Non Financial Incentives - Job Empowerment 1.4.4

Job empowerment - giving employees the power to do their job. The concept is closely linked to motivation and customer service. Put simply, employees need to feel that their actions count. Empowerment is a catch-all term that covers:
  1. Giving authority to make decisions to front-line staff (e.g. hotel receptionist, call centre assistant)
  2. Encouraging employee feedback
  3. Showing more trust in employees
This is a stage beyond delegation, giving employees more control over their working situation.

ADVANTAGES
  1. Increasing the Productivity and Morale. Those who are given the responsibility to create their own decisions can feel more trusted in which their contributions have a direct factor in the success of the company. This can actually offer them to boost their morale.
  2. Bigger Involvement Leading to Bigger Commitment. When employees are given greater involvement by increasing their responsibility, they are able to become more involved in the development of strategies for the organization. For this reason, it will enable them to look at customers and colleagues a lot more differently. More so, they will increase their commitment to the organization and its future. So, if employees are satisfied, it could lead to more satisfied customers. This commitment will eventually lead to decrease in staff turnover and reduced cost.
  3. It also leads to creativity and innovation since the employees have the authority to act on their own.  
  4. There is increased efficiency in employees because of increased ownership in their work. 
  5. Lesser need of supervision and delegation.  
  6. Employees when empowered become more entrepreneurial and start taking more risks. Greater the risk, greater are the chances to succeed. 
DISADVANTAGES
  1. Egotism / arrogance: Worker arrogance can create a big trouble for the supervisors and the managers. There can be problems in delegating. Employees avoid reporting about their work and feedback can be taken negatively.  
  2. Security: Since information comes and is shared by all, there are apprehensions about leakage of critical data

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