Many people think of accountability in terms of what it isn’t – trying to “catch” employees doing something wrong, ratting out coworkers, or laying down a strict set of rules administered with a punitive approach.
Rather than creating a proactive atmosphere of responsibility, this negative approach drives a reactive culture of “management by rules.” But there’s a better way.
Accountability in the workplace is all about setting and holding people to a common expectation by clearly defining the company’s mission, values, and goals. Employee accountability means holding all levels of employees (from the part-time hourly worker to the C-suite executive) responsible for accomplishing business goals.
While accountability at work is critically important, it also needs to be balanced with the need to give employees autonomy in their roles. They must feel empowered to do their jobs so they can take ownership of their work and strive for excellence. Fostering this culture of employee accountability helps yield a high-performing organization.
The importance of accountability can’t be understated, but achieving it can be difficult. Companies and teams often face a variety of challenges and hurdles when trying to develop a culture of workplace accountability. Sometimes, the lack of accountability starts with individuals who fail to meet expectations. Other times it manifests at the team or company level by simply “accepting the unacceptable.” Left unchecked, these bad organizational habits can weaken clarity about roles and responsibilities and further erode accountability. Another culprit? If a business operates with fuzzy priorities or vague expectations, accountability at work weakens or falls apart altogether. Consultant Karim Bashay points out in HR Magazine that, “Expectations that aren’t communicated can grind progress to a halt. Not only do these implicit expectations result in confusion over tasks, they also cause tension in relationships.” This, of course, can lead to distrust within the organization. Make no mistake – accountability is hard work and requires a tremendous amount of consistency and follow-through from both leadership and employees. The challenges and barriers are real and, for most, difficult to overcome. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth the effort.
If the challenges of accountability in business are real, so are the benefits. And while building a culture of accountability can be complex, it’s both necessary and achievable. When you hold all employees accountable for doing what they are supposed to do, it breeds trust among individuals and teams. It allows people to count on each other, whether that means meeting deadlines, fulfilling duties, or feeling comfortable enough to approach a co-worker or manager for help. While it can be hard for employees to ask for help, fostering this safe space to seek advice builds independence and trust, both of which strengthen teams. On the flip side, managers need to lead with transparency, communicate openly, and treat employees fairly with the guidance of policies and standards that apply to everyone. This, too, builds a trusting environment.Builds trust
Fostering a culture of accountability increases efficiency and boosts productivity. How? When employees know who is responsible for what, it eliminates confusion and saves time, allowing individuals to meet clearly defined expectations.
But having clear accountabilities alone is not enough, advises Bashay again in HR Magazine. “Having specific and actionable feedback and evaluation mechanisms is key in measuring people’s success in roles. You must also have a way to evaluate performance.”
Tying accountability to performance also means you proactively pay attention to both process and results by correcting sub-par efforts and rewarding excellent performance.
When employees turn in poor work or fail to meet expectations, hold them accountable, educate them on expectations, and help them improve. It’s just as important to recognize and reward employees who follow guidelines, act appropriately, and meet or exceed expectations.
As the Forbes article points out, “Clear expectations for everyone on the team coupled with an understanding of accountability for their performance are the key ingredients to improving confidence, morale, and production within the team.”
It helps to look at employee accountability as two sides of the same coin. It takes everyone to achieve organizational accountability and it also belongs to everyone in the organization. This accountability mentality boosts performance at the individual, team, and organizational levels.
Strengthens culture
According to an article in Forbes, a lack of accountability “can have a snowball effect throughout the team.” When you embed accountability into the fabric of your company, you make accountability everyone’s responsibility by “establishing meaningful goals and team buy-in, building trust through support and encouragement, empowering everyone on the team and celebrating successes together.”
Author Pete Lowe echoes this point in HRD Connect, writing, “When an organization’s culture is embedded in honesty and integrity it enables people to acknowledge mistakes without fear of blame and to work with the team to reflect, learn and move forward positively.”
It takes a consistent effort, starting from the top, to strengthen company culture. And it requires an honest assessment of what’s working and what’s not. But with accountability at the heart of your organization, you will fortify company culture and achieve greater success.
Better compliance
When it comes to compliance, why is accountability important? In today’s ever-changing landscape of laws, regulations, standards, and guidelines, compliance touches every industry.
As a vital part of operations, compliance depends on accountability in business, holding employees and teams responsible for their decisions, behavior, and actions. Being accountable means working with integrity. And by improving accountability, you reduce your risk of facing fines, lawsuits, oversight, or other consequences of non-compliance.
Getting Started
Rather than feeling overwhelmed at the thought of creating enterprise-wide accountability, just build on what you have already by taking one step at a time.
A good first step? Ensure employees follow your company’s guidelines and meet expectations by holding them accountable to your crucial policies and procedures.
By using a robust, automated policy management system, like PowerDMS, you can give employees easy access to your critical documents. Plus, PowerDMS can help how you simply and easily manage, track, monitor, review, and revise your policies and procedures. Think of it as a built-in accountability system at your fingertips.
