Your association’s success depends upon the success of your employees. To ensure your organization thrives, you’ll need to invest in your staff.
But how can you make a conscious effort to elevate staff across your association? By being intentional about employee empowerment.
Read our blog for six employee empowerment strategies you can adopt at your organization today.
Why association leaders need to empower employees
Your team is likely made up of individuals with vast abilities and potential. However, if your staff isn’t fully connected and supporting your core vision, or if certain staff abilities aren’t being leveraged, then your team won’t reach its full capacity. Likewise, your organization can suffer.
This is where you can utilize employee empowerment. When you invest in your team, your staff will flourish, and so will your association. Empowering your employees will inspire them to become team leaders and invest further in your organization, ultimately boosting morale.
6 techniques association leaders can leverage for employee empowerment
When you take steps to empower your association’s staff, you’ll notice an improved experience for both employees and members. Here’s how to get started:
1. Know your employees. Harvard Business Review states that employee empowerment occurs when staff have work autonomy and routinely contribute to their organization.
Meet with your team in one-on-ones to learn professional goals, ask about skills or talents, and better understand your employees’ backgrounds. When you understand what drives your employees, you can help them achieve their goals and set them up for success.
2. Get feedback. Empower your employees by routinely listening to them. In addition to having scheduled one-on-one meetings with your staff, consider getting employee feedback by sending out pulsing surveys on what’s happening within your organization.
After you collect employee feedback, ensure you follow up on how you plan on using the insights. Following up on employee feedback will show you care about what your team thinks.
3. Offer training. Ensure your entire organization grows when you invest in your employees by providing training opportunities. When you offer technical training, you’ll have better-skilled staff, who are more productive and confident in their roles. You can also promote from within your association, increasing staff morale and reducing recruitment costs.
Investing in training opportunities can also boost staff retention. According to Forrester, 80% of employees stated they would stay in their current jobs if they had technology training. But only 47% of the employees had the training opportunities they wanted.
4. Promote inclusivity. Become an inclusive association leader by ensuring everyone has a chance to speak with you. Deloitte reports that inclusive leaders are 17% more likely to have high-performing teams, and 29% more likely to have highly collaborative teams.
Be an inclusive leader by making all staff feel welcome and heard. Consider hosting open hours when any employee can drop by your office, in-person or virtually, to talk.
5. Provide time off benefits. Empower your staff by offering competitive employee benefits, like unlimited time off, at your association. Consider offering time off for staff to volunteer, employee professional development and technical training, and vacations and personal matters.
When your staff have more opportunities to manage their personal affairs, recharge over a much-needed vacation, or invest in their professional development you’ll notice your employees are more committed to your organization and invested in their roles.
6. Embrace a growth mindset. Allow your employees the space to grow and learn from mistakes or challenges. One African Proverb states, “Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.” Empower your staff by letting them make mistakes and grow from the experience.
This empowerment strategy is called a “growth mindset,” meaning an individual’s capabilities can improve over time. Model this growth mindset in your own work, and you’ll see how your employees develop as they embrace challenges, rather than avoid them.
