon be able to recognize various skills in the group, like management skills in one employee, and out-of-the-box thinking in another.

Allow employees to be problem solvers. Instead of telling someone what to do, invite them to solve the problem instead. If they know what needs to be fixed and why, they may find a better solution to it than you were about to ask them to do. They feel empowered whereas you gain a smarter way of doing things.

Mentorship

An empowering aspect of mentorship is allowing the employee to set goals and a path to reach them. And that also goes for the person you’ve chosen to mentor them. They, too, feel more valued and appreciated. Implementing a coaching program within your organization is a win for everyone involved, including your company.

Develop a plan for a mentoring program and get your employees involved. Find out the areas they feel would help them grow their skills and make use of their talents. Match mentors and mentees based on their needs, interests, and goals.

Mentorship and coaching work best if resources are available for reference and training. Rather than relying on dull and hard-to-follow data points, use infographics to create easy-to-follow and engaging information and resources. To create your infographic, use free templates that you can personalize to include the information you want to convey in a way that matches your company’s style and look in order to make it all cohesive.

Unless you’re a pro in employee training, you will really benefit from using professional and customizable training materials like these from CEELSO. You’ll be able to create a program with materials that have already been proven to be effective.

Recognize and Reward Excellence

“Employee of the month” recognitions are not the best way to make someone in the workplace feel valued and appreciated. It only feels meaningful if there is some real value associated with it.

Value doesn’t necessarily mean monetary, though those are greatly appreciated, like gift cards, or a team lunch if you’re rewarding a group. But there are more ways to recognize excellence, like a day off with pay, a company-wide announcement, or a feature in the newsletter or website.

Communication

Just like in any relationship, communication is the key to making others feel valued while eliminating misunderstandings that can lead to hard feelings and disappointments.

Have regular meetings where you not only share your ideas and visions for your company and your employees’ roles in its future but invite suggestions and feedback too. Encourage everyone to share in a non-threatening and positive way, things they find are creating an atmosphere of feeling undervalued and unappreciated.

Regular opportunities for communication allow employees to feel empowered and engender a feeling of being part of the bigger picture.

Don’t lose valuable employees who feel like they can be better utilized someplace else. Take that drive and desire to grow and make it work for them and for you. With a few tweaks to your management style, like those presented here, you can have a staff of appreciated and inspired employees.