How to empower your employees and create meaningful growth

Want to attract and retain the best talent? Find out why you should empower your employees – and the best way to do so.

While many business owners are reluctant to invest in employee empowerment, often because they’re worried that their newly empowered employees may look for opportunities elsewhere, the truth is that empowering employees has a positive effect on their loyalty to your company. And therefore significantly increases employee retention.

By instilling a culture of opportunity in your business, and making it an integral part of your business model even, you’ll find it easier to attract higher quality candidates, and add value to your existing employees – ensuring that they’ll be happy to stay working for you.

When it comes to guiding your employees and following and supporting their progress, strong certification is important. So, now we’ve covered the benefits of empowering your employees, let’s look at some ways you can achieve it.

Safety first

By having your entire staff trained in first aid response, you are creating a much safer working environment for everyone. It also indicates that you value the health and safety of your workforce.

Training people in first aid doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. Depending on where your company is based, regulations often only require that there be one or two first aiders on site at any given time. On top of investing in first-aid training for your staff, you will need to make sure you invest in a bleeding control kit by True Rescue (or any other equipment that might be needed), so you are prepared and have resources available should you need them in the event of an emergency.

By offering members of your team first aid training like the ones offered by Coast to Coast First Aid and Aquatics, you and giving them an edge in their career moving forwards and, most importantly, empowering them in their personal life. This is the type of training that can genuinely save lives, and it makes for an excellent addition to your company.

Short courses

Not every skill has to come with a degree and huge student loans. There are plenty of great options for online short courses in just about any career field.

Offering your employees the chance to increase their knowledge and skills in key areas can help them to be more confident, rounded team members. Even just a Udemy course to improve on an employee’s current skill set makes for a thoughtful and productive way of delivering value to your staff.

New skills, new field

Sometimes the opportunities you offer to your employees may help them to realise they’re in the wrong job or career. And this is actually a good thing. Why? Because had they stayed with you, they could have become increasingly unfulfilled and unsatisfied.

And not only would this have impacted their Orin productivity and drive, but it only takes one person to question the value of their work, or worse, your company as a hole, to ‘infect’ an entire team with a malaise that emans your entire output suffers.

So the risk that someone may find and blossom with a new passion or career direction by empowering themselves and learning new skills is one worth taking. You’ll either end up with a happier and more able team member, or you can happily part ways with someone who has found their true calling – and please them with someone who really does want to do the job.

Develop career plans 

Whether they’ve just started with you or been with you for years, many employees need to see a concrete road forward with your company. hey need to know they’re working towards a career goal, and have a clear idea of what milestones they need to achieve to get there.

By taking the time to speak with your employees and learn more about their ambitions, and likes and dislikes, you can draw up a clear career plan that gives the, a sense of the opportunities possible, and shows them that you’re invested in them.

In turn they’ll be more motivated to perform well and give their job their all. You can also ensure that YOUR goals are being met by letting your team know what you need and ant of them, and engaging them in waiting to achieve your company goals too. When you all work together towards common goals, you all win.

It’s important though to make any promises and goals realistic. If an employee doesn’t have the potential to make director level, then you need to be honest with them and yourself. And instead work out a goal they do have a chance of achieving in your company.

Your honesty about their prospects can also help an employee decide whether you are the right company for them. And as above, if they decide not then it’s far better to know early rather than later.

How can you empower your employees? 

As a business owners it’s essential that you recognise the value of your biggest asset – your workforce – and that you invest appropriately in nurturing it.

By empowering your team, you’ll increase loyalty and productivity and build a business that makes everyone’s lives better.