How to Encourage Autonomy in the Workplace: A Guide for Managers & HR Leaders

Freedom at work is a big deal.

A 2022 study of 10,000 knowledge workers found that 95% value setting their own work hours more than remote work. 

Personal autonomy can make people feel more powerful, motivated, and invested in their work. Who wouldn’t want to feel that their job is essential to the company’s goals and they have a say in how it gets done?

Workplace autonomy is a much-talked-about (and somewhat less understood) concept. In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of autonomy in the workplace and why teams with a highly autonomous culture are more productive. We’ll also share some strategies and tips for encouraging employee autonomy among teams in your organization. 💪

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What is Autonomy in the Workplace?

The concept of autonomy in the workplace refers to the degree of freedom employees enjoy. When job autonomy levels are high, individuals can plan their own schedules (and even work locations), make independent decisions regarding work, and be involved in goal setting. 

HR leaders and managers across organizations are recognizing the importance of employee flexibility and how it helps create a greater sense of personal autonomy in the workplace.

However, more autonomy at work does not mean giving people unfettered rein. Instead, it means giving employees autonomy to assume responsibility for the organization’s goals and ideals. 

In an autonomous team, individual team members manage their own time effectively. They don’t need a manager’s sign-off on every small decision. This trust promotes a sense of purpose and increased employee motivation—people feel like genuine contributors, not just cogs in the machine

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The Impact of Autonomy on Work

Gallup research showed that only 3 in 10 workers in the US believe that their opinions are valued at work. Their data also indicates that organizations that raise this ratio to 6 in 10 could see a 27% drop in turnover, a 40% reduction in safety incidents, and a 12% increase in productivity. 

Another study found that increased autonomy and clarity about tasks can improve team performance. Moreover, an employee’s productivity and effort at work grow proportionally to the independence they perceive themselves to have at work. 

Clearly, autonomy boosts morale, job satisfaction, and performance of the entire workforce. People who have a say in their work are more invested, which can improve creativity and accountability.

In a world requiring constant innovation and agility, teams with a high degree of job autonomy can be game-changers. Empowered employees will adapt faster to change, generate innovative ideas, and help drive growth.  📈

And that’s not all. High levels of autonomy among teams indicate an organizational culture of trust and respect. People increasingly seek workplaces that allow them to grow and develop professionally. Consequently, such teams will always attract the best of talent.

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Pros and Cons of Workplace Autonomy

Like almost anything in the world, workplace autonomy has advantages and disadvantages. A discussion of employee autonomy would only be complete by covering both aspects. 

The advantages of autonomy in the workplace

Though most people generally think autonomy is a good thing, they may only sometimes have all the reasons why. Here’s a quick list of what goes in favor of autonomy:

For employees

• Improved creativity and problem-solving skills: The freedom to approach challenges their way makes people find innovative solutions to problems. Since they feel free to make their own choices, they feel empowered and willing to experiment. 
• Higher levels of employee engagement and motivation: The feeling of being trusted gives employees a sense of ownership, boosting their motivation. As they have greater control over their own hours and outcomes, their engagement at work also increases
• Enhanced satisfaction and well-being: Knowing they are valued and trusted improves employees’ overall mental health. Moreover, having control over their way of working improves job satisfaction due to a sense of agency. Flexible schedules also allow employees to better balance work and personal life.   
• Increased productivity: When team members can work in ways that best match their strengths and preferences, they are naturally more productive. For example, a night owl graphic designer who can work at night will be more productive than if forced to work during the day when they are lower on energy. 
• Learning and growth: Working autonomously exposes employees to new kinds of challenges, which helps them learn and improve their job performance. They can develop leadership qualities and see greater professional growth

