Holding Employees Accountable - CoAction Specialty

Holding employees accountable occurs when supervisors establish and define roles and responsibilities, specific outcomes and clear measures for quality and success of their own work and the work of their team. These supervisors follow through with fair and consistent consequences for both achieving and not achieving results.

For Example: Supervisors with this competency know how to hold the line. They establish standards and take fair, considerate, firm, and documented action to hold employees to them. They are not afraid to state where performance does not meet the necessary standards, or to make it clear to others that commitment to the goals and strategies of the whole organization is necessary. These supervisors have a clear internal understanding of what standards are and how they should be carried out. They also recognize and acknowledge when goals have been met or exceeded

SUGGESTED PRACTICES

Write down in detail what you expect of each person before assigning him/her the task. This will create a record of what has been requested and ensure greater clarity for the employee.
Work with your team to set performance goals and expectations. Ask them to summarize in writing your agreements about performance expectations and any potential obstacles. Make sure all team members have a copy. Discuss anything you disagree with and ensure that modifications get made
Before each meeting, prepare your perspectives on the group’s goals and objectives. This is usually much more effectively accomplished if done in writing. Discuss the agenda and objectives at the beginning of the meeting to let the group know what is expected. Give the group a chance to respond. Use an action log to track responsibility for agreed upon outcomes
Regularly review work progress against goals at team meetings. Set new deadlines for the remainder of the work that is yet to be completed and assign specific responsibilities to team members. Use an action log to document those decisions and to check on follow through
For important activities or projects, always discuss with your team the implications of delayed completion of specific tasks or phases of those projects or initiatives. In the press of ongoing activities, they may not recognize opportunities that may be lost by their delayed actions.
Actively use formal mechanisms to reward high performance – and go beyond them. For example, in team meetings, sporadically take time to verbally acknowledge a job well done by an individual or the team
Let higher levels of management know about a person’s superior performance and ask them to send that individual a congratulatory voice mail or e-mail
Address a performance problem by first getting the employee to agree that a problem exists. Then work more closely than usual with the employee and provide frequent feedback, including assigning new responsibilities — or restricting the ones already in place — until their performance reaches acceptable levels
Provide coaching to a struggling individual who is in a critical role on a team. If it proves to be ineffective, immediately reassign the individual to a less critical role and designate a shadow team member to monitor his/her performance and give him/her feedback.