Influence on tasks
- In what way do employees have influence on their work? Can they gain more influence on their own work (for example on the way work is performed or on the tools and technical aids used)?
- Can they make independent decisions? For example, can employees decide to give customers their money back for a defective product?
Influence on the organisation of work
- Can employees influence their working hours or who they work with, their on-call shifts, their tasks, etc.? Can they influence the degree of variation in work and the order of tasks?
- Can employees influence how their skills and competences are applied? For example, can they influence the matching of their skills and abilities to specific tasks? Does the individual employee have overlooked skills, and how do you find out about this?
- Can employees suggest ideas for skills development? For example, training and education, job enlargement or special roles or duties, such as being a mentor?
- Can employees make suggestions on how to best perform work and resolve problems, such as how to reduce physical strain when lifting heavy products?
We’re all different
We don’t all have the same desire for influence and responsibility. Some employees prefer to only service customers, while others prefer to have many different tasks, such as ordering products, filling shelves and designing product displays, servicing customers, etc.
Here is what you can do
- Identify your employees’ skills. The responsibilities and degree of influence of your employees should match their skills. Hold regular employee interviews, for example appraisal interviews, to identify the individual employee’s skills and need for skills development, so that employees have opportunity to influence their own development.
- Make a clear description of job functions. Clear roles and descriptions of tasks help define employees’ possibilities for influence. Therefore, it’s important that you have clarified the role and tasks of each employee. For example, this could be specified in their job and function descriptions.
- Influence of organization. Greater employee influence could also be in relation to the order of tasks, how work is performed, and what tools and technology are used.
- Delegate responsibilities. You can give your employees more influence by delegating responsibility to an individual employee or to a group. For example, you could establish self-governing groups and teams to increase motivation and job satisfaction. Delegation requires that the employees delegated a responsibility have the right competences to deal with it. Therefore, an education and training policy promoting skills development and upgrading of skills will increase your opportunities for delegation.
- Set goals. Involve employees in the way you set goals for their tasks. This gives them influence. You can also involve them in quality assurance, how the goals are to be achieved, or how to perform tasks timely and quickly, etc. The employees often have experience and knowledge to contribute.
- Set frameworks. With a clear framework and guidelines for tasks, you can enable employees with the right competences to decide on matters within the agreed framework. The framework ensures that you’re working in the same direction, and that you have the objectives of the company in mind.
- Ensure good communication. Usually, the type of information rather than the amount of information is crucial. Regular meetings about day-to-day operations, at which everyone can express their opinion, can increase employee influence. Where appropriate, ask the employees whether they lack information. A positive and open approach to suggestions from employees can increase their co-influence even more.
- General initiatives at company level. General initiatives such as establishing an education and training policy, organising work in self-governing groups/teams, introducing appraisal interviews and general internal communication require decision-making at a higher level of the company. In this context, you should use the channels available to launch new initiatives.