For organizations

• Improved business outcomes: Since a culture of autonomy encourages employees to take ownership, they can be more innovative and creative. With experimentation and some risk-taking, they can develop new products and ideas, which eventually benefit the organization through business growth. 
• Higher employee retention and easier hiring: As we’ve seen from the data, many people value autonomy at their place of work. To the extent that some will even refuse better-paying opportunities to work at a place where they feel trusted and free to make decisions. Thus, organizations that offer more autonomy will be in a position to hire talented people and also retain their existing employees better
• More efficient day-to-day operations: Employees with high autonomy levels can make decisions faster, which helps keep processes efficient and saves time. With lean team structures and decentralized decision-making, problems can be solved early
• Lower stress on managers: When employees at an organization have agency, managers will have more time to focus on strategic plans since they don’t have to micromanage their teams

The disadvantages of workplace autonomy

Despite all the benefits we just discussed, autonomy at work can also have some potential downsides. Here are some things to be aware of:

For employees

• Lack of direction: A few employees, especially those new to the job or the industry, might need more than the usual guidance to make decisions. They may need more support from their manager or coworkers to set goals and work toward them. If the organization leaves them to make decisions without this support, they may feel stuck and confused
• Stress and burnout: Not everybody enjoys having responsibility; some employees may find it stressful. Feeling they’re alone, they may take on more than they can manage. This would not only impact performance but eventually lead to burnout
• Feelings of isolation: Autonomous teams need fewer meetings and catch-ups since they are empowered to make decisions. Employees in such teams may, therefore, be working independently a lot of the time. If they are also remotely located, this can make them feel isolated from others at the workplace. This lack of connection can severely impact those who like to work as a part of a team

For organizations

• Potential misalignment: Sometimes, teams working autonomously could deviate from the overall direction of the organization. Managers can prevent this by building coordination into the work process. Teams should be encouraged to communicate actively, even to the point of over-communication. A powerful project management tool can address this side-effect of workplace autonomy by helping teams communicate, collaborate, and work toward the same goals. 
• Lack of cohesion: When individuals work independently, there might be a drop in collective knowledge sharing. This is more of a risk in teams that work remotely or in a hybrid work environment. If leaders don’t build safeguards to prevent this, the organization could lose teamwork and cohesion within and between teams. Leaders should guard against this by encouraging regular team-building and knowledge-sharing activities
• Inconsistent output: A team composed of various individuals with their own work styles will have varying levels of knowledge, skills, and capabilities. Due to these differences, the team’s standard of work output could vary widely. Leaders can prevent this by setting clear expectations and having well-defined performance evaluation methods.
• Risk of errors: Sometimes, employees working without oversight could make mistakes or poorly judged decisions that impact the organization. However, the solution to this is not to curtail independence but instead to train and upskill employees to make better decisions

A balanced approach to autonomy

Organizations seeking to promote autonomy in the workplace should balance its pros and cons so that the initiative has a greater chance of success. Providing training and support to office workers and managers and introducing task management software can help.

You could start with small steps and gradually increase autonomy once you’re sure employees understand what is expected and are comfortable managing this. In addition, you could equip employees with tools like SOPs (standard operating procedures) and decision matrices to minimize the chances of confusion or errors.

Conduct regular team meetings to check progress, uncover challenges, and provide feedback or guidance as part of the plan. These meetings can gradually reduce in frequency as teams stabilize. Remember to keep the sessions limited to coaching and feedback and not micromanaging.

Train teams on task prioritization and time management techniques to prevent overwork or burnout. Employees should also be encouraged to seek input from colleagues on critical projects. This builds collaboration and maintains quality control without top-down oversight.

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Fostering Autonomy in the Workplace: 10 Strategies to Use Today

Let’s look at ways organizations can harness the benefits of autonomy—such as increased employee motivation, creativity, and job satisfaction—while mitigating risks like misalignment, isolation, or inconsistency. The key is finding the right balance between freedom and structure for the organization and its employees.

1. Cultivating a culture of trust and empowerment

A Gartner study found that organizations where managers create a psychologically safe environment for their team see a 46% reduction in change fatigue among teams. Additional research has also found that trust between employees and management is among the two most critical factors in job satisfaction and high performance. 

Creating an environment where employees feel valued and trusted leads to higher autonomy levels. 

Employees who feel trusted and empowered will take on responsibilities, be more confident while making decisions, and be motivated to perform well without supervision. Moreover, they will be more open to suggesting and trying new ideas with their team, leading to better problem-solving. 

