Tips on Raising Accountability in the Office

What can you do to raise responsibility and awareness in your office?

1. Identify progress points and responsibilities
2. Make use of technology
3. Prioritize goal-setting

Accountability is a critical aspect in every business. By definition, accountability means “the quality or state of being accountable; or an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility for one’s actions.” – Taken from Webster’s Dictionary. It revolves around being liable for everything you do. In an office where work is shared between teams of individuals, accountability is vital, especially when something of note occurs.

In the Philippines, biometrics is a type of technology that is used for many monitoring and security purposes. It has advanced identification features that ensure a strict filtration of information. These biometric devices, along with other integrated security systems can be used to supplement different parts of the office—one of which is the gradual increase in accountability across a number of platforms.

Your office needs a way of keeping track of accountability. It will allow you to identify the catalysts for issues and the champions of success. It can also serve as motivation for your employees to do their very best and avoid making drastic mistakes!

Raising accountability in the office should be the norm for businesses. Listed below are a few tips in doing so:

Identify Progress Points and Responsibilities

You can’t accurately reach your target if you don’t know where you’re supposed to go.  Likewise, you can’t judge achievements (or failures) without a point of reference. By stating what you need to attain, you have a solid baseline for comparison. This way, standards, progress points, and obligations will arise.

By having a standard when it comes to the quality of work, you’ll have a constant bar to reach and ultimately surpass. All of your work should be of a certain level or beyond in order to be considered reasonable output. Not only will this require your employees to continually produce good output, but this will also serve as the first sign of any standout individual. Those who bring more than what they’re asked to are praised, while those who are falling behind are pushed to improve themselves.

Progress points are notable milestones in your work. If standards are found in every piece of output, progress points pertain to the percentage of work finished in a given time period. This comes along with the planning and scheduling that dictates the pace in which work should be completed. Reaching a progress point without any problem is to be expected. Finishing tasks well before their estimated timeframe is praiseworthy. And having leftover tasks is a sign for needed improvements.

Obligations, unlike standards and progress points, focus more on the mindset and discipline of the employees rather than their work output. It basically centers on the notion of finishing tasks and projects on time or not. Since it’s part of your work, it’s your obligation to accomplish it. Any kind of slacking or playing around will lead to work getting piled up—and that’s something you need to avoid.

Make Use of Technology

Today, there are many devices and software that are manufactured specifically for distinct applications. When it comes to accountability, a practical solution that comes to mind is the implementation of infallibly accurate security systems that can keep track of individuals as well as their daily tasks and activities.

Security systems such as camera surveillance and biometrics in the Philippines are widely used. And some of them are already used in some offices in order to start increasing accountability among the employees.

In the Philippines, biometric machines are widely used as attendance monitoring systems. However, it also serves as an accountability measure, particularly for what transpires within the office. When paired with surveillance cameras and other security systems, any and every shortcoming that an individual, employee or not, that happens within the office will be recorded. With this kind of evidence, they will be held responsible for anything that they are found to be doing.

This tip focuses on making sure that whoever is accountable will be held responsible for their actions.

Prioritize Goal Setting

Planning out your targets and using them as a baseline is rather rudimentary when it comes to accountability. Your plans will ultimately be nothing without proper execution. By making sure that your team focuses solely on these goal setting, you’ll be ready and waiting for anything that may possibly happen.

This also means that tasks and projects will be directly given to individuals or teams—providing them with an obligation to do their tasks in order to reach the collective goal of the team. The trouble with one task is trouble for everyone, so making sure that everything is done properly, efficiently, and dutifully should always be the aim of the whole team.

Key Takeaway

In the Philippines, biometric machines are everywhere, and you can definitely utilize them in raising accountability. Accountability can be difficult to take note off. Especially if you don’t have either a standard of work quality or a way to track your employees. That being said, it’s very important to look into raising accountability in your workplace. This will make sure that your employee’s outputs will be of the highest quality and your workflow will be smooth and efficient.