Healthy work environments provide employees with opportunities to make choices, inform decision-making, and solve problems. Staff who feel that they have an influence in the decisions affecting their work and have control over how they do their work are less likely to experience burnout. There are several pathways organizations can follow to promote empowerment and autonomy among staff, including providing flexibility over when and where work happens, putting trust in staff to complete their work, building capacity to support employee empowerment, and ensuring that staff feel valued for the contributions they make. Explore the resources in this section of the Hub to identify actionable steps your organization can take to promote a work environment that focuses on empowerment and autonomy among staff.

Learn More

READ:

Understanding and Promoting Employee Empowerment

The Work and Wellbeing Initiative sponsored by Harvard University and MIT describes the importance of employee empowerment and provides a summary of promising practices to promote employee autonomy and control.

The Employee Empowerment and Autonomy Best Practice Brief produced by the Retain BH Providers Action Team highlights national and local best practices for increasing employee empowerment.

Read 5 Strategies to Empower Employees to Make Decisions

Read 8 Powerful Examples of Employee Empowerment at Work

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WATCH or LISTEN:

Why Employee Empowerment and Autonomy Matters

Watch this interview to learn more about why employee empowerment matters: Rethinking Employee Empowerment and Loyalty

Take Action

Provide Opportunities for Employee Empowerment

Involve employees in decision-making processes.

Identify roles and responsibilities where employees can have more influence and autonomy.

Reflective Question

What does autonomy in the workplace look like to you and your co-workers/employees?