Business leader smiling while handshaking with new employee.
GettyIf you’re reading this, I’m sure you experienced the consequences of not taking responsibility as a child. I’ve heard stories of parents throwing away a child’s favorite toy because it wasn’t picked up. Others were grounded or forced to miss a field trip because they didn’t ask their parents to sign the permission slip. Others who didn’t do their chores couldn’t earn an allowance or do something fun, like have a sleepover at a friend’s house.
Some of these experiences may have seemed traumatic at the time — I’m sure there were plenty of kids who crossed a line and regretted it later. Looking back as an adult, however, I can see it was all about teaching the importance of accountability.
Accountability is something I not only work toward personally, but also something I want to instill in my children and employees. Imagine how chaotic your home or workplace would be if people didn’t have to answer for their actions.
Despite this, organizations still struggle with accountability. According to author and transformational leader Anne Loehr, 93 percent of employees don’t even understand what their organization is trying to accomplish so they can align themselves with that goal. Additionally, 85 percent of leaders aren’t defining what their employees should be working on. And 84 percent describe themselves “as ‘trying but failing’ or ‘avoiding’ accountability, even when employees know what to fix.”
The Importance of Holding People Accountable
Those are troubling figures for any leader to see. After all, accountability is absolutely vital to your company’s success.
1. Accountability bolsters your company’s culture.
John Wright, director and vice president of marketing at MCGB Properties Ltd., said that “a lack of accountability can have a snowball effect throughout the team.” Author Pete Lowe adds, “When an organization’s culture is embedded in honesty and integrity it enables people to acknowledge mistakes without fear of blame and to work with the team to reflect, learn and move forward positively.”
It’s true: When everyone from the top to the bottom follows through on promises, doesn’t blame others for mistakes, and supports others in achieving goals, it creates a healthy and positive work culture. As a result, this breeds trust and enhances productivity.
How can you achieve this? Wright says you can embed accountability by making it everyone’s responsibility. Establish meaningful goals, and earn team buy-in before moving forward. Build trust through support and encouragement, modeling the behavior you want to see from your colleagues. This will empower individual team members while enabling the team to celebrate successes together.
2. It improves your employees’ individual performance.
One of the most important goals you need to set as a business owner is getting the most out of your team. How does this tie in with accountability?
For starters, accountability promotes engagement and ownership because everyone clearly knows what his or her responsibilities and expectations are. Not only does this teach your employees to value and take pride in their work, but it also explains how their work fits into the bigger picture. It shows that you trust them enough to let them work how they prefer. And because your team knows exactly what to do daily, it eliminates time typically wasted on deciding what to work on in what order.
Put together, this means you have a more engaged, motivated, and productive workforce that’s churning out higher-quality work. Best of all, you have a high-performing team that holds itself accountable without your intervention — when people are confronted with standards and adopt them for themselves, there’s little need for outside interference. They aim to make themselves proud.
3. Accountability results in stronger adherence to compliance.
Accountability is crucial when it comes to employees being compliant with both established and new company guidelines, laws, regulations, and standards. People who understand the consequences of failing to adhere to specific guidelines are more likely to follow them, and entire teams that feel the weight of those standards will work together to meet them.
When members of an organization are held responsible for their actions, it creates a healthier, happier, and safer working environment where everyone can focus on work instead of dealing with colleagues’ inappropriate actions or behavior. This also can reduce the number of potential lawsuits or fines your company could be faced with.
4. Accountability is good for your bottom line.
Finally, accountability can help improve your bottom line. When you and your team aren’t wasting time identifying the sources of problems and making decisions, you can devote more energy to the activities pushing your business forward. What’s more, accountability inspires everyone to exceed their goals and improve their performance — they know they can’t rest on their laurels.
And because they’re engaged, you’ll outdo your competitors — Gallup found that highly engaged workforces outperform competitors and result in 21 percent greater profitability. As business coach Jason Blumer puts it, bringing in a healthy level of accountability can keep “the ideas flowing and the execution happening.” From my experience, that’s the simplest and most effective way to grow your company.
Although accountability is vital, it can be overwhelming to consider. However, the first step is to define what accountability means to you and your company. What will go wrong if people aren’t held accountable? Where do people need leeway to be innovative and creative? From there, set clear goals, expectations, and guidelines for everyone to follow.
Most importantly, let your employees take the wheel. Let them figure out how to solve problems and work however they please. Of course, you need to set parameters for them, such as deadlines and expectations. But ownership won’t just encourage them to be more responsible; they’ll also be happier and more productive, which saves time and money and improves your cash flow. And when — not if — they make a mistake, they’ll learn from that experience and grow.
Good behaviors can be hard to enforce — but if you avoid accountability, everything else will become a lot harder, too. Invest in holding yourself and your teammates responsible for the actions you take. Your company — and your relationships — will benefit.