Your company’s success is highly reliant on your people’s performance. Aside from being skilled in accomplishing their responsibilities, it’s also important for them to be independent and ethically accountable for their actions.
Although accountability is a familiar concept, it’s difficult to enforce. You may even face challenges incorporating it into your corporate ethos. To help guide you in cementing this skill into your business, this article offers a roadmap you can follow to achieve ethical accountability in the workplace.
The Role of Ethical Accountability in the Workplace
What is accountability? It’s the obligation to accept responsibility and be transparent with your own results. It revolves around owning up to your decisions and facing consequences for your mistakes.
Ethical accountability is quite similar. The only difference is that it focuses on following ethical standards and principles instead of relying solely on what a person thinks is right or wrong.
1. The Essence of Accountability in the Workplace
The importance of accountability in the workplace can’t be understated. It can help build trust and respect among employees. When everyone is accountable, people can work independently, knowing their coworkers will follow the same policies and etiquette.
2. Build a Better Reputation with Accountability
Similarly, it can enhance your business reputation. As your team members actively work to meet the standards, you’re able to gain external trust and confidence from your clients.
3. Compliance with Rules and Regulations
When your people have accountability, it’s easier to follow laws and regulations. You can reduce the risk of legal issues and fines by simply advocating for consistent application of ethical standards.
Your Roadmap to Ethical Accountability in the Workplace
Ethical workplace accountability offers many advantages. The question now is, how can you effectively enforce it in your company? To help you build accountability in the workplace, here’s a roadmap you can use to guide your efforts:
1. Establish Policies and a Code of Ethics
It’s hard to be ethically accountable when there are no rules to follow. This is why the first step to promoting accountability is to create policies and frameworks that people can observe, including:
- Behavior
- Practices
- Ethical standards
- Expectations
Assess Your Policies
Once you have your policies and code of ethics, consider having an expert review them. For example, you can ask your stakeholders and co-leaders to make suggestions or adjustments.
Make Your Policies Accessible
Remember that the policies are meant to be standards to follow. So, ensure that they are clearly stated and made accessible to everyone. You can even put in extra effort to explain and communicate your policies and code of ethics through meetings and reminders.
2. Schedule Regular Ethics Training and Workshops
From newly onboarded employees to seasoned professionals, it’s essential to constantly reinforce the application of your ethical standards. Leverage different mediums like e-learning platforms and face-to-face meetings to push for education.
Show Your Commitment Toward the Policies
Ensure that new hires undergo mandatory training. Help them get a greater sense of the importance of employee accountability. Explain your expectations for them as well as possible consequences when policies are breached.
Meanwhile, ethical accountability should be reinforced through workshops for more tenured employees. You can choose to conduct annual training or biannual sessions based on the needs of your people. Make it a point to incorporate real-life scenarios to make learning more interactive and easier to understand.
3. Cultivate Trust and Open Communication
It’s difficult for employees to maintain workplace accountability when they’re in a company that responds negatively to reports. According to a study by Gallup, only 40 percent of employees who witness unethical behaviors actually report them.¹ The majority would prefer to look the other way since they think their leaders wouldn’t respond positively to their reports.
Foster a Culture of Accountability
This is why the most crucial part of fostering ethical accountability is creating trust and communication within the organization. Advocate for regular team meetings where employees can voice their questions or concerns.
Provide Support
To encourage reports, you can also choose to use different platforms. For example, implementing an anonymous suggestion box can push for people who want to keep their identities hidden. You can also create a dedicated email for improved accessibility anytime people have something to ask or report.
4. Become a Transparent and Ethical Leader
Be a leader that your employees trust. Since you’ve already established clear expectations during training, you need to take it a step further and become their standard for behavior and accountability.
Communicate openly about your decisions with the people involved. Welcome questions about your choices and explain your reasoning behind them. This is especially important for choices that stem from ethical considerations.
As a leader, show accountability by owning up to your mistakes. It’s better to have leaders who can learn from their shortcomings rather than leaders who act as if everything they do is right. This can make a big difference in how your employees view you and the company’s environment.
5. Practice Equal Treatment for All Employees
When your company has specific goals and standards, it’s important to hold every employee accountable regardless of their position. According to Partners in Leadership, 91 percent of employees agree with this sentiment.² They listed improving the ability to hold others accountable as one of the top developmental needs of their company.
Make Everyone Accountable
To practice fostering accountability, make sure all levels of your workforce face consequences for their actions.
- Do all of your people meet the standards you’ve set?
- Are there people not receiving punishment?
Remember to take every report seriously. Don’t allow personal emotions or connections to get in the way of holding everyone accountable. Take the time to investigate all poor performances or violations.
6. Include Ethical Accountability in Performance Evaluations
To push for personal accountability, consider including it in individual performance evaluations. Establish clear ethical criteria and include them in performance reviews of each role. For example, you can evaluate employees based on how they respect the confidentiality of clients or how they take responsibility for their actions.
Proper Way of Feedback
Instead of monitoring your employees 24/7, these criteria can be based on gathered feedback. Take the time to assess employees based on the comments of their leaders, supervisors, and peers. By obtaining comments from more than one source, you’re ensuring the accuracy of your evaluations.
Reward Systems and Recognition
Aside from providing regular feedback, you should also think of possible ways to reward your people’s accountability in the workplace. Whether it’s simple verbal recognition or a benefit they can enjoy, this additional step would help create positive working experiences and maybe even improve employee engagement.
7. Perform Regular Audits and Reviews
Now that you’ve implemented relevant rules and policies, the next question is how to improve accountability in the workplace. The key is to perform regular audits and reviews to ensure your ethical policies remain up-to-date.
Set clear goals and purpose for your audits. Determine what specific factors would be reviewed. For example, you can choose to focus on the effectiveness of your reporting systems or the adherence of your policies to regulatory requirements.
Develop ethical KPIs that you can use to audit the policies accurately. Once you have everything prepared, schedule your audits regularly. Communicate these schedules to all employees to maintain transparency. To be more effective, you can also opt to form a committee of experts from different departments to lead your reviews.
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References
- Wetherell, Emily and Pendell, Ryan. “Only 4 in 10 Employees Report Unethical Behavior — Here’s How to Fix It.” Gallup, 19 Mar. 2022, www.gallup.com/workplace/390635/employees-report-unethical-behavior-fix.aspx.
- Nurmesniemi, Mika. “Workplace Accountability Study.” Partners in Leadership, 19 Jun. 2015, www.slideshare.net/slideshow/workplace-accountability-study/49563492.
