Rethinking employee engagement: how accountability shapes engagement

Can you ‘train in’ accountability?

I was recently asked whether you can train people up to be accountable. My answer was no.

Accountability is ultimately a personal choice. We can’t force people to be accountable, but we can educate people to make more informed choices.

Unfortunately, in many workplaces in our society, many are opting out of being accountable because it requires extra effort, an awareness of the needs of others, it requires us to step up as adults and do the right thing – and that is harder than just turning up, doing what you are told to do and then going home at the end of the day!

That has real consequences for engagement, which we can explore here.

Let’s start with a few questions:

• Who is responsible for engagement in your organisation?
• How much do you pay/budget to get the engagement level you currently have (thinking training, above market rate salaries, bonuses, fun budget, volunteering days…)
• What are the current indicators of good engagement?
• What are the current indicators of poor engagement?

Who is responsible?

Just in respect of my first question regarding who is primarily responsible for engagement in your organisation, here are a few options:

• People/HR director
• The HR team
• CEO
• Line managers
• An Engagement Director
• Employees
• An external consultancy that is working on culture change

Looking at this list, who do you think most employees would say is primarily responsible for engagement at work?

Why does it matter?

The reason this is important is because responsibility shapes expectations.

If we decide our local restaurant is responsible for ensuring we have a great evening with our friends, then our expectations about the environment, the food, the service, the pricing and even the background music will be sky high. Anything that fails to meet our expectations will be someone else’s fault or problem to fix… the restaurant is responsible.

In contrast, if we book the restaurant with minimal expectations around service, environment, food, etc. but determine that everyone will have a great time regardless of how it turns out, then we turn up for our meal with the expectations that the success of the meal will be as much on us as the restaurant. A shared responsibility.

And that difference in mindset often determines the outcome.

When considering engagement, I think it’s essential to talk about what no one really talks about – that employees are as responsible for their own engagement as their employers are.

When did we start thinking that someone else determines how we show up each day?

When organisations carry too much of the weight

We employ adults. And as adults we have an obligation to act as adults – take ownership, be responsible, be accountable for our own learning, growth, behaviours, communications and actions.

It is my experience that HR teams, managers, leaders have been increasingly across the past few decades been moving into what I might call more of a ‘parental’ role – creating policies, managing behaviours, actively keeping people safe, solving disputes, making people happy, being responsible for everyone’s psychological safety etc. rather than ensuring employees are able and empowered to self-manage, keep themselves safe, behave responsibly, do the right thing, sort themselves out, resolve their own conflicts, take care of their own mindset etc.

The repercussions of this are that employees become responsive rather than proactive, they increasingly wait for instruction and guidance rather than seeking it out themselves, they become reliant on others to solve their problems and so on and of course they blame others when things don’t go as they would like….its someone else’s fault.

Do you see this too? Or perhaps at times you can recognise that you have reverted to this state of being ‘saved’ or ‘parented’ by others rather than step up and be responsible for yourself? This isn’t about blame, it’s about noticing the pattern.

Pushing a sled up Everest

If engagement, as I see all too often, is just one-sided (reliant on the employer), then it’s always going to be like pushing a sledge up Everest, with no sherpas in sight! Hard work, impossible even.

The greater responsibility for engagement needs to rest on the employee. How radical an approach is that? Engagement is a choice, a decision to lean in rather than kick out, fight or disengage.

Do you get up in the morning and choose to be a victim of all that life has thrown at you? Or do you get up in the morning and see what you can make of the day?

When something goes wrong, do you dump the issue on someone else? Or do you first see what you can do to resolve the issue and only ask for help if you identify that is needed?

We’re all human, and none of us are perfect. But if most days we choose to show up with ownership and willingness, engagement becomes far more achievable for everyone.

Accountable employees…

• Recognise that they are responsible for their own development
• Ask for support to develop the skills they need to grow
• Take ownership of issues/take action when action is required
• Think before they speak, use language that demonstrates balance, compromise and a desire to resolve rather than divide
• Express emotions in a way that does not alienate or destroy relationships
• Are aware of and responsive to the wider needs of their team and organisation
• Recognise that with every ‘right’ comes a ‘responsibility’
• Speak up on subjects of importance rather than wait for others to ‘notice’
• Avoid victimhood and bystander behaviour

Accountability to drive engagement

As I said, I believe that engagement is a choice, a personal decision. In the same way, accountability is a choice, another personal decision about how we show up each time an issue or event arises.

If someone has mentally opted out, there is very little an employer can do to re-engage them, however much money or time is spent.

But if you want to ‘redistribute’ responsibility for engagement, aside from interviewing more carefully to screen out those who are not likely to be accountable, my suggestion would be to run a few sessions with staff on accountability:

• Do they understand what it means?
• When they ask colleagues, leaders or directors to be accountable, what do they mean? And do they understand that they need to be accountable too?
• Is it time to talk and learn about ownership, choices and contribution?

People need to understand what accountability is and how an accountable person acts before you can ask people to be accountable for their own engagement.

Actions to consider

Education

First, make sure that people understand what accountability is and why it’s important.
It’s worth talking about what accountability looks like in everyday situations – stepping in, speaking up, doing the right thing even when it isn’t written down.
And be honest: accountability can feel difficult uncomfortable at times. It takes effort. It is always will be a personal choice.

Support

Many employees have low self-esteem, lack confidence or have got used to keeping their head down. Telling those people to “be accountable” without first addressing the wider issues of their uncertainty, fear or even shame, will not deliver what you need.

If you are serious about wanting to engage, look to individual development needs rather than just rolling out a generic course on accountability and hoping for the best.

Combining formal training with coaching is often a great way to approach this. Avoid a ‘tell’ approach and opt for a ‘support’ approach.

Culture

Does your culture value accountability?

You can have a workplace full of highly productive (often valued) people, but this does not mean they are highly accountable. These busy people can hit targets while avoiding responsibility and passing problems around.

So it’s worth asking…

• How do people behave and why do they behave the way they do?
• Do you reward those who go the extra mile or are all your rewards focused on people who hit targets or do what is it in the job description?
• Do you manage those who deliberately disengage?
• Are there role models in the organisation to set the gold standard for attitudes and behaviours?

Accountability is created by what you notice, what you allow, and what you reinforce every day.

So who actually owns engagement?

Have you become one of those organisations that feels it is solely responsible for everyone’s engagement, contentment and happiness?

Have you talked yourself into believing it all sits with HR, managers and senior leaders? If so, how can you start to turn that around?

Accountability takes effort.

It requires people to show up as adults. And it may be that some organisations are happy to have a workforce who are told what to do, guided closely, supported at every turn and expected to do little beyond the job description. I recognise that this works in some environments. However, for all those organisations that are conscious of absence rates, productivity, retention challenges, quality of service or product and recruitment issues, that perhaps, just perhaps, a different approach needs to be taken to engagement.