2. Employee Empowerment
What???
• Freedom to make decisions
• Workplace Democracy
• Sharing varying degrees of power with lower level employees
• Invest people with authority
• Ownership with responsibility
What Not???
• Throwing out the rule book
• Freedom to unilaterally take decisions that impact others
Empowerment is operating by oneself with
enthusiasm
3. Empowerment Levels
ENCOURAGE: Employees to play a more vital role than now
INVOLVE: Employees to take responsibility and improve the ways
things are done
ENABLE: Employees to make and take a decision without referring
to a senior
4. Why Employee Empowerment at L&T
Kansbahal Works
Check the views that employees hold about their empowerment levels at
the moment
Open avenues of communication are NOT actually open enough
Measure the happiness and satisfaction levels of the employees that comes
directly from the authorities and freedom that they enjoy as per their
position levels
Devise methods to the management if necessary
A good topic for the Summer Internship Program
5. “Give Power Away” Is Not A Solution
Power is not a zero sum commodity that adds up to zero, so that for others
to have more, the leader must have less
Power is an expandable pie, share if and only if you are sure.
Power can be taken, but not given. the process of the taking is
empowerment itself.
Still, the bottom-line is, to gain power you have to give power. hence
empower!!!
6. How To Empower???
Identify reasons to empower
He/she is the right employee???
Right for the organization???
Ethical and legal???
Risks assessed and calculated???
7. Employee Empowerment: The Process
Identify skills of the employee
Identify employee’s experience
Identify the training level
Identify the employee enthusiasm
Identify employee engagement
Identify the emotional engagement towards the job and the organization
Make the employee accountable and answerable
Keep the motivation going
8. Pros and Cons
Pros:
Greater job satisfaction
Increased productivity
Automatic motivator
Encouraged innovation
Lesser supervision and delegation
Cons:
Egotism/arrogance
Creativity and innovation demands risk
Industrial democracy
Security of information
9. Findings At L&T Kansbahal Works
Tier-1, 2 & 3 employees mostly feel empowered
94.44% in Tier-1 agree that they are empowered (Based only on a Yes/No
response)
87.50% in Tier-2 & 3 agree that they are empowered (Based only on a
Yes/No response)
Interestingly no one in any of the tier feels that they are not at all
empowered
There are low empowerment levels in some areas according to employees
but zero score still doesn’t exist
10. Findings… continued…
Rating 1 to 2 Not at all empowered
Rating 2.1 to 3 Poorly empowered
Rating 3.1 to 4 Partially empowered
Rating 4.1 to 5 Almost fully empowered
Based on the above ratings, and conducting a t-test, we found that:
In Tier-1: 61.11% employees’ response lie in the range 4.1 to 5; 38.88% lie in
the range 3.1 to 4, and we have zero readings for the rest two range of
categories.
In Tier-2 & 3: 50% employees’ response lie in the range 4.1 to 5; 50% lie in the
range 3.1 to 4, and we have zero readings for the other two ranges.
11. Findings… continued…
Administration, Design, Foundry and Machine department asks for a more
powerful and strong communication system, job-enrichment, job-rotation
and, improvement groups
Central Maintenance and Execution department urges for a better team
management, analytical abilities, leadership and decision making abilities
and employee engagement
Supply Chain wants reward for self-improvements, a clear set of defined
roles and to maintain accountability for individual responsibilities
12. Findings… continued…
Spares-Business development and Fabrication department wants a definite
clearance from superiors to make and take decision
Execution and Design department wants to lead in more prospects of their
work and more employee engagement
Materials management and finance department wants more transparency
in communication with the members they deal with
13. Suggestions: Areas that need a revisit at
L&T Kansbahal Works
Open avenues of communication from lower to upper level should be
made more open
Employee recognition and rewards can be renewed
Improvement groups should be formed
Feedback system should be paid more attention
Just treatment and transparency for all
14. Suggestions… continued…
More favorable work environment
Enough resources for the employee to work
Taking opinions while making a change in the way someone works
Multiskilling and job-rotation should be put into practice
Measuring employees’ emotional engagement towards his job is the 1st
step towards empowerment
15. Someone Said It:
“The best executive is the one who
has the sense enough to pick good
men to do what he wants done, and
self-restraint enough to keep from
meddling with them while they do it.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
