Employee Involvement: Ultimate Must-Do for Company Success

A successful company starts with its people. Employees are a great source of knowledge, skills and ideas, but they often remain neglected. Companies that involve employees not only find application for their unique skills but also save the company’s time, money and increase productivity, job satisfaction, and organisational commitment.

Employee involvement is a tell-tale sign that the employees are trusted and their contribution is valued. Encourage the participation of various employees as the diversity of individuals helps to come up with creative solutions. But remember that employees involved in decision-making should have the necessary skills, experience and be familiar with the company priorities- otherwise, they won’t be able to analyse alternatives and choose the best option.

Getting the right employees involved

Make sure you’ve involved the right people. Focus on employees who:

• Are curious and look for new information/possibilities
• Can combine various options to develop the best solution
• Consider the available budget, time and other resources to approach the problem in the right way
• Are doers rather than dreamers
• Are not afraid to ask questions to ensure that all possible options have been taken into consideration.

Benefits of employee involvement

There are many benefits of involving employees in decision making but the most important are:

1. Feeling valued: Employees feel that the higher management value them as experienced contributors to the company’s success. Thus, they increase their work efforts and commitment.

2. Making better everyday decisions: When participating in decision making, employees get access to all important data and are able to make more informed decisions on a day-to-day basis.

3. Feeling responsible: When employees participate in decision  making, they feel personal responsibility for it. And if something goes wrong, they will do whatever it takes to correct the mistake.

4. Focusing on the solution: When a serious problem occurs, employees tend to blame the management. But if they are involved in problem-solving, they don’t focus on “who’s bad decision was this?”- instead, they focus on cooperating and finding a solution to the current situation.

5. Increasing motivation: When employees know that their decision can make a difference, they feel more motivated and satisfied with their job.

6. Freeing up the management: When employees are able to make decisions and be responsible for them, the higher management has more free time that can be used to work on burning issues in other areas.