If you’re struggling to hold your employees accountable to performance standards, know that you are not alone: 82% of managers admit they are unable to keep their employees accountable.
Employee accountability may seem like an abstract concept, but it’s entirely attainable. By incorporating specific processes that ensure employee progress and business goals align, you can make accountability a foundation of your company culture.
What Is Accountability?
Accountability is defined as “an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s own actions.” While managers might assume accountability is little more than another box to check off, creating an accountable culture is a work mindset that benefits everyone involved.
Why Accountability Is Important
When people take ownership of their actions, coworkers, managers, and even customers, view them as more trustworthy. Accountability encourages autonomy and self-evaluation. By embracing decision-making, employees become more empowered and develop needed problem-solving skills.
In an accountable workplace, all staff members retain responsibility for their actions and performance. This boosts employee commitment, engagement, and morale, leading to higher performance and increased productivity. Ultimately, this practice results in improved business ROI.
In fact, research has found a direct link between employee accountability and business success.
How to Achieve Accountability in the Workplace
Creating accountability in the workplace starts at the top. Management teams should show employees their commitment to accountability by embracing transparency, integrity, respect, and initiative.
Here are some tips for creating a culture of accountability in your organization:
- Lead by example—As mentioned, this is an issue that starts at the top. The more management can embody integrity in all of their interactions with employees, the more inclined their team will be to follow their lead.
- Set goals—Setting goals as a team helps everyone buy into the culture of accountability. Giving team members clearly defined expectations and tasks establishes an objective to collectively work toward.
- Create feedback systems—If you haven’t already, implement a system for two-way internal communication. If your employees can provide feedback on management or the company itself, they’ll not only feel heard and valued, but they’ll also see that accountability is embraced at all levels within the company.
Benefits of Employee Accountability
Although encouraging employee accountability has numerous benefits, the three most important are:
- Increased trust—When everyone is held accountable, it allows people to depend on each other to meet deadlines, ask for help, and fulfill responsibilities.
- Improved performance—When employees clearly understand who is responsible for each task and when those tasks are due, they’ll be less likely to become confused or harbor resentments when failures occur.
- Strengthened company culture—When accountability is embedded into the fabric of your business, everyone feels responsible for the achievement of the company as a whole. When a culture is built on principles of integrity, people will feel comfortable admitting to mistakes because they trust management will work with them to solve the problem.
How a Business Consultant Can Help You Improve Employee Accountability
Revamping your company culture to focus on accountability can feel like a daunting task, especially if you’re busy running a business. Hiring an experienced business consultant can help. A consultant can audit your business practices, assess what’s working and what’s not, and use their expertise in employee development to help create a plan of action.
Pinpoint Management is a leading authority in the business consulting space. One of our foundational principles is accountability and integrity, which we embody in our interactions with clients. We know what it takes to build a culture of accountability because we’ve worked hard to create that within our own teams.
Contact Pinpoint Management today to learn more about how we can help you develop a culture of accountability and increase employee engagement.