Empowering staff and encouraging them to adopt roles with greater responsibility can be of substantial benefit particular in small businesses. Staff members in a business can be its greatest asset particularly where the organisation is small and employees carry out multiple tasks and duties.
When starting a new business and taking on staff entrepreneurs might typically seek people who are capable of handling a range of functions. The venture is not yet of sufficient size to warrant having dedicated persons to conduct just a single area of the operations.
A factor which is often overlooked and frequently discovered almost by accident is that once individual staff members within a small business are empowered, they have abilities in aspects of the operations which were previously unknown to the entrepreneur.
Whilst these attributes may not have been party to the job specification which was created when the position was advertised the discovery of these talents can expand the range of functions which the small business handles internally. This can thus save the money which would need to be spent requisitioning a third party to conduct those activities.
Rigidity in the chain of command and equally in the way duties are carried out in the business would not lend itself to the discovery of what individual staff members are capable of.
Experimentation, an entrepreneurial hands off approach and a willingness to let staff make mistakes without fear of severe retribution can result in the manifestation of creativity, an objective review and improvement of current processes and the expansion of the arsenal of skill the small business possess.
It has been the experience of many established entrepreneurs that a role an individual carried out was very different from the one they were initially hired to conduct.
Through discussion, trial and error and the “you take responsibility for it” attitude they have been able to utilise the natural skills and interests of the person and thus magnify the value attained from them.
Conversely, maintaining a strict regime of specific job parameters has often resulted in a disgruntled staff member who has either resigned within a short period of time or who has been made redundant.
In a small business empowering staff can help the entrepreneur with managing and coping with stress by sharing the responsibility for administering the operations. Capable staff can maintain the business whilst the owner is away and make operational decisions without their involvement.
One factor to consider in empowering staff is that employees may request and expect higher salaries for the increased work they do and responsibilities they undertake. In a small business monetary resources are often scarce and the entrepreneur will have to balance the desire for their staff to excel versus their ability to reward them financially.
Having stated that, empowering staff often leads to them having greater job satisfaction and thereby perhaps not requiring substantial financial retribution. In addition, their increased contribution to the small business should ultimately generate increased amounts of income and thereby eclipse any enhanced financial benefits required to appease them.
