Explain how you would empower an employee.

To empower an employee, the employee should
give them as much freedom, autonomy, and chance to take initiative as possible within the
constraints of the tasks that have to be accomplished. This should begin before the parties sign
the contract of employment. The employer and employee should agree on precisely what the
employee's role is and ensure that the employee wants to do this job and believes that it is
worth doing.

Once they have decided what the employee is
to do (with input from the employee), the employee should be able to have as much autonomy and
flexibility as possible in deciding how this is to be accomplished. Both
parties should ensure that all rules have a purpose and are conducive to the employee's comfort
and productivity. For instance, is it necessary that the employee should be on site between
certain hours? If not, the employee should be allowed to set their own working hours or hours on
site, subject to the achievement of certain targets.

The employee should be
encouraged to implement their own ideas and rewarded if these are successful. Since the employee
has agreed before signing the contract that the business in question is worthwhile, a suitable
use of their time and attention, the employer and employee should act as partners in achieving
this end, sharing ideas about how to achieve maximum results rather than giving and receiving
orders.