During COVID, we have received a great deal of advice related to pivoting our businesses (or staying the course), adapting our processes, managing remote employees, or navigating the combination of some remote workers and some in-office workers. Many organizations are currently in that interesting state of balance with some working from home and others not. Several challenges arise: some employees working from home may perceive those still working from home as “favorites” who are not required to do as much work. Those who have returned to the workplace may be stressed over a higher risk of contracting COVID. Those working from home are juggling children at home and multigenerational households, all the while wondering what they are missing out on, including potential advancement opportunities. How can you reinforce stability and calm?
With continuing uncertainty, one of the best tools in the leader’s toolbox is accountability. Why does accountability matter more now than ever?
1. You need good performance.
Several of my recent blogs have provided ideas around keeping performance high in teams and individuals through setting clear and measurable expectations for each employee. What outputs or results do you want to see from them? COVID may have brought some changes to your work processes. Clarify the work processes or re-align them and then clarify expectations and appropriate measures. How will you measure that customer service worker? By measuring a certain number of calls and emails per day? Number of problems solved? Dollar amounts related to keeping customers happy? Once you define these things, communicate them clearly, coach behavior, and hold people accountable. Also be clear about expected time frames for work from home, as you are for work hours in the office. If a particular person is absolutely needed to respond to customer issues, for example, they may need to be available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Other roles may allow more flexibility in a work from home environment. You may need to coordinate more among employees.
Set specific times for checking in, especially with remote employees. They may be hesitant about reaching out to their managers as often as they did in face to face situations.
If processes and expectations are not clear, you’ll notice more conflict among employees. Interpersonal conflicts at work may sometimes be about different personalities, but I have learned that the more clarity and accountability there is around process flow and work expectations, the less there is to conflict about.
2. You need to bolster morale.
Many employers have noticed more conflict between employees during the epidemic. There are several contributing factors: just the atmosphere of the unknown and the continuing spread of the virus are stressful enough on their own. However, the less clarity and accountability there is around expectations, the more conflict, low morale, and perceived favoritism you will see.
Expectations for teams and individuals need to be communicated clearly and repeatedly, including the “why” behind expectations because in the current business climate, business processes and customer requirements may have changed, impacting job roles and expected activities. Also communicate clearly about how the expectations will be measured. Then, apply the expectations and measures consistently among all the employees or team members. Consistency is vital.
3. You need to keep your best people.
It is likely that nothing frustrates your high performers more than low performance going unaddressed because high performers must do more to compensate for the low performance of others and often go unrecognized for their tireless efforts. Even if they are recognized for their efforts, they find the work environment to be a hassle. Without creating a consistent, accountable environment, we are more likely to lose your best people. Some of your top performers may be thinking about leaving right now, just when you cannot afford to lose them.
During times of uncertainty, clarity and accountability are more important than ever.
If you’d like to talk about how you can improve your work place, please contact me at [email protected] or send me a message in LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/transformingorganizations/.
Leave a Reply