What is employee enablement and what is its role for your business?

One of the most important aspects of human work is productivity. Every employer aims to achieve a great level of effectiveness among the employees. The best way to attain it is to provide them with conditions that will ensure the convenience of work in all respects. This issue is directly related to the term employee enablement, which is increasingly popular among employers and in the HR industry. What is it actually? 

What is employee enablement?

Employee enablement means that the employer simply supports their employees by creating an appropriate working environment which leads to them carrying out their duties in the most effective way. It can be achieved using resources that have a positive effect on their productivity. This refers to equipment, training, finance, tools, information about process optimization, access to the required knowledge, and a good atmosphere in the office. When these factors are of the best quality, employees can perform their duties at the highest level. 

If the employer wants to enable employees, they should take care of the tools they use – they cannot be bothered by any sort of problems, and that is why the equipment should be of excellent quality. They shall also be provided with all the information required to perform their job and the ability to take part in training to expand their knowledge and thrive. All of these factors are crucial to employee satisfaction and result in increased productivity. That is why it should be a priority for the employer. Statistics show that nowadays only about 15% of employees worldwide are truly engaged as one can learn in the article How to Improve Employee Engagement in the Workplace.  

Employee engagement vs employee enablement

High performance of employees is connected not only with employee enablement but also with employee engagement. These two terms are of great importance regarding the results achieved in a given company and cannot be separated. Why is that? While employee enablement is based on creating good conditions to work to guarantee comfortable work, employee engagement ensures that employees show a willingness to perform their duties as best they can. Both factors directly affect productivity, and the results achieved can only be high by combining them. 

If employees are full of energy and eager to work but are not provided with the right conditions to do it, their frustration, fatigue and, as a result, even professional burnout increase. The employer should remember that a properly solved equation is adding employee enablement to employee engagement and only then will it give great performance results. 

What is the role of employee enablement?

The role of employee enablement is simple – it supports productivity. Its high level is the aim not only of the employers but also of employees because when the former is satisfied with the great business results, the latter may be given a financial bonus and is motivated to carry out duties even better.   

Employee enablement is also very important as it impacts directly both employees experience (EX) and customer experience (CX). The satisfaction achieved by employees is the reason for their greater productivity, and this leads to a better customer experience, which in turn causes bigger profits and workforce retention. 

Win-win situation

Employee enablement may be perceived by employers as a challenge at first but it is very simple to achieve. All they need to do is provide employees with a suitable working environment and comfort. This will undoubtedly pay off in the future as the satisfaction of employees means a higher motivation to work and better productivity, and finally, it leads to big gains. Employee enablement is thus not only required but also very much profitable.