Gaming Professionals: Not Enough Authority to get the Job Done?

May 11, 2010 - PRLog -- Employees in the gaming industry are less satisfied with the amount of authority they have at work than employees in any other industry polled.  According to HR Solutions’ National Normative Database, only 76 percent of gaming employees agreed with the statement, “I have enough authority to accomplish the work that is expected of me.”  Other industries polled include healthcare, restaurant, retail, manufacturing, financial services and education.  All of these industries scored more favorably on this question than the gaming industry, some by more than 10 percentage points.

The “right” amount of authority to give employees is often a grey area.  It is beneficial to give employees enough authority to make simple improvements that would better the company, but impractical to allow employees more authority than they need to perform their job functions.  The goal is to find a happy medium where employees have just enough authority to work at their highest level of productivity, thus avoiding delays of working through the hierarchical red tape often associated with decision-making at large organizations.
“Managers should trust employees who have earned the right to make sound business decisions,” said Chris Dustin, Executive Vice President at HR Solutions.  “This practice empowers employees and allows the operations to run more smoothly and efficiently.  Micro-managing can be frustrating for employees and time-consuming for managers.  Importantly, managers should hire the right talent, which truly increases trust and positively impacts overall business outcomes.”

Gaming industry professionals could benefit from allowing more decision-making power to staff members who have proven themselves reliable and trustworthy.  When employees feel they have enough authority to make positive change, they are much more likely to take the initiative to do so.  Not only would this empowerment raise productivity throughout the company, it would increase Engagement levels for top performers as well.



HR Solutions’ Normative Database is comprised of over 109,000 respondents from 78 organizations of the gaming industry, all surveyed by HR Solutions, Inc.

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HR Solutions, Inc. is an international Human Capital Management Consulting firm located in Chicago, IL, specializing in Employee Engagement and Exit Survey design, implementation, and results. Contact www.hrsolutionsinc.com or call 312-863-6131 for info.