Do you feel frustrated because your employees aren’t taking ownership of their work? Does it seem like you have to constantly send reminders and follow-up with your employees before a task is completed?
If so, you’re not alone. Employee accountability is a big issue for business owners. Ideally, every person who is hired to join a company will take full responsibility for his or her work and even go above and beyond when the occasion requires. The reality, though, is often different. It’s not uncommon for business owners to struggle with getting employees to fulfill their responsibilities.
It should also be stated that accountability goes both ways. There are steps the employer can take to better manage expectations and to measure how well the employee is fulfilling those expectations.
The solution we present in this article is effective because it goes both ways—it applies to both the employer and the employee. The three key words to remember are expect, support, and reward. They keep employers in the right frame of mind to set employees up for success and they keep employees in a positive cycle of effort and performance.
The concepts are simple yet powerful. Following is a brief explanation of each one.
Expect
Set clear expectations for your employees. It isn’t reasonable to assume that they will automatically pick up on what those expectations are—they need to be articulated, preferably in writing. It’s easy to forget that what seems obvious to you is more about what you’re accustomed to or are taking for granted. You can’t be too clear about what you expect from your team. Be specific about hours (arrival and departure times, or logging-in times if remote); clothing attire; advance notice about absences; performance metrics (number of sales calls, amount of product stocked, etc.), and anything else that plays a part in your expectations.
For some people, it can feel uncomfortable to be straightforward about expectations, which is a big reason why this step is often missed. As a leader, though, part of your responsibility is to make sure the expectations are clear so you have something to which you can hold your employees accountable.
Support
Now that your employees are clear on your expectations, have you supplied them with everything they need in order to be successful? If employees don’t have the tools, resources, or training to do a job that has been assigned to them, they aren’t going to take accountability seriously. If they do, they’ll be extremely frustrated and not likely to last long in the position. Make it clear how you’ve equipped them to do the work, whether that’s through providing the systems and processes, or by simply being available to answer questions.
This isn’t to say that as an employer you are solely responsible for the actions of your team and their satisfaction with their jobs. However, it’s an important step in two-way accountability. When you tell your employees the work they are expected to do, they need to have confidence that they will have access to everything they need in order to fulfill those responsibilities.
Reward
Yes, you’re paying your employees to do a job, and if you’ve made it clear what that job is and provided them with everything they need to do it, it may seem reasonable to conclude that the paycheck is the reward. However, if you want a business that is exceptional—a place where people love to work and is full of energy—you’ll gladly take the extra step of rewarding employees who perform well.
Think of a reward as the flip side of the same accountability coin. When employees underperform, we hold them responsible. Rewards are simply holding them accountable for positive outcomes.
It doesn’t have to be an expensive gift, either; a reward can be as simple as an announcement to the team, an email to the employee, or an acknowledgment of their performance during a one-on-one review. Whatever it looks like, let your team know that they are appreciated. You’ll find that the effort you invest in this area will more than pay off in the added accountability you’ll get in return.
At the ReWild Group, our mission is to multiply the number of exceptional businesses globally. We share resources, ideas, and advice in advance of that mission. Learn more about management topics by reading our book Strong Management Team, available through Amazon.