Have you done everything that you need to do to support your employee’s performance before you hold them accountable for their under-performance? Following are five critical elements that supervisors are responsible for to establish accountability in their employees.
1. Clarify Expectations – Have you discussed your expectations of the job and the employee’s performance with them. If there is a performance concern, have you clearly identified the issue(s) with them?
2. Training and Development – Does the employee have the knowledge and skills required to do the job they were hired for? If not (and you choose to keep them), they need help to learn it; common options include professional training seminars, in-house training, a mentor for technical assistance and guidance, or an external coach to help get them from where they are now, to where they need to be.
3. Identify and Address Any Barriers to Performance – Does the employee have the necessary resources to perform? For example, do they lack proper equipment or workspace; are they limited in their authority to get the job done, could they be receiving conflicting messages or instructions from layers of management?
4. Feedback – Have you/are you providing regular (not once a year) feedback on how the employee is performing? Feedback should be timely, relevant, honest and constructive (solution-oriented) in nature.
5. Consequences – Employees need and deserve to know that there are consequences for poor performance and what that may include; and you need to ensure you carry out the consequences if you want to see change and ensure a culture of accountability. No consequences equal no accountability, which results in turf, infighting and under-performance.
©2009 Kubica & LaForest
