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Empower resources

Empower workers for more decision-making authority

Give workers most of the decision-making authority instead of relying on middle management

Reijers, H., & Liman Mansar, S. (2005). Best practices in business process redesign: an overview and qualitative evaluation of successful redesign heuristics. Omega, 33(4)

Description

In conventional processes, significant time is used to approve others' work. Granting employees autonomy can lead to streamlined operations and quicker workflows.

Example

To streamline the insurance claim process, resources are empowered to make decisions in place of middle management, reducing approval bottlenecks.

Implementation

To empower resources, gather information about their capability, productivity, collaboration, and utilisation. Based on this information, identify resources capable of making decisions and provide them with the necessary authority. Communicate the reasons behind the decision to empower resources and the expectations and constraints associated with the decision-making authority.

Performance considerations

However, this approach might yield lower decision quality and miss obvious errors. When mistakes demand rework, costs may surpass the initial setup.

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Foundational free Patterns

Combine activities

Combine small activities into composite activities

Distinguish case types

Determine whether activities are related to the same type of case and, if necessary, distinguish new business processes

Reduce touchpoints

Reduce the number of contacts with customers and third parties

Consolidate Work

Collect similar work items and work in batches

Green Compensation

Start implementing actions that can offset or counterbalance the environmental effects generated by business processes that cannot be changed.

Green Variant

Offer a green alternative with the same outcome, utilizing different steps, resources, or partners, while retaining the previous existing process

Use eco-friendly resources

Replace underlying resources with eco-friendly alternatives

Offer location flexibility

Let customers interact with the company wherever they want to

Department-based assignment

Distribute tasks by interdepartmental interactions to enable or restrict involvement

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Connected to

First-contact problem resolution

Establish a one-contact resolution for customer issues

Deploy extra resources

If capacity is insufficient, consider increasing the available number of resources

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