Many people feel that employee empowerment is the same as employee engagement, but there are distinct differences.
Employee empowerment is giving employees the authority make decisions about their jobs. Instead of managers deciding who to hire and how to staff a shift, the employees on an empowered team collectively make these decisions and more. Empowered employees may be given the authority to decide work schedules, productivity goals, and even daily priorities.
Employee empowerment is a component of employee engagement. The more employees feel like they have the authority to make decisions about how their work is done, the more engaged they become in their work and company. Empowerment leads to greater collaboration and sharing of ideas. It can also lead to productivity gains and increased performance. Employee engagement suffers if employees don’t have the authority to do their jobs to the best of their abilities.
Employee engagement describes how committed and energized employees are about their jobs. Because empowerment is only a component of engagement an employee can be entirely empowered without being engaged. This could be caused by low compensation, a jerk boss, or burnout.
To acheive employee engagement an organization needs some level of empowerment, but employee empowerment alone does not ensure employee engagement.
