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How to Hold ROWE Employees Accountable

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Workplace

The Find: Employees love flexible working, but managers are duty bound to ensure accountability: here are three ways to make sure your team stays productive wherever and whenever they work.
The Search: Ashley Acker writing on the blog Cube Rules.

The Takeaway: Your employees may be clamoring for a results-only work environment and the right to wear Bermuda shorts in the office or come in when they please, and hey, just because you're a manager, doesn't mean you're not a nice guy. You want happy employees, but you also want accountable, productive employees. So how can you keep track of your team even if you give them free rein to work when and how they please? Acker has three suggestions.

Create a Solid Foundation - You cannot have accountability without clearly defined goals. So if results are fuzzy in your organization, begin here. Accountability starts at the individual level, so break down your department level and team level goals into individual goals. Every goal should be a SMART goal that is both measurable and time-bound. This makes establishing accountability much easier by giving you specific outcomes, numbers, and deadlines.
Define the Leader’s Role - Accountability is a two-way street between leaders and direct reports... as you meet with your team during the goal setting process, ask each person what they need to succeed. Do you need to remove roadblocks? Provide resources? Clarify goals more thoroughly so accountability can be established?
Reward Results. Punish Non-Performance - This is simple. The only thing that matters in a flexible work environment is results. Putting in late nights doesn’t matter, office politics don’t count, and face time is irrelevant.... Follow this simple rule: Those that achieve the most get rewarded the most and those that fail to produce, face some type of consequence. Be firm and make deadlines mean something. You can’t be a pushover.

Acker concludes: "great employees love being held accountable. It sets clear expectations and helps everyone focus on results rather than face time, office politics, or long hours." For more information on setting up a ROWE regime at your office, check out BNET's handy feature package on the topic. The Question: How do you ensure workers stay on the straight and narrow when you offer them flexibility? (Image of man enjoying flexible working bu guigui, CC 2.0)

posted by Jessica Stillman
July 7, 2009 @ 4:18 am

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