EMPOWERED EMPLOYEE

GOVIND JOHRI

The transition from a protectionist regime in Public Sector to opening up of Insurance Sector to Private players is a paradigm shift that requires strategic planning and its meticulous execution in a time bound manner. In the emerging scenario the importance of 3 C's Cost Effectiveness, Computerisation and Customer Centricity on the part of insurance companies can not be over emphasised.

Researchers have identified four characteristics of empowered people, defined in terms of fundamental beliefs and personal orientation.

1 SENSE OF DETERMINATION: Employees’ freedom to choose their own methods of work or accomplishing the assigned tasks.

2. SENSE OF MEANING: Feeling by the employees in general that their work is important and they do care about what they are doing.

3. SENSE OF COMPETENCE: Confidence in the employees about their ability to perform their work well.

4. SENSE OF IMPACT: Employees beliefs that they have influence over the work unit or team and others listen to their ideas.

Employees in any organization reflect above personal beliefs in their work and conduct. Any attempt by an organization to influence the behavioural pattern of employees must address these aspects. Employees' expectations of freedom at work place and giving due importance to employee's suggestions, will undoubtedly, go a long way in making them truly empowered.

Empowerment is a mind set, a proactive approach towards making the roles rather than taking it. The employees feel that they can play an important role in their organizations. Any design of empowerment programme must therefore, reinforce these beliefs in order to succeed in an organization’s attempt to have an empowered workforce.

The process of empowerment is certainly worth the efforts, if a company wants and needs its employees to be more effective, innovative and transformational. The basic steps for empowerment constitute sharing of information, developing teams, imparting training and knowledge and a transparent rewards system.

Sharing of Information It is to facilitate employees to know, how are they and their company performing and to what extent and in what manner their actions are making a difference in the over all performance of their company. This impinges on their sense of meaning and gives a sense of pride and belongingness to the organisation.

Developing Autonomous Work Groups or Teams The front line personnel at the point of interface with the customers must possess adequate authority and initiative to take decisions. They must have a definite say in the decision making process. Our Field personnel (distribution channels) are primarily front line personnel that has to assure the customers about positive consideration of their claims in the event of claims arising and not merely collection of premium. Therefore, distribution channels must have a definite role in claims settling process, if any worthwhile customer service is expected through them. This will prompt distribution channels for adherence to good underwriting practices, since this will make them accountable for the promises made while soliciting business. The current mind set of our distribution channels that their job is merely to procure premium, needs to be changed by empowering them to have a say in fulfillment of the terms of policy contract and ultimately the pricing quotes for the customers and commissions for the distributional channels will be affected if fraudulent or exaggerated claims are paid.

Training and knowledge It is essential to learn how to work collaboratively. The employee must possess tools and techniques of problem solving. This will enforce their sense of competence i.e. their confidence in their ability to work.

Importance of rewards The rewards relate to adequate compensation to employees for increased responsibility and accountability. World-over profit sharing, granting stock options, making their employees millionaires are used to enthuse sense of partnership in the employees.

The Public Sector approach is bureaucratic, encompassing multiple layers of hierarchy. The prevailing rewards system in the industry favours status quo and is found discriminatory. Incentive schemes for Development Officers do not provide adequate motivation to perform. The inadequacy is in terms of a lower ceiling fixed on pecuniary reward and that the back up team is not considered to play any worthwhile role in the efforts of Development Officers in procuring business. Here it must be appreciated that the renewal will come only if the performance of backup teams is found satisfactory. The meaninglessness felt by the employees that their work is not important has made them careless and unconcerned.

The current performance appraisal system has given way to prevalence of peers level conflicts due to pitting of one against another. This has resulted in employees perceiving a hostile environment. Consequently each employee wants to protect himself first, rather than do what is right for the organization.

No matter how much the top management is convinced of the need for employee empowerment as the much-desired intervention, the only message reaching to them has been to "CONFORM, DON'T ROCK THE BOAT". This has caused the well-structured insurers into slow moving Ocean Liners who customarily don't change their course quite often.

Any worthwhile empowerment programme must be directed towards employees so that they may see their role as partners in the business, who have influence over their work units and that all others are receptive to their feedback consciously. Further, empowerment demands willingness of the Senior Executives at the operational units and top executives to exercise faith in their employees and embrace risk taking and committing mistakes.

