Harnessing the autonomous workforce
Are you experiencing sluggish operations, and struggling to hold onto your top talent? If so, you may not being giving you staff enough autonomy. Today’s employees want more freedom and independence than previously, and employers that give it to them are likely to reap the benefits. One of the best ways to do this is through innovations such as cloud productivity software, which MIT’s Director for the Center of Intelligence Thomas Malone says encourages people to be more independent.
“As information technology reduces the cost of communication, it becomes much easier for lots more people to know lots more things and in many cases they’re able to be well enough informed to make more decisions for themselves instead of just following orders from somebody above them in a hierarchy,” he said in an interview with IBM.
How can you leverage autonomy to improve business performance?
More than half of workers feel that having multiple employers is beneficial.
The talent migration
Employee turnover is one of the most significant challenges that employers face today. According to the Global Workforce Index from Kelly Services, 53 per cent of workers feel that having multiple employers is more beneficial to their career than a single one. Almost half of them are constantly on the lookout for a new position, with 69 per cent believing they will be able to find an equal or better opportunity.
This prevailing attitude of job mobility is one of the factors influencing the present business environment. It demonstrates that while technologically-enabled empowerment can have many advantages for businesses, it also have the effect of changing workers’ expectations about career progression, making it harder for employers to hold onto their talent.
However, by learning to embrace autonomy and enabling it through management approaches and IT resources, a business can turn this empowerment into an advantage and encourage workers to stay.
Benefits of workforce autonomy
Fostering more autonomy in the workforce actually has the potential improve job satisfaction. It allows employees to have an influence over the way work is performed, encouraging innovation and letting staff find their own ways to contribute to the company’s bottom line. It can also improve productivity, as workers that are allowed greater freedom may be more motivated and committed to the organisation.
The Houston Chronicle describes a business model called results-only work environments, which allows employees to decide how they performs tasks as long as good outcomes are achieved. Using a cloud-based software platform allows staff to work whenever and wherever they want, giving them greater control over their work-life balance and making them more engaged and involved as a result.
Autonomy can provide employees with a greater sense of responsibility, helping them to feel more invested in the company and increasing the likelihood of staying with them for longer as a result. It can also help teams to work together more effectively, and improve collaboration across the company as a whole.
Cloud efficiency software empowers employees through easy access to information.
How to create an autonomous environment
One of the most important steps for leveraging workforce autonomy is providing the right resources to do it. An all-inclusive recruitment software solution is an effective way to boost the independence of workers, as data is stored in the cloud and made available in any time or place with an internet connection. The information is able to flow easily from the front to the back office, and is readily available across individuals and departments.
Well-informed employees will be free to do manage their work in their own way, and this has the potential to increase operational productivity overall. Arguably, digitally-enabled, autonomous staff will be the workforce of the future, allowing businesses to retain more of their employees and achieve greater efficiency than ever.