6 ways to make employee accountability more empowering, less like punishment

Employee accountability in your organization is crucial when it comes to compliance with company policies and procedures, as well as keeping pace with revenue and performance goals.

However, if you start talking about employee accountability in a meeting, you may see some people cringe because they associate it with assigning blame for not meeting expectations, which can result in someone losing their job.

For your managers, employee accountability can also conjure up mental images of awkward annual reviews or tense conversations.

How much could employee retention and productivity potentially improve if your staffers associated employee accountability with openly exchanging information and opinions, and getting support to do their jobs better, instead of with being in trouble?

Balanced approach to employee accountability

There’s nothing wrong with offering incentives to motivate people to strive for excellence and achieve certain goals. But to get committed buy-in to a responsibility-based culture, experts say to:

1. Set an example. People look to their managers and senior leadership to do what they say they’re going to do. This means avoiding making promises you can’t keep, even if it takes care of an immediate need or diffuses an angry encounter. If you keep your commitments, others will, too.
2. Be mindful about making expectations clear and resolving any disagreements that come up.
3. Never underestimate the power of a pat on the back. A little employee recognition can go a long way. Also, employees tend to want to do their best work for managers who care about them and show positive interest in their work.
4. Accept that annual performance reviews don’t provide enough timely, constructive feedback. Just 14% of workers feel their performance is managed in away that motivates them, according to Harvard Business Review.
5. Make individual reviews less formal for a more honest conversation. Research by HR consultants Brandon Hall Group and the performance management company Reflektive found 70% of firms are restructuring their performance review processes. And while poor performance or unacceptable behavior shouldn’t be tolerated, employees shouldn’t feel like they always have to be defending themselves to keep their jobs or advance. Also, employees who are given some say in how they do their jobs will be better engaged.
6. Normalize talking about failure. Mistakes are learning opportunities that can lead to success. However, many employees won’t ask for help from their managers because they’re afraid of appearing incompetent or unable to do their jobs. It’s healthy for managers to share stories of their own challenges and how they overcame them, then help struggling employees come up with a plan to succeed. “What do you need from me?” is a helpful response for employees who aren’t meeting their objectives.