Study links corporate performance to employee enablement Tools, resources and autonomy all important factors in lifting worker effectiveness

뉴스 제공

2008-01-15 08:26

Hong Kong--(뉴스와이어)--Companies seeking to improve their performance should focus more attention on their employees, giving them the tools, resources and autonomy they need to do their jobs well, suggests a new study by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Microsoft.

Whether a firm’s employees can do their jobs effectively is determined by a wide variety of factors, including organisational structure, budget, availability of appropriate tools, and whether employees are given a reasonable degree of freedom to take certain kinds of risks. In July 2007 the Economist Intelligence Unit conducted an online survey of 1,351 senior executives worldwide to determine how these factors affected employees’ level of enablement·their ability to do their jobs well·and whether any relationship could be identified between enablement and corporate performance. The findings of this research are contained in Ready, Willing and Enabled: a formula for performance, a paper reported by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Microsoft.

The research defines enablement as giving employees what they need to do their jobs well: organisational structures, appropriate technologies and other resources that let employees make decisions that contribute to the firm’s profitable growth. Enablement provides the organisational and information conditions that allow staff to make opti¬mal decisions. These include the following autonomy sufficient to make the best decisions for the company; tools to do the best possible job; access to financial resources that may be needed to buy these tools and allow for enough people to handle the workload; a collaborative working environment that motivates people and reduces the cost of working together; performance incentives, both financial and non-financial; and clarity of policies and procedures.

“The study clearly shows a positive correlation between employees’ degree of enablement and its self-reported financial performance,” says Nigel Holloway, Director of Research at the Economist Intelligence Unit in North America. “That positive correlation exists across dozens of variables including profitability, revenue growth, tangible assets and strategic success.”

A statistical analysis shows this positive association. Firms that responded to the survey fell into one of four distinct groups, each exhibiting distinctive behaviour with respect to enablement. The group with the highest level of enablement also contained the highest proportion of companies that were more profitable than their competitors.

Overall, the research found that many employees already feel adequately enabled. Sixty-three percent of survey respondents indicated they have a high degree of autonomy, while more than one-quarter (25.2%) say they collaborate frequently with others.

Yet the findings also suggest that employees could be much more enabled than they are. On the technology front, only about one-half of companies surveyed (53%) indicated they have the IT tools they need, while roughly the same proportion said they have access to the information they need. One-third said they have the teamwork structures necessary for enablement, while only 17% feel that their organisations have enough employees with the necessary skills and training to work independently. Just 10% feel there is enough money in the budget to enable individuals and teams to accomplish their tasks.
The research also suggests that if firms want employees to be more effective, they should allow them to take prudent risks within parameters that limit potential losses. Encouragingly, nearly two-thirds of survey respondents (64%) say that their organisa¬tions tolerate reasonable risk-taking. Yet a full 20% say their firms discourage it and only 13% say their com¬panies actively support it.

Ready, Willing and Enabled: a formula for performance
is available free of charge at www.eiu.com/sponsor/microsoft/enabled/

About the Economist Intelligence Unit

The Economist Intelligence Unit is the business information arm of The Economist Group, publisher of The Economist. Through our global network of more than 700 analysts and contributors, we continuously assess and forecast political, economic and business conditions in 200 countries. As the world's leading provider of country intelligence, we help executives make better business decisions by providing timely, reliable and impartial analysis on worldwide market trends and business strategies.

웹사이트: http://www.eiu.com