How to Hold Employees Accountable for Results

By Shashvat Vats

What many companies do not realize is that their employees actually want to be felt accountable for their work.

Accountability is the responsibility of taking and concluding your project, assignment, work, or any goal related to company’s business.

In short, making your employees accountable is very important to keep them engaged effectively.

Not making employees engaged costs companies in U.S. ranging from $450 billion to $550 billion every year lost in productivity. Reason? Companies cannot make a profit with an uninterested or turn-off workforce.

If you are feeling right now that “Oh, my company falls in the same list”, make sure to reinforce your employee’s accountability, but, with caution.

It is not easy as it sounds. How do you keep up the open, innovative & limitless culture in your firm, while keeping a tight check and making employees accountable for their work?

How an employee is performing in a company is a topic that can be measured from a multitude of variegated standpoints.

First, you need to make sure to set an employee performance standard on which you can do the assessment. Quite a few firms make the mistake of not making a clear set of objectives for their employees.

This is problematic for all sorts of businesses and owners should take imitative to solve it immediately.

As a business owner, if you are failing to craft precise performance goals for your employees, you are actually failing in rendering them with your expectations. An employee can never fulfill an expectation that is not explained clearly.

Managers and business owners please take note that accountability is not something like a confession. It is simply delivering what is being committed.

The outcome is what is taken into consideration in accountability and not just a set of tasks. It is about taking initiative with clever, innovative, and strategic follow-ups.

It is essential at all levels of management. Senior level executives cannot be held accountable unless the employees reporting to them also work on the same commitment to the same vision.

This is not a piece of cake. There have been different instances where leaders direct, question, plead, be aggressive, and frustrated, all in the service of ‘holding people accountable’.

All that does not work in this case. Getting furious with your employees, when they fall short of their commitments is a blunder, when it comes to holding them accountable.

So, let us talk about the steps that should be taken to hold employees accountable for their work without micromanaging your company.

Clear Expectations

As discussed already, if you are not setting a clear goal for your employees, you should not expect any accountability from their side.

We are saying business owners should actually provide details, but give an overview of what is to be done. This will give the employees confidence that a senior member of the company is actually sharing their vision with them.

The result of this will lead your employees to input more efforts, work more productively, and take more accountability.

Clear Ability

Just setting the objectives won’t finish your duty, if you want your employees to be accountable.

Make sure to match the company objectives with the skill-set of the professionals accordingly. As a business owner, ensure to find out what resources are needed by the employees to fulfill the set objectives.

In case, the employee does not possess the skills required, identify what is missing and if it can be enhanced. Also, see how can you motivate, train, and make your employee more productive, without actually replacing them.

If you think that employee will not be able to cope, look for some other delegates.

As a business owner, if you are not taking all these actions, I think you are missing something big in your company and you are surely heading for failure.

Clear Assessment

For a business owner, nothing is more frustrating than failure. Few times, this happens because the professional who should be delivering is hesitant or scared to ask for aid.

Other times, it happens because of the premature optimism on both sides.

Whatever the reason may be, this situation should be avoidable at all costs. Make sure to segment your annual goals into daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly targets.

If any target is missed, make sure to divert your focus onto it instantly. Find a solution by brainstorming all the alternatives, identify the correct fix, re-craft the schedule, or respond in any way that can bring the employee back on track.

Clear Feedback

As a leader, it is your foremost duty to make sure that whatever feedback you are providing is honest, open, and ongoing.

It really does not matter how your feedback looks like, but the relevant thing is an honest message is communicated.

The employee should have a clear understanding of where they are standing. In case you have a clear vision, clear goal, capability, and a clear assessment, the feedback can be realistic, fact-based, and convenient to provide.

As a great saying goes “It is more important to be helpful than being nice”.

Clear Results

As a successful leader, if you are able to deliver the above-mentioned ways, be sure that you did whatever was needed.

So, what now?

You have three alternatives here. Repeat, Release, and Reward.

Repeat the whole process if you think something is missing and needs more rectification. Reward the employees appropriately (promotion, bonus, acknowledgement and like) if they succeed.

Suppose, if still the employee is not accountable, and you are completely sure that you have been following the above steps quite seriously, then that employee is not fit for the role.

You can release the particular individual or change their role as per the requirement of the business.

Take care everyone and have an accountable life ahead!

Adios!