Recently, at a conference I was talking with some office managers and the issue of employee accountability kept coming up.
It seemed as though many of these managers were having the same issues with employees being trained to follow the office protocols, yet often they would fail to keep some of them.
One manager said that when she asked staff members why they did not follow protocol to complete their tasks they answered “I know what to do but sometimes I just forget.”
Forgetting something occasionally happens, but for this staff member it was the third time in one month and they had signed off on their job task sheet that they understood their job tasks and could complete them.
Holding employees accountable for what they have been trained to do and know they need to do it is a cost to the business. There are a few things management staff can do to hold employees accountable and impress the fact that not being accountable for what they are assigned is a poor reflection on their work ethics.
Hire the right people with standards, ethics, and integrity that align with the business.
Create training that reflects the importance of performance standards.
Continual explanation of why performance standards must be upheld. (Financial loss for the business)
Upholding the standards at all costs (Even employee termination).
If one employee is allowed to get away with not being accountable you are sending a negative, mixed message to the rest of the employees that the standards of the business really do not matter. If this is allowed to happen then the business is headed toward a downward spiral that will certainly be costly.
When business owners and management staff keep the standards up and everyone accountable everyone will do better and enjoy their workplace more.
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