Top 7 Methods to Empower Employees

How many times have you asked someone to do something like "draw up a plan for such and such project"? Your employee completes the plan, but then you say, "That is not what I wanted" or "That is not how you do it". And so the employee thinks: you didn't tell me exactly how you wanted it done.

If you find yourself having back and forth misunderstandings with your employees, then you might have a communication problem. And this could be creating bad feelings, low morale and inefficiencies. To remedy this, perhaps it's time you thought about creating a Policies and Procedures Manual.

Let's look at 7 methods to strengthen communication and performance.

1. Implement Effective Policies and Procedures

A Policies and Procedures Manual is a communication tool designed to empower employers, managers and employees with a consistent approach to accomplishing their daily tasks. It provides a set of policies, plans, reports, forms, and work routines that convey the pulse of the organization.

A properly developed manual focuses your everyday business communications between employees and management on what is really important to get the job done. This focus is the first step in empowering your employees. Empowerment requires a shared vision, the communication of necessary information and adequate training.

2. Convey Management Policy and Vision

A manual should be used to communicate both corporate policies and the appropriate procedures for implementation of the policy in a combined style format. If employees know the vision, then they feel confident to make decisions. Keep in mind, though, policies should not be confused with procedures.

Policy - A definite course or method of action to guide and determine present and future decisions. A policy is a guide to decision-making under a given set of circumstances within the framework of corporate objectives, goals and management philosophies.

Procedure - A particular way of accomplishing something, or an established way of doing things. A procedure is a series of steps followed in a definite regular order that ensure the consistent and repetitive approach to actions.

3. Improve Communications and Efficiently Run Operations

A manual serves to translate the company's business philosophies and desires into action. A well-designed manual is an invaluable communication tool for efficiently running operations within departments and bridging the gap between interrelated departments. If a department has specific information that it requires to process a task, then this information is easily captured in a form that accompanies the task. In business forms are commonplace, acting as a guide for such things as purchase orders, employment applications or asset requisitions.

4. Reduce Business Process Training Time

A policies and procedures manual is a functional guide for training new and existing employees. It prevents difficulties in performing duties due to lack of understanding or inconsistent approaches from personnel changes. And it will assist you in developing a consistent method in handling any task.

5. Improve Productivity and Decision Making

Policies and procedures speed up employee decision making by having a handy, authoritative source for answering questions. Well-developed and documented manuals can ensure compliance with regulatory agencies affecting your business, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), government contracting authorities and independent certification organizations (i.e. ISO).

6. Strengthen Organization and Quality

A comprehensive manual covering all departments within an organization can become a "quality" manual for the whole company. This will help ensure optimal operations and consistent delivery of the finest in product or service from the company.

It will "empower" employees to make decisions independently without the need or time delays of involving various levels of management. A well thought out manual will enable just about everyone in the organization the ability and flexibility to make the right decisions in his or her job responsibilities.

For example, a customer service representative should be able to handle a customer's problem and have the authority to resolve the problem right on the spot. In addition, a production team should be able to diagnose a quality problem and formulate and resolve the problem in conjunction with engineering without having to go through various channels up and down the corporate ladder.

7. Meet Objectives with Policies and Procedures Manual

The goal of the policies and procedures manual is to identify the ways and means of communicating, as well as getting the service performed or the product manufactured at the least cost in the minimal amount of time. Not only will it be used to empower the organization, but it will have the added benefit of increasing job satisfaction and employee morale.

Chris Anderson is the managing director of Bizmanualz, Inc. and co-author of policies and procedures manuals, producing the layout, process design and implementation to increase performance.

To learn how to increase performance, visit: Bizmanualz, Inc.

---

Training and ROI (Return On Investment)

Statistics consistently reinforce that the biggest challenge in today's contact... Read More

Knowledge Management - Creating a Sustainable Yellow Pages System

How can I "know who knows" None of us can... Read More

Focus Leads To Nonprofit Success: Is Your Organization Rowing or Drifting

Picture yourself standing on the bank of a river watching... Read More

Christmas and Business Gifts for Your Clients and Employees!

Tis' the season for business and corporate gift-giving! If you... Read More

One Bad Apple

One Bad Apple I know what... Read More

How to Coach Your Employees - 5 Simple Steps Anyone Can Do!

Want to get more from your people, but you don't... Read More

Passion for Profits

Business owners and managers are busier than ever. As their... Read More

Assertiveness Helps Accomplish Everything

When trying to get something accomplished, assertive behavior is the... Read More

How to Hire the Right People

One of the biggest challenges any business owner or manager... Read More

The 5 Obsessions of a Passionate Employee

A recent report entitled "How Google Grows?and Grows?and Grows" stated... Read More

Human Resource Communication Pays Off

Human Resource Communications and Corporate Communications ? are they one... Read More

Management to the Vision-Contribution and the Role of Compliance

As a manager our role is to:1. Establish the vision,... Read More

Having Your Phil

February 2nd, at approximately 7:30 a.m. local time on Gobbler's... Read More

Profits and Business Success - 5 Profit Traps to Watch Out For

The old saying 'You have to spend money to make... Read More

Innovation Management ? idea selection, development and commercialisation, what are the differences?

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Top 10 Things NOT To Tell Angel and VC Investors

I am not writing this to create a list of... Read More

Organizational Culture, Creativity, Innovation

It can be concluded with great certainty that certain organizational... Read More

Managing After Downsizing

So, you survived the downsizing. Your company did something that... Read More

The Top Six Reasons to Buy Rather Than Build an Inventory Management Solution

Is building your own inventory management solution really your best... Read More

What Consultants Want You to Know (But You Never Ask)

I've been both a CEO and a consultant, so I've... Read More

Stomp Out Leeches In Your Company

Recently, I felt appalled to see a political candidate running... Read More

The Seven Essentials of Business Communication

There are seven essential elements to successful business communication:StructureClarityConsistencyMediumRelevancyPrimacy/RecencyPsychological Rule... Read More

Innovation Management ? Measuring Failure!

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

New UK Laws on Staff Dispute Resolution and Disciplinary Procedures

October 2004 saw the introduction of the Employment Act 2002,... Read More

Developing Your Mission

"The best Leader is one who knows how to pick... Read More

Structure Your Payment Offers to Sell More Products

The way you structure your payment offers can increase your... Read More

Dealing with Marginal Performers: The Therapeutic Approach

--PREPARATION: The purpose of the therapeutic approach is to spark... Read More

How to use NLP for Business?

What is Neuro-Linguistic Programming?Neuro-Linguistic programme is nothing but the study... Read More

Involving People Gave Us the Improvements We Needed

We had a problem with handling materials in a production... Read More

How to Manage Your Most Valuable Assets - People?

People management and leadership has become a major topic of... Read More

Group Discussion Guidelines

DISCUSSION METHODS: There are two basic types of discussion methods;... Read More

Do You Really Care What People Think?

You had better care! Because what people think usually leads... Read More

Creating Your Own Business Upturn - Powering Business Development

We all see it . . . business markets are... Read More