STEP 1: DEFINE THE REASON FOR CHANGE.
The first step is for managers to decide why they want employees to have more decision-making authority. Is it to improve customer service, reduce cycle time, or boost product quality?
"You have to find out what the market needs and what you can do to meet those needs," Lucas says. When managers can clearly articulate the business reasons for empowering employees, then employees can begin to see what is expected of them.
Managers also must explain to employees what empowerment "looks" like. Because the level of empowerment is different at every company, managers need to provide concrete examples of what the employees' new level of authority will include. Will it include the ability to resolve customer complaints or determine work and vacation schedules? Or will empowerment be limited to problem solving within the employee's own work team and handling operational issues? Be specific.
STEP 2: CHANGE SENIOR-MANAGEMENT BEHAVIOR.
The biggest challenge managers have to overcome in creating an empowered work environment is learning to let go. Victor Gentile Jr., president of Foranne Manufacturing Inc., in Ivyland, Pa., decided five years ago that managers in his 15-person machine shop needed to have more direct contact with customers. "It became too difficult for me to impart all the information from customers to the shop floor," he explains. By empowering his managers to work directly with customers, the customers' needs are now being met more quickly. But the transition wasn't easy for Gentile, who had been solely responsible for all customers for more than 10 years.
"The only way to do this was to just do it," he says. "It was uncomfortable, but I soon learned that by giving managers more responsibility I had more time to do other things -- like go on vacation."
STEP 3: DETERMINE WHAT DECISIONS EMPLOYEES CAN IMPACT.
One of the best ways for managers—and employees—to understand how their behavior must change is by methodically determining what kinds of decisions managers are willing to hand over.
"Managers typically don't want to give up any power," DDI's Hayden says. But by assessing the kinds of decisions that are made on a daily basis, managers and employees can begin to see where it would make sense to have employees more directly involved. One note of caution: Take the transfer of decision-making authority very slowly. Employees in traditional manufacturing environments are typically accustomed to having other people make major decisions. It takes time for employees not only to learn how to make good decisions, but also to trust that managers will abide by the decisions they make.
Gary Wills, director of manufacturing for D & H Manufacturing Co., Fremont, Calif., explains, "The reality is that employees don't really like the decisions that other people make, but given the opportunity they don't really want to make those decisions themselves."
Jim Callaway -- Black Star
Empowerment begins with the CEO, but it must be embraced and believed by all management.
STEP 4: ESTABLISH NATURAL WORK TEAMS.
Virtually every successful empowerment effort on record involves to some extent the use of teams. For employees to have input on their jobs they must understand how their jobs impact other employees and the business as a whole. The best way for them to understand this is by actually working more closely with other people. Additionally, as teamwork gurus will tell you, groups of employees working together will usually come up with better ideas and decisions than any individual working alone. Because teams are such an important part of the empowerment process, manufacturers need to redesign the organization so that teamwork occurs more naturally.
Historically, manufacturing companies were designed with each group of employees doing very different activities. One group ordered raw materials for widgets, another group shaped widgets, another prepared widgets, and another shipped widgets. But it's hard to have an impact on the quality of widgets overall if employees don't understand the entire process. Companies that are serious about empowerment are redesigning the organizational structure so that teams of employees understand and can have an impact on the entire manufacturing process.
At Cast-Fab Technologies, for example, one of Bushman's first steps was to reorganize the workforce around specific products as opposed to specific job responsibilities. Instead of engineers working in one room and welders working in another, today all employees who are responsible for production of a particular product work together on the shop floor.
"By reorganizing the company into natural work teams and physically putting team members together on the shop floor, we have a lot more interchange," Bushman explains. "Not only that, but because we've gotten management out of the process, problems are solved much more quickly."
A similar team design was established at SerVend International Inc., a manufacturer of ice and beverage dispensers based in Sellersburg, Ind. According to Greg Fischer, president, the company reorganized into natural work teams based on product lines about five years ago. "We went from a typical hierarchical structure where we told [our 300] employees what to do, to an environment where teams create their own goals and work plans based on the goals of the company," he explains. "I don't see how teams cannot be part of the empowered work environment."
"Employees have to be able to see the entire work product and to participate in meetings where they can make suggestions that have an impact." |
STEP 5: SHARE INFORMATION.
For employees to make better decisions for the company they need better information about the company. Empowered employees should have access to information that helps them understand how their job or their team contributes to the company as a whole -- such as cost to make a product, average cycle time, customer complaints, scrap and rework costs, and annual sales goals.
