A recent interview conducted by Adam Bryant with Lynn Blodgett, President and CEO of ACS revealed Lynn’s innovative insights into creating employee accountability by building incentive programs that are as self-policing as they are rewarding. Lynn treats team members at ACS as entrepreneurs and notes the importance of having employees at all levels feel “accountable for profits, revenue, and customer satisfaction.”

Unless you are an employee on commission, salaried and hourly employees know all to well that it doesn’t matter how hard or how little you work – the pay will always be the same.

So how do you build accountability and encourage stellar performance by all employees?  By creating incentive programs, clearly defining goals, and giving staff the tools and resources to achieve those predetermined goals, you build an entrepreneurial spirit and that is accountable and measurable.

Boosting employee loyalty and commitment is critical for an organization as a whole. With high employee retention and accountability, your organization doesn’t go through the chaos, “storming”, and expense triggered by a high turnover rate. One clear way to boost an employee’s loyalty and long-term commitment is by treating them as an entrepreneur within your own organization. Encourage innovation, seek insights into aligning processes, and reward collaborative behavior.

When employees are accountable, they discover previously undiscovered leadership skills in themselves, promote their own goal setting processes, and increase employee “buy-in” to the organization. Whether you are a “mom and pop” organization or you employ thousands, these three accountability tips will increase productivity, profits, and employee loyalty.

Tip #1

With a team incentive program in place, employees will self-motivate to reach their highest potential and accountability.  As with a pay for performance program, teams are compensated by reaching or exceeding the objectives predetermined for them. Examples of measurable performance-based incentive objectives include:

• Increasing company wide profits
• Increasing or expanding existing market share
• Acquiring new customers
• Improving Customer Service and customer retention
• Increasing employee or departmental productivity
• Improving organizational processes
• Reining in company costs

Measurable performance-based incentive plans give employees control, holds them accountable for performance, and provides them with control over their resources to complete the goal and create an innate entrepreneurial drive. Other financial incentives include: employee stock options, merit pay, profit sharing, commissions, and bonuses.

Tip#2

Small gestures reap “big” rewards with employee recognition programs. Employees are greatly influenced by even the smallest of gestures – like writing a note that says “great job.” To be recognized for a contribution within an organization goes a long way – especially if the employee is part of a large organization where the feeling of just being a number can be prevalent. On a larger scale, recognition by receiving an award or company apparel can have a big impact on building accountability and loyalty in an employee.

 Tip #3:

Employees feel accountable and are committed to organizations that involve them in some part of the hiring process. Make sure the new hire works in cohesion with your existing staff or you could risk conflict and “storming” within your gelled team. As mentioned in last week’s blog,   when team members are directly involved with some part of the hiring process, they are more willing to mentor, be accountable for team success and ultimately more loyal, kind and respectful to the new employee.

Employee incentives and accountability build collaboration and cohesion among team members. With initiating employee accountability programs, which include incentive pay programs, organizations minimize the risk of employees being content to be “C performers” and sticking out a job just for the paycheck. Creating “A performers” insures the success and profitably of an organization while retaining top talent.

Copyright TIGERS Success Series by Dianne Crampton

About TIGERS Success Series, Inc.

TIGERS Success Series is a robust collaborative workforce and high performance team development system. Founded on four years of research and subsequent validation, TIGERS offers group behavior assessment based on six collaborative principles – trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success for groups of eight or more people. Follow up training, coaching, consulting and licensing is available to independent consultants and qualified coaches, project managers and internal HR professionals. A Bend, Oregon based company, contact us here to discover how to become a TIGERS Licensed Manager as Facilitator.

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