Accountability in the workplace plays a big role in your organization’s growth. When everyone knows what is expected of them and performs the job impeccably, you have more opportunities to attract and retain customers. With a strong team of capable and responsible employees, you can position your business for long-term success.
These strategies are some of the most important for improving employee accountability, so be sure to implement them.
Set Expectations from the Get-Go
To create a culture of accountability, you should communicate expectations to each employee before they start working for you. During the hiring process, interviews are ideal for letting your candidates know what is expected of them if they join your team.
You should continue reminding new hires of all expectations during the onboarding process. As they’re learning all the ins and outs of your workplace, help them understand what they’re responsible for and how to perform their tasks efficiently and effectively.
Introduce Penalties and Rewards
Penalties may sound too harsh, but they can improve accountability. Your employees should know there are consequences for not performing certain tasks well, ignoring them altogether, or for being late.
Some employers dock wages a bit for tardiness, which may not always be the best course of action. It may foster dissatisfaction and unrest, which could negatively affect productivity.
Instead of financial penalties, you can give more responsibilities to an employee who’s always late. Just like in school days, it will have a positive impact.
Incentives for outstanding performance are infinitely more important because they’ll motivate your teammates to maximize their potential.
Define Clear Objectives and Core Business Values
Every organization has a list of core values and objectives that define its culture and guides it towards achieving its goals. Follow in their footsteps and define your core business values and objectives.
Even if they are a bit vague, they’ll help your team understand what your company’s top priorities are. For instance, one of your core values may be team spirit. It should inspire your employees to work well together and build strong relationships with one another.
One of your business objectives may be providing excellent customer service through values like honest and open communication, humbleness, and family spirit.
Whatever you value and want to accomplish, define it clearly, as it will create a positive culture, and help your team be more accountable.
Establish Effective Communication
Effective communication is key to success, whether in business or personal life. You must have honest and open communication with your employees at all times to help them understand what is expected of them.
Be available for any questions they may have and be highly responsive. Utilize a real-time communication app where you’ll keep everyone in the loop and ensure they remain accountable.
You can use many apps to schedule employees, manage projects, send updates and reminders, assign tasks, send notes on deadlines, and more. Take advantage of them, and you’ll build a strong culture of accountability.
Provide Feedback Regularly
Regular feedback is essential for improvement. When you provide feedback on each employee’s performance regularly, you’ll help them be better at their job. You’ll help them be more productive, maximize their potential, and become more satisfied and engaged in the workplace.
You’ll help them be more accountable, especially when you point out areas of poor performance. They’ll work on improving it and getting those rewards you’ve set for good work.
Again, there are many tools for measuring performance and gaining an insight into your teammates’ strengths and weaknesses. You can also leverage tools for managing time-off requests, attendance, and timeliness that will help you give constructive feedback and improve responsiveness.
Set a Shift-Swap Policy
Developing a shift-swap policy can boost engagement, job satisfaction, and productivity, thus helping you improve your business. It can remove stress from the workplace and make your team happier.
What’s more, it can empower them in a way that would boost accountability because it would show that you trust them enough to let them control their schedule.
Making changes to employee schedules can be time-consuming, but that’s where employee scheduling tools come in. Such an app would enable your team to swap shifts without your aid in just a few clicks.
Engage with Employees on a More Personal Level
Being friendly with your teammates can go a long way. It can make your workplace pleasant and stress-free, which leads to happy, productive, and responsible employees.
Build meaningful relationships with them and have fewer formal meetings. While those are important, informal interactions often yield more positive results, especially when you need to talk about someone’s poor performance.
As you can see, improving accountability in the workplace doesn’t have to be daunting. If you follow these simple tips and take a friendly approach, you’ll have utter decorum in the workplace, where everyone will perform their duties impeccably.