"The more employees understand 'the why' of what they are doing, the more they will give in return," Fischer explains. "As we've learned, you can never communicate enough."
But information sharing works two ways -- it's also imperative to have employees present their own suggestions to managers as well as evaluate managers.
STEP 6: SELECT THE RIGHT PEOPLE.
Employees who do best in an empowered, team-based environment are those who possess initiative and the ability to get along with other people. But many established manufacturing employees simply don't feel comfortable with empowerment. Instead of hiring people based solely on technical abilities and hoping they can adapt to the culture, managers should make a concerted effort to get the right people in the door at the outset.
At SerVend, for example, Fischer uses a specially designed behavior index to make sure that job candidates like to be involved and know how to communicate with other people. The Predictive Index, by Praendex Inc., Wellesley Hills, Mass., is a 170-word checklist designed to uncover natural behavior in people.
STEP 7: PROVIDE TRAINING.
Don't just expect employees, especially long-term employees, to know how to make good decisions and work closely with others. Few employees are naturally good at teaming activities. Courses on decision-making, problem solving, conflict management, and effective meetings are imperative for companies intent on employee empowerment.
"Training was an important piece of our empowerment effort," Bushman points out. Over the years he has offered training programs to all employees that include courses on leadership, total quality management, diversity, safety, and problem solving as well as courses to boost technical skills.
STEP 8: COMMUNICATE EXPECTATIONS.
Don't assume employees will understand exactly what empowerment means in terms of their individual job duties. Instead, communicate your expectations through the employee's performance management plan. At Cast-Fab managers define specific targets for employees each year including targets related to education and work performance. "When people have goals they tend to work toward them," Bushman says.
Legalities of Teaming
Empowerment efforts have gained widespread attention for their ability to make companies more efficient and productive. Lost in the enthusiasm for workplace teams, however is section 8(a)(2) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which broadly prohibits management in nonunion settings from dominating or interfering with employee teams or the manner in which employers financially support teams. Most employers are taking the position that workplace teams are O.K., unless management dominates the employee team or the team is representing other employees in the workplace.
Because of NLRA ambiguities, nonunion employers should consult with labor counsel prior to implementing employee teams to make sure they will not run afoul of federal labor law.
STEP 9: ALIGN REWARD & RECOGNITION PROGRAM.
Employees will perform to other's expectations -- good or bad. Don't pay based on individual performance and then expect employees to work well on teams. Don't reward employees for longevity when you're trying to get better work performance. For empowerment to take hold, the activities employees are being rewarded for must be aligned with the company's overall goals. In a nutshell executives shouldn't recognize individual jobs, tasks, or anniversary dates. Instead, they should recognize initiative.
STEP 10: HAVE PATIENCE & EXPECT PROBLEMS.
One of the primary reasons empowerment efforts fail is that managers give up too soon. Empowerment won't take hold overnight. Like any behavioral change, it takes time and practice for employees and their managers to get it right. It's frustrating, mistakes will be made, and you'll wonder why you ever started down this path. But understanding that it will be a long, rocky road will increase the chances of making empowerment work.
"The most difficult part for me was not understanding how long this process would take," Fischer admits. "Most people who run companies think results can be achieved in one- or two-quarters-a year at the outside. But this type of journey is a multiyear journey. It took two to three years just to get everyone to understand the process of empowerment. Now that we understand it, we are starting to see results."
In the last five years, SerVend has grown almost 100% in terms of revenue, and profitability has jumped 150% to 200%. During this time the workforce has grown by only 25 employees-from 275 to 300.
By recognizing that empowerment is a comprehensive process that takes time and involves all facets of an organization, more manufacturing executives can expect to achieve such results. But in addition to boosting the bottom line, managers can also take pride in the fact that empowered employees usually like their jobs -- and their employers -- a whole lot more.
Last Christmas Fischer received a letter from a long-term employee. In it the employee wrote: "Five years ago, when we started this process, you said that some of the skills we would learn (decision-making, problem solving, teamwork, etc.) we would be able to take home with us and use in other parts of our life. I always had low self-esteem and believed these were skills other people had, not me. But now that I am doing more on the job, I'm one of those people who has these skills and has confidence as a result. This has had an extremely positive effect on my family and me. I just want to say thank you."
In the end this may be the best reason of all for creating an empowered work environment. |
