Today, companies are often faced with rapid radical changes and therefore need agile structures, innovative strength and entrepreneurial commitment of the workforce in order to continue to be successful. The long-term promotion of entrepreneurial activity requires more than just a superficial change in the working environment. What is needed is the empowerment of employees through HR in order to promote self-determination, a sense of responsibility and transparency.
In concrete terms, the transition to an entrepreneurial workforce requires:
1) Enabling self-determination:
- Creating space for independent work
- Delegate decision-making authority to subject matter experts
- Reduce control systems
- Establish executives as sparring partners and enablers
2) Promote a sense of responsibility:
- Establishing an error culture, learning from mistakes
- Promoting thinking outside the box
- Strengthening responsibility for the team and the working environment
- Assess performance across the portfolio
3) Create transparency:
- Provide clarity about current developments and goals
- Putting key objectives at the centre of action
- Make each individual's tasks and contributions transparent
- Disclose KPIs, processes, and resources
Organizing the start correctly
For most companies, cultural change to empower employees and promote sustainability is a challenging task. In order to manage expectations and maintain credibility, it is advisable to develop a step-by-step implementation plan, depending on the starting point and the company's experience. It is advisable to start the process of transformation towards an entrepreneurial team with the more advanced divisions and employee groups. When selecting the relevant departments, it is helpful to consider the entrepreneurial potential of the organization as well as the employees. An empowerment checklist can serve as a basis to support the organizational reflection process.
Checklist Entrepreneurship and Empowerment:
- Organisational culture:
- Promoting creativity and innovation
- Transparency regarding developments and goals
- Permeable communication culture
- Dealing with change
- Freedom of choice and autonomy
- Flexible Resource Allocation
- Team culture and a sense of togetherness
- Error culture
Entrepreneurial potential of organizational actors
Are leaders able to inspire and motivate their team?
- Do they show a willingness to delegate competencies and responsibilities to their employees without exercising constant control?
- Do they see their role more as coaches and supporters, or do they value distance and hierarchical structures?
- Does the management enjoy credibility because of its successes?
- Do employees and managers have extensive knowledge and skills in various areas such as production or sales?
- Or is the focus mainly on specialized expertise?
It's worth the journey
Today's business landscape requires agile structures to adapt to change. A resilient and innovation-promoting corporate culture is therefore crucial. Strengthening employees' willingness to act is proving to be particularly effective. First of all, it is important to sensitize and qualify them for self-determination and responsibility. What is needed is clarity about the company's past and goals, about performance expectations as well as mistakes that have already been made. This process is challenging and lengthy, but rewarding.
