How To Improve Staff Accountability

If you're like many business owners you work with a virtual team. Let's face it, having your staff work from their home offices has been shown to improve productivity and you also save on having to rent office space and potentially increase your utility bills because of the need for more internet bandwidth among other on-site costs. 

Do you have accountability metrics in place for your staff? Prior to bringing on your first employee -

- or even contractor -- you will want to have policies and procedures in place as a way to measure success, hold employees accountable and make certain that client tasks are getting completed. Also, if your staff or contractors aren't clear on your standards how will they know if they’re not meeting them (or if they’re exceeding them!)?

How can you improve -- or set -- standards for accountability? First remember that all behavior starts at the top so you need to set the example you want your staff to follow. Here are other things you can do to hold staff accountable: 

1. When you are hiring or assigning a new project to a staff member, make certain the expectations are set at the onset. 
2. Be clear on expected outcomes and ways in which to achieve them.
3. Set clearly defined goals and work tasks for each team member. Don’t leave it up chance; if you do, something will fall through the cracks. Ambiguity is not your friend in the workplace.
4. Regularly work with team members to go over the steps completed and the outcomes achieved. Don’t wait until a deadline is looming before you check in with staff to “see how things are going” – by then it could be too late to get a stalled project back on schedule.

When is the last time you discussed accountability with your staff?