Empowerment is not merely delegating authority. It is delegating decision making authority within the given framework and performance parameters so that the ultimate customer is benefited. Empowerment generally starts from the top. It is nearly impossible for un-empowered personnel to empower others. The change in the attitude of top management will aptly demonstrate the commitment of organization. It is therefore, quite important that the top management exhibits this change instead of merely depending on structured training programme for creating the empowered workforce in the organization. It is because howsoever well designed and delivered a training programme may be, it will fail to create desired impact in the absence of top-level commitment. It is also essential for the top management to continuously monitor the following areas that are:

1. Whether they are themselves working towards providing the strategic direction to the employees;

2. Whether they are themselves striving for participation and involvement of employees in the vital management processes;

3. Whether they are themselves clarifying the goals, tasks and lines of authority continuously; and

4. Whether they are themselves working towards resolving the inter-personal conflicts of employees.

When the top executives of the organization become conscious of the above aspects, they will succeed in installing the process of empowerment in the organization.

Every leader must ask the following questions:

1 To what extent do I have a sense of impact, influence and power and what can I do to increase.
2 To what extent do I have a sense of meaning and task alignment and what can I do to increase it.
3 To what extent do I have competence and confidence to execute my work and what can I do to increase them.
4 To what extent do I have self-determination and choice?

Senior executives in the industry are usually observed, displaying the sense of insecurity and feeling of being powerlessness. The employees around them continually struggle. Empowerment is a set of managerial practices for making a cascading effect to lower levels of the organization. These executives must take personal risk, have trust and take initiatives to empower employees. The employee empowerment will need execution of following steps:

Clarifying the mission, vision and values of the organisation to employees.

Clearly specifying tasks, roles and rewards to employees;

Delegating responsibilities with appropriate boundaries to give freedom/autonomy to work and use discretion;

Prescribe qualitative and quantitative parameters of performance, and

Finally, holding them accountable for the results.

When top executives take the aforesaid steps, the empowerment percolates up to middle level executives only, who are key persons to convey the message to employees at the lowest level. In this sequence of performance there are bound to be some employees committing mistakes whilst acting as entrepreneurs or risk takers. They may also be found indulging in creating conflicts, constantly challenging each other for proving their ability to perform their work well.

Thus, empowerment is much beyond delegating power and ability of decision- making within the set boundaries. It is also trusting the employees and condoning their imperfections and bonafide mistakes. To achieve this holistic view of empowerment, the following bottom up approach is needed to be simultaneously implemented:

1 Understanding the needs of employees;

2 Understanding model empowered behaviour of employees by operational level executives;

3 Building teams to encourage co-operative behaviour by creating high performance teams;

4 Encouraging intelligent risk taking;

5 Trusting them to embrace complete empowerment as an integrated approach by top executives questioning themselves continuously and communicating downwards through assimilation at various levels to create trust in the minds of all.

The lower rungs of executives allow the much needed "space" for employees who trust them more than any circular or structured training and encourage them as a member of their team, who wants to perform.
Leaders of industry must prepare themselves to confront these different implicit assumptions and related perspectives to see the emergence of the empowered employee to achieve a much needed cutting edge.

Finally the empowered employee must also be prepared to understand the top management’s sense of strategic vision. The employee must feel that he is part of the Corporate Culture that explains the value of human potential in an organization. The mission statement must give due emphasis to this value of openness and teamwork. It must be simple and clear to be understood by the lowest of the staff. It may read as here under:

"We want our people to feel respected, treated fairly, listened to and involved. We want to be a company that our people are proud of and committed to, where all the employees have an opportunity to contribute, learn grow and advance in his career".

This type of mission statement would prompt openness and teamwork through active participation in the organization's decisions making process by each employee. This will give a feeling in the employees that their ideas are valued and taken seriously by the organisation and that they can work together to solve the problems.

The empowered employees must exercise discipline and control. The employee must be made fully aware of limits to autonomy. The employee must be clarified situations allowing use of discretion. The most important of all is that the employee must believe that their superiors, peers and subordinates will support them as they learn and grow.

A room service operator committed his chain of Hotels to Lufthansa Air lines to detain its flight until their customer boarded the aircraft. The customer cancelled his room service order and asked to leave hotel.. The room service operator decided to find out the reason for cancellation of order when she learnt that the customer's mother was on deathbed. The operator checked for flight, booked the ticket, and helped the customer in his packing and committed her chain of hotels to detain the aircraft knowing that it may cost heavily to the employer in liability suits. It would have costed millions of dollars but the hotel chose to reward the operator for her human approach and asked her if she wanted to work in any other position in the Hotel. She revealed her desire to work as Banquet -In-Charge. She was rewarded with her desire and hotel took the trouble to find another job for Banquet In-charge too."

No insurance policy will save the industry of the company if it fails; nevertheless people will be willing to accept that responsibility if they truly experience a sense of empowerment in an environment that values and supports risk, taking trust, and initiative.