In today's workplace, there's a disconnect that's costing organizations real potential. While 77% of employees report feeling empowered, many still hesitate to take initiative, speak up, or push for change within their teams.

This phenomenon reveals what we call the "Empowerment Gap": the space between feeling capable and actually acting on that capability. It's not enough for people to know they can contribute, they need the psychological safety, trust, and team dynamics that turn empowerment from a nice-to-have feeling into real action.

The organizations that close this gap understand something important: empowerment isn't just about telling people they can do more. It's about building an environment where taking initiative feels safe and natural. This requires a strategic approach that starts with hiring practices and extends through development, team integration, and ongoing support.

What the Data Tells Us About Psychological Safety

When Wiley Workplace Intelligence surveyed 2,000 professionals, the results were striking:

69% of workers say psychological safety directly impacts their willingness to take action.

Another 82% point to trust in relationships as a significant factor. These numbers show that empowerment really comes down to human connection and security, not just whether someone has the skills or gets permission from their boss.

This foundation starts earlier than most organizations realize. How you hire and onboard sets the tone for whether new employees will feel safe enough to share their best ideas. Companies that prioritize cultural fit alongside technical skills create environments where people actually speak up and take initiative. This means looking beyond technical qualifications to understand how candidates communicate, handle feedback, and collaborate with others. Organizations that invest in this holistic approach build stronger team cohesion from day one.

But psychological safety isn't just about hiring the right people. It lives in the daily interactions between teammates and managers. When leaders model vulnerability, actively listen to concerns, and respond to failures as learning opportunities, they create space for empowerment to happen naturally. Without that safety, even your most talented people will hold back, and you’ll never get to see what they’re truly capable of.

The "Ready but Unsupported" Problem

Even when people feel psychologically safe, there’s still a big gap in how many organizations handle employee development.

While 60% of employees can clearly identify their strengths, only 30% receive meaningful support to develop them further.

That's a lot of wasted potential that's already sitting on your team.

The answer to this problem isn't more generic training programs or one-size-fits-all development plans. People need growth paths tailored to their actual strengths and skill gaps. This is where upskilling becomes strategic rather than just reactive—you're amplifying what someone already does well while helping them build new capabilities where they need it most.

Personalized talent management assessments become really valuable here. When you understand how someone naturally works, communicates, and solves problems, you can create development plans that feel relevant and achievable. Employees who can see a clear connection between their natural strengths and their growth opportunities are far more likely to actively engage in their own development.

The Implementation Gap

Understanding individual strengths is just the starting point. The hard part is actually using that knowledge when you’re making talent decisions or trying to get a team to work better together. Despite 62% of managers wanting to use talent management assessments, 43% of organizations rarely implement them. This creates a troubling disconnect between available tools and their actual usage.

The consequences show up in team performance. When, according to our data, only 34% of team members understand how their colleagues naturally operate, it’s no wonder teams run into communication problems and friction. People end up working against each other's natural styles instead of with them because they don't have a common way to talk about how they work.

The organizations that get this right build talent management assessments directly into their hiring and development workflows. These tools help identify not just who can do the job, but who will thrive in the specific team environment. Post-hire, the same insights become valuable for coaching conversations, project assignments, and conflict resolution.

The trick is making talent assessment insights a living part of team culture, not a one-time exercise. When team members understand each other's natural tendencies, they can adapt their communication styles, delegate more effectively, and build stronger working relationships that support genuine empowerment.

Building Empowerment That Lasts

When organizations weave talent assessment insights into their everyday team dynamics, you can see the difference. In high-performing teams, 67% of employees say their colleagues actively share knowledge and support initiative-taking, while 61% feel genuinely supported in their growth. This isn’t just about having a nice workplace, it’s what happens when empowerment becomes part of how teams actually operate.

You can spot empowered teams easily: they communicate openly about challenges, celebrate each other's strengths, they’re willing to try new things without worrying about getting in trouble, and when something goes wrong, they treat it as a chance to learn. Building this kind of empowered culture doesn't happen on its own, it requires intentional action throughout the entire employment phase.

How to Build an Empowered Culture Throughout
the Employee Lifecycle:

	Hiring: Assess for role and team fit. Establish psychological safety from the get-go.
	Onboarding: Focus on team integration and behavioral awareness.
	Development: Use data-driven insights for strength-based growth paths.
	Retention: Build ongoing trust so people feel valued.

The empowerment gap can’t be fixed with motivational speeches or quick policy tweaks. It requires organizations to take a hard look at how they hire, develop, and support their people throughout their entire experience. The best organizations don’t leave empowerment to chance, they build systems that naturally support it, using talent assessments to understand their people better, creating real psychological safety, and forming teams where everyone's strengths actually work together.

The tools to bridge this gap already exist. When you integrate talent management assessments into how you hire and develop people, you create the kind of alignment that makes empowerment feel natural rather than forced. Your people are ready to step up. The real question is whether your organization is set up to support them.

Wiley assessment brands lay the foundation for effective feedback cultures. Specifically, PXT Select assessments, provide valuable data insights that empower managers with scientifically proven information to better understand themselves and their teams, enabling them to leverage the right strengths for each individual and role. By leveraging this data-driven approach, organizations can make more informed, efficient, and strategic decisions throughout their talent management journey.

Wiley Workplace Intelligence conducts in-depth research on key workplace issues by gathering insights from individual contributors, managers, and leaders. Wiley Workplace Intelligence then analyzes these findings to provide actionable solutions that are shared in our blog.