Seven Techniques for Developing Employee Accountability

Organizations and business leaders do themselves a powerful service when they empower employees, as explained in a previous HRTools.com Insight. Empowered employees are more likely to feel inspired, to feel respected and to take ownership of their job responsibilities as their fears or concerns are eliminated, enhancing trust, morale, employee commitment and loyalty. 

Don’t take me wrong, as human beings mistakes are going to happen, that’s simply human tendency. Nevertheless, here are some techniques that may help leaders avoid taking some employee empowerment missteps: 

1. Develop ways to build trust with your employees. Give them opportunities for heading up a project and taking responsibility for its progress and results. Expect them to make decisions, recommendations and come up with solutions.
2. Encourage employees to follow up with customers and clients. For example, ask employees to make sure that products or services are delivered as expected. Let employees know that you expect them to solve problems or resolve complaints. This is important so that everyone in the organization takes ownership for client or customer excellence. Remember that regardless of how problems happened in the first place, it’s in everyone’s best interest to resolve them for a successful outcome.
3. Send and reinforce the message that you intend to set employees up for success, not failure. Some employees may have had previously negative experiences, for instance, serving with a focus group in another work setting where expectations did not occur or were poorly handled.
4. Set realistic expectations and make sure that employee goals and objectives are realistic and attainable. Remember the SMART acronym when conducting performance appraisals: Smart, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timed.
5. Develop a strong chain of command. For example, an employee is accountable to the manager; and that manager is accountable to the general manager; and that general manager is accountable to the vice president; and so on. Employees naturally watch this chain of command activity to see if everyone working within that chain is actually held accountable for their actions. This is all part of the ‘buy-in’ process.
6. Hold steadfast to your ethics and values, as employees are also watching this area and gauging how deeds match words. It’s hard for employees to sustain their accountability if they don’t trust their employers.   
7. Remember, building trust is a two-way street. Set employee expectations and communicate to them in ways that clarify how you expect them to follow through. It’s also important that they work to earn your trust, as well. Remember that ‘leading by example’ sets a very intricate tone for how your followers are going react to your actions and decisions. 

Last, but certainly not least, let your employees know that you look forward to their recommendations for improvement, to their ideas and to their dedicated excellence for improvement. But please, don’t stop there. “Going above and beyond the call of duty,” for many workers is extremely important, especially when they are being recognized and rewarded for their efforts. Your business’ bottom line is more important when you empower your human talent to cohesively work towards excellence than when you do not. Think about it!

Your business’ bottom line is more important when you empower your human talent to cohesively work towards excellence than when you do not.