Empowered teams will also have more employees reporting higher job satisfaction and staying with the organization longer.

How to execute this strategy

Leadership can cultivate a culture of empowerment and trust in the following ways:

• Define what autonomy means for your organization and different roles and levels. 
• Lead by example. Managers must show trust in their team members and give them opportunities to display their capabilities
• Put in place transparent communication processes so employees see they have access to all the information they need for their work
• Involve the team in setting goals and KPIs and deciding on strategies
• Support them with the resources they need, and let them decide on the best way to utilize these
• Reward and recognize specific instances of ownership, accountability, and initiative
• Avoid micromanaging the team

2. Encouraging goal-driven mindsets

Build a culture where teams focus on goals and not on activities. This will help them find their own ways to reach their goals. This self-direction is a crucial aspect of autonomy. 

Also, teams are more committed to the goal when they are involved in goal-setting. They have a clear idea of what they need to accomplish, which helps them build their own strategy and tactics to reach the goal. They will make decisions and work autonomously to achieve these goals.

Having specific goals to focus on helps individuals take greater ownership of their work. They will find ways to reach the goals based on their strengths and work style. Because they feel accountable, they will try to learn new skills and grow professionally. 

Goals also give managers a clear metric by which to measure performance. This helps them objectively evaluate performance without continuously supervising teams. 

How to execute this strategy

Here’s how you can encourage goal-driven mindsets in teams:

• Involve your team in the goal-setting process. When employees are a part of the decision, there is greater buy-in and alignment, building intrinsic motivation
• Set clear goals and objectives using well-defined frameworks like OKRs or SMART Goals. 
• Focus team check-ins around the progress toward the goal instead of daily activity reports
• Offer support and resources toward goal achievement; however, let employees decide what kind of support they need
• Train team managers on coaching teams and not directing their day-to-day work
• If a team falls short of a particular goal, bring out the learning from the work that went toward it

The best way to set goals is to use OKRs or SMART goals to define objectives. 

OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) is a framework for setting team goals to ensure everybody works toward the same objective. These are typically qualitative and, therefore, harder to track. However, an OKR dashboard can be created to help teams track their performance against OKRs.

Download This Template

ClickUp’s OKR Framework Template is a convenient way to set and track goals for yourself and your team. It ensures that the team focuses on a few high-priority tasks and measures progress systematically. 

With this template, you’ll be able to:

• Create specific SMART goals that align with your team’s main objective
• Track progress against those goals in real-time
• Identify roadblocks before they become critical issues

Download This Template

You can also opt for the SMART Goals framework. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goals.

ClickUp’s SMART Goals Template helps you break large goals into smaller, more achievable steps. 

This template helps you set and achieve goals by:

• Defining objectives that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART)
• Visualizing your progress to keep everyone motivated
• Organizing tasks into manageable chunks 

3. Allowing for mistakes

When your employees know that a mistake is not the end of the world (and their prospects in the organization), they will naturally take greater ownership of their work. This sense of ownership is a key to growing autonomy in the workplace. 

A healthy tolerance for honest mistakes reduces the fear of failure, and teams can act independently without fear. They are more likely to try innovative approaches and take calculated risks. As they take more responsibility and make more decisions, their confidence increases. 

Moreover, managing mistakes and their consequences helps develop their problem-solving skills and resilience. This will, in turn, improve their ability to work autonomously.

How to execute this strategy

You can take specific steps to enable this:

• Create an environment where mistakes are seen as an opportunity for learning.
• Set expectations about the kind of mistakes that are acceptable (errors made in good faith while working toward a goal) and those that are not (repeated errors, negligence, or malicious intent) 
• Encourage open discussions about mistakes and what you can learn from them
• Instead of blaming someone for a genuine mistake, offer them guidance and support to correct course
• Train teams in root cause analysis so they can extract learning from each mistake

Download This Template

ClickUp’s 5 Whys Template is the ideal tool for beginners looking to understand the cause behind any event or circumstance. It is a customizable whiteboard template that helps teams get to the root of an issue by simply asking ‘why’ multiple times.

With this template, your team can capture their observations, brainstorm collaboratively, identify patterns, discover root causes, and find solutions for them.

Also read: Root cause analysis templates you can use with your team

4. Acknowledging good work & rewarding it

Recognizing and openly acknowledging an employee’s good work boosts their confidence and intrinsic motivation. Intrinsically motivated employees are more self-directed and take more initiative to work independently.  

Moreover, acknowledging specific behaviors and achievements also shows other team members what success looks like, helping them self-regulate and adjust their approach to work. 

In addition, rewards and recognition encourage employees to try innovative and creative ways of solving problems and achieving goals. They feel trusted, which makes them take greater responsibility. 

And let’s not forget the power of positive reinforcement—your teams are likely to repeat behaviors that receive praise and acknowledgment. 

How to execute this strategy

Here is how you can use rewards and recognition to encourage teams to be self-driven:

• Reinforce desirable behaviors by acknowledging them promptly
• Make your acknowledgment specific—say what went well and why it mattered
• Link recognition to the movement toward organizational goals. Highlight not just achievements but also significant efforts that might have been made
• Launch peer recognition programs encouraging employees to highlight each other’s contributions
• Instead of only monetary rewards, understand what motivates your team and offer those. This could be anything from promotions to professional development and more flexibility with schedules
• Further the feeling of autonomy by letting employees choose their rewards from a set of options

5. Enabling decision-making at all levels

To help your employees become comfortable making decisions, provide them with decision-making frameworks that can guide their choices. Also, define very clearly the areas where they can and can not make decisions. Your team managers may also need some training to relinquish control and become comfortable with others making decisions. 

However, the outcome will be worth the pain. Decentralizing decision-making will not only make your organization nimble and efficient but also help your employees grow within their roles. 

When given decision-making authority, employees feel trusted and empowered. They will take more initiative, be more responsible, and show higher engagement. 

Moreover, when decisions are made at the level where the problems are, problems are resolved faster, and reducing bottlenecks makes your operations more efficient. 

And that’s not all. Making decisions helps employees sharpen their critical thinking and leadership skills. Since diverse opinions and perspectives are involved in decisions, solutions to problems might be more creative and innovative. 

How to execute this strategy

You can take several steps to implement this form of decision-making: 

• Provide clear guidance about what decisions can be made at which level and a framework for escalating issues, should the need arise
• Start small, with perhaps a couple of small areas of decision-making. As teams grow more confident handling choices by themselves, increase this radius
• Ensure employees can access the tools and data they need to make good decisions. This will also enable greater transparency in the organization.
• Offer training in critical thinking, problem-solving, and negotiation skills to anybody who needs support
• Create a company culture of delegation where all employees are encouraged to take ownership, and learnings from good and bad decisions are openly shared
• Delegate essential tasks and show your team that you have confidence in their decisions

Also read: The Eisenhower Matrix for decision-making

6. Setting clear expectations

When your teams know exactly what is expected of them and the boundaries within which they can make decisions, they can take ownership and have confidence in themselves. Since they understand how their work contributes to the organization’s overall success, they can work independently instead of seeking guidance. 

Moreover, clear expectations help teams with a benchmark against which they can assess their performance. Doing this evaluation and devising ways to improve can further increase their sense of autonomy. 

How to execute this strategy

• Share the ‘why’ behind the goals and expectations. This will enable employees to work toward the same goals.
• Focus on what is to be accomplished and not on the method. Let teams find their own way to drive the business forward
• Be specific and use quantifiable metrics when setting goals. 
• Share both the long and short-term expectations with teams so that they can plan their own process accordingly
• Make it a two-way discussion—involving employees in the goal-setting process creates more clarity and greater alignment around objectives. Let them ask questions and express any doubts or fears they may have
• Document the goals for easier tracking and review them periodically to ensure they are still relevant
• Ensure that besides setting goals, you also provide teams with the necessary tools, resources, and training to achieve them

7. Encouraging innovation and collaboration

Encouraging innovation at the workplace empowers employees to think out of the box. When people can innovate, they naturally take more ownership of their ideas and show greater autonomy. Moreover, since innovation often involves taking risks, it builds the team’s autonomy muscle. And the search for creative solutions increases their ability to think independently.

The opportunity to be innovative and creative at work leads to increased motivation and employee engagement.  

Collaboration at work, especially in cross-functional teams, can help uncover innovative ideas. Moreover, collaboration improves work relationships and can raise employee engagement levels. Engaged employees are more likely to work autonomously.

How to execute this strategy

• Acknowledge and reward innovative thinking at the workplace
• Provide support for innovation in the form of training, dedicated time and space for innovation, and processes for discussing and executing innovative ideas
• Run challenges and hackathons to encourage out-of-the-box thinking
• Build cross-functional teams to work together on specific projects collaboratively
• Encourage regular knowledge-sharing sessions to build cohesion
• Organize team-building activities for people to know their coworkers better

8. Limiting micromanagement

Research has shown that micromanagement is one of the top three reasons for employees quitting a job. 

By actively discouraging micromanagement, you can improve your employees’ job satisfaction levels and cut out a major factor in workplace stress. Reducing micromanagement also indicates trust in your team’s capabilities, which will make them step up to take more ownership of their outcomes at work. 

Teams that aren’t constantly supervised are more self-assured and capable of autonomous thinking. They’ll have more creative ideas and solve problems independently. Moreover, without a manager constantly controlling them, people tend to develop essential skills like time management and stakeholder management.  

How to execute this strategy

Rooting out micromanagement involves action at two levels: employees and team managers:

• Once goals have been set, let teams work out their own ways of achieving them
• Set up regular review and feedback sessions to discuss progress and challenges. The focus should be on support rather than control
• Evaluate performance based on outcomes and not on activities or methods
• Train managers on coaching techniques and help them replace micromanaging behaviors with delegation and building trust
• Encourage employees to make decisions independently but also have a process for seeking help when necessary.
• Fix any existing issues that are leading to micromanagement (e.g., unclear goals, inefficient processes, etc.).

9. Providing necessary resources, training, and support

Your plan for encouraging autonomy in the workplace should also take into account training needs and support for career development. 

For instance, as we’ve seen earlier, increased autonomy could lead to reduced teamwork, lesser communication, and even overwork by certain individuals. Proactively avoid this by having support in place through tools and training. 

For example, specific kinds of software can help foster autonomy while keeping teams together and on track. You should invest in these and in proper skill development programs that show team members how to succeed in an autonomous workplace.

Depending on individual needs, you may consider training programs related to technical or soft skills.

How to execute this strategy

• Let employees know that they can and should seek help when necessary. Build processes that make this easier for them, such as feedback forms they can access at any time
• Communication tools that allow both real-time and async conversations can help distributed autonomous teams stay in touch. 
• Similarly, project management templates and tools can help in tracking day-to-day operations and outcomes so that everybody has visibility of who’s doing what and how teams are performing against goals
• Encourage every team member to set learning and personal development goals for themselves
• Identify the training needs of each individual and organize very specific training on skills and capabilities they need to develop. For example, some employees might benefit from learning time management techniques, while others might require training in strategic thinking
• Create self-serve training materials and make them accessible to everybody in the organization to use at their own time and pace

10. Establishing a feedback mechanism

Embracing and encouraging autonomy in the workplace isn’t a one-time event. Leaders should consistently track the initiative’s progress and whether any policies or approaches should be refined. Therefore, regular feedback on employee perceptions and experiences is essential. 

How to execute this strategy:

• Create a cross-functional project team around the autonomy initiative. Their job is to collect and analyze employee feedback to assess if any changes need to be made. Ensure that you build a diverse team for this crucial task to bring various perspectives aboard.
• Gather feedback from employees through short surveys conducted regularly. These pulse checks measure employee autonomy and also help identify where adjustments should be made 
• Since different people may prefer different ways of giving feedback, offer employees a variety of options for sharing input. You could set up suggestion boxes, hold open discussions, and launch an online feedback form. 
• Use employee exit interviews to collect insights about how employees experienced autonomy
• Host regular all-hands meetings or town halls where employees can ask their questions about the initiative and receive direct answers from the leadership
• Don’t stop at gathering feedback. Whenever you have some learning from constructive feedback and implement a change, communicate it to the larger organization. This helps show employees that their feedback is leading to improvements

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Empowering Autonomy in Different Work Environments

The strategies we’ve listed above are general approaches HR leaders and managers can take to encourage autonomy in the workplace. In addition, you can take some additional steps depending on the kind of workplace you are in—remote, hybrid, or in-person.  Let’s go over some of these to see how you can tailor your approach to work autonomy to the kind of work environment: 

Autonomy and remote work

Remote work has a direct relationship with autonomy. It requires an individual to be more independent, organize their own process, and manage their time well. Organizations that are succeeding with the remote work model trust their teams and hold them accountable for outcomes instead of time spent at work.  

Moreover, remote work tends to be more flexible in terms of work schedules, which is a critical aspect of autonomous work. However, it also requires individuals to be more self-motivated, as there is nobody to watch over them, and they own their own outcomes. As remote work continues to evolve in the future, the right tools and technologies will help remote employees reach higher levels of productivity and increase job satisfaction.

Here are a few steps organizations can take to enable remote workers to reinforce work autonomy:

• Set clear expectations about responsibilities and performance. Ensure that goals are clearly established and tracked and deadlines are respected
• Have dedicated channels of communication for teams to coordinate and collaborate. These could include instant messaging, video conferencing, collaborative task management tools, etc. Create and share rules about availability, response times, and any compulsory overlap hours required
• Support flexible work schedules so employees can work in ways and at the time of day they’re most productive. Of course, this would remain within reason—team meetings or required updates shouldn’t be impacted by anybody’s unavailability
• Practice trust-based management by using team results as the measure of performance and not getting involved in the details. This also means actively discouraging micromanagement by anybody
• Schedule regular check-ins with teams and your direct reports where the objective is to check on progress, discuss hold-ups, and collectively ideate solutions. This helps maintain connection and some oversight without compromising on team autonomy
• Enable remote workers with the support they need to do their jobs well. This could mean anything from technology and tools to training or resources for better work-life balance. Many progressive organizations today provide mental health support as well to help remote workers deal with work stress and the feeling of isolation 

• Provide access to learning platforms and budgets for personal development so that individuals can choose to improve their skills in areas they feel they should develop further
• Ensure your regular work processes and policies are inclusive. For instance, schedule your ‘All Hands’ meetings at a convenient time for teams across geographies and ensure remote teams are included. 
• Develop virtual communities to help remote employees engage and collaborate. These are virtual spaces for casual interaction that help employees bond despite their different locations. For instance, you could create Slack channels around hobbies, monthly virtual happy hours, online contests, and so on

Autonomy in a hybrid workplace 

An organization with hybrid work arrangements faces some unique challenges due to the differences between individuals working remotely and those working in the office.  

For instance, some teams find that their colleagues in the office have easier access to information and tools than those working remotely. Moreover, many remote employees fear falling behind their colleagues in terms of career growth because of their physical absence from the workplace. 

Organizations can take specific steps to ensure all employees receive the same opportunities for autonomous work:

• While setting the expectations for teams, inform them about the various kinds of support and resources available to them.  
• Ensure your work policies are inclusive and equally suited to remote or in-person work. Keep them flexible enough to accommodate diverse needs. For example, mandate that all meeting invites must also include a video conferencing link apart from a location in the office
• Evaluate performance on the basis of results achieved and not time spent in the office. Set goals and targets that can be realized without having to be physically present in the office
• Allow all teams to choose their own schedules and locations for work. For instance, if certain teams are expected to be in the office twice a week, let them decide which days they would like to work out of the office

• Help keep remote and in-office employees at par and on the same page with the help of tools. You can employ software for virtual collaboration and team communication that can help individuals work effectively together, regardless of location
• Encourage team members to participate in cross-functional projects that involve people from different locations. This reinforces autonomy in the workplace and normalizes distributed teams while also supporting collaboration and new learning

Autonomy for in-person work

Working out of an office can feel more restrictive than working remotely, but it doesn’t have to. Organizations can help their in-office teams feel empowered and independent, too, while working concertedly towards company goals. 

• Allow flexible schedules. Outside of some core business hours when everybody is expected in the office, let people choose their own start and finish times. You could even experiment with compressed schedules such as the four-day work week to give your in-office employees more time at home
• Instead of fixed spots, allow free seating or hot-desking so employees can choose their own preferred working environment within the office. Similarly, provide diverse work areas (conference rooms, solo pods, quiet zones, etc. that people can choose between depending on their work requirements
• Encourage innovation by providing dedicated spots and times for brainstorming and ideation. For example, many companies organize hackathons to get their teams to work out creative solutions to existing problems. 

• Let team members take up projects outside their core team goals in areas that interest them. These self-directed projects could eventually turn into new product opportunities for the organization. For example, Google used to give its employees the leeway to use 20% of their time at work on side projects to encourage innovation and creativity. This has led to some unique products, such as Gmail and Google Maps
• Encourage independent thinking and decision-making with the use of decision-making frameworks. Also, ensure that authority gets delegated down to the levels necessary for autonomy 
• Support easy communication and collaboration between teams to enable autonomous problem-solving without having to involve leadership at each stage

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Autonomy and Well-being

The theory of self-determination suggests that autonomy is one of human beings’ three basic psychological needs. (The other two, by the way, are competence and relatedness.)

Researchers at the University of Birmingham found that employees with higher levels of autonomy in their work reported positive effects on their overall well-being and higher levels of job satisfaction. Having greater control over their work schedule, job tasks, location, and work schedule improves people’s sense of well-being. 

A study by the University of Zurich also found that job autonomy can help reduce the negative effects of work-life conflicts among employees. Organizations with high levels of autonomy for employees have reported not just higher well-being among employees but also better business performance. 

It is evident that investing in efforts to improve employee autonomy in the workplace will lead to happier employees and more productive and profitable workplaces. That said, some employees may find higher levels of autonomy stressful if they lack the skills or training to manage work independently. Organizations could, therefore, consider providing appropriate levels of autonomy for employees at different skill and experience levels. 

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Build and Sustain Autonomy in Your Workplace With ClickUp

Autonomy in the workplace is a critical element of a healthy work culture, helping individuals have a sense of control and agency. It motivates teams to give their best, brings out their sense of ownership, and improves productivity. Not only is autonomy essential for individuals in an organization, but it is also important for the long-term success of the organization itself. As several studies and real-life cases demonstrate, increasing autonomy for employees helps an organization build a workforce that is responsible, reliable, and engaged. 

Investing in empowering employees with tools, resources, and training is one of the best ways to build a future-proof and profitable organization that can sustain its competitive advantage in the longer term. 

One such tool that can help organizations empower their teams is an all-in-one project management software and collaboration platform like ClickUp. Adopting ClickUp for projects helps organizations improve transparency and accountability, build goal-directed behaviors, and improve employee autonomy and engagement. 

Take ClickUp for a spin today to find out more.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. How do you demonstrate autonomy at work?

Organizations can demonstrate their commitment to enabling employee autonomy at work by encouraging employees to make decisions independently and providing support and training where required. It is shown in simple ways, such as allowing employees to choose their own work schedule and involving them in goal-setting. An outcome-oriented culture rather than an activity-oriented approach also shows the organization’s support of autonomy.

2. What is autonomy, and why is it important?

Autonomy is about the freedom to make one’s own decisions. At the workplace, autonomy involves giving employees the authority to make their own decisions and work in ways that suit them. It is important because employees who experience autonomy in the workplace are more motivated, take greater responsibility for their work, and have a heightened sense of job satisfaction. Having autonomy at work improves an employee’s overall sense of well-being and happiness.

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