Page 137 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

108 Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work

Here are several reasons why you should be constantly grow-
ing and developing team members:

• Ongoing training communicates an expectation of
continuous improvement as opposed to complacency.
• You demonstrate your trust and respect for employees as
you show your confidence in their ability to take on added
responsibility.
• As you increase employees’ skills, you increase their value
and hence the human capital of your organization.
• As employees are given new and challenging assignments,
they become more engaged and invested.

Empowered employees are also less likely to become burned out
or bored. Finally, continuous training and development fills the
internal succession pipeline that, obviously, has a host of ben-
efits including reduced costs of recruitment, greater acceptance
by current team members, already established cultural fit, less
chance of turnover, smoother transitions, and significantly less
formal and informal training—you’ve already done most of it!
There’s one more benefit to promoting from within: increased
respect and engagement by employees who see this as a show
of commitment and respect by the organization toward current
employees.

Examples of Empowerment

Quite simply, the more you invest in your employees the more
valuable and engaged they become to your organization. The
following examples are quotes from employees on the subject of
empowerment. Consider what your employees might say if they
were asked how they had been empowered in your organization: