How to Improve Accountability & Capture Lost Profit

Whether we can tie it directly to a profit & loss statement or not, the costs any organization incurs when no one is held accountable are significant. Quite honestly, those costs can be so high and can spread across so many areas of a business that it’s almost impossible to imagine leaders not recognizing the need for more accountability - almost impossible but certainly not completely impossible because it happens quite often!

As we looked at how high turnover and constant recruiting kill profitability, I shared some of what I experienced during the last year and a half with a large manufacturing company. I mentioned hiring over 225 new employees for that organization during that time, 150 of which were for just one job title! Oh, and there were only a total of 150 positions within that job title across all shifts in the facility. Just in case you’re not tracking with the math, that translated to 100% turnover in that position within 18 months; a position that played a critical role in the overall quality of the product customers purchased from us!

I could easily tie that mess, in one way or another, back to every single profitability killer we’ve worked through here. For our purposes right now, I’ll only share how much a lack of basic accountability contributed to it all…

For years and years, many of the best and most efficient team members in that role could meet their daily production numbers for an entire shift with an hour or more to spare in the day. Over time, the culture had become such that those folks would spend the remainder of their day casually roaming around. Since they “had their time in” for the day and they weren’t doing too much to call attention to themselves, this was accepted. Like in any workplace, the most tenured employees set the tone for everyone else; not just for overall performance, they also set the tone for what is perceived as being OK. This was no different! A practice that was originally done by just a handful of the most proficient workers because more of a rule than an exception.

When a new engineering manager who was looking to make a name for himself arrived, he wasted no time in assigning his team to re-do the hourly rates for just about every piece of production folks in those roles would touch. I’m not about to pretend that this wasn’t necessary, but the approach left a lot to be desired! Over twenty years ago, I learned a valuable lesson on communication from a veterinarian. He told me he could kill my dog but tell me the right way and I’d bring every dog I ever had back to him. He also said that he could save my dog’s life but tell me the wrong way and I’d never bring a dog to him again. That same advice applied to how the process changes were rolled out…

In spite of all that, and even with the legitimate discrepancies in the new production expectations, few of those team members changed what had become a routine practice of frequently visiting other workstations. The lack of accountability came into play with how the majority of our supervisors and managers chose to handle it. Rather than simply addressing each team member who was somewhere other than where they should be, doing anything but what they were being paid for, the standard approach for addressing this was to issue disciplinary action to anyone who fell below a set productivity number for the month. If they didn’t bring their three-month average above that number the next month, a second written warning was issued. If that trend continued for two more months, that individual would receive a final written warning and a termination.

I’m definitely not making a case for anyone not meeting expectations. Quite frankly, the majority of the productivity numbers were very achievable! However, there were more than a few issues that could occasionally contribute to someone missing their daily quota - but all of which could be written off if procedures were followed. This still created a tremendous amount of turmoil and led to quite a few long term employees losing their jobs over the course of several incredibly tense months.

Had there been a culture of accountability, the supervisors and managers would have addressed any team member they saw out of their work area, immediately, and every single time they saw them! I encouraged exactly that over and over and over again - to no avail. By not holding those team members accountable for the one thing that was directly contributing to them not meeting production expectations, those supervisors and managers were in fact condoning that behavior and contributing to all of the other issues! If they had addressed this behavior directly, with simple warnings to start then progressive disciplinary measures if it continued, anyone intent on repeating unacceptable behavior would have been dealt with in days or weeks rather than months - with a lot less drama and finger pointing between departments!

Don’t misunderstand me here: I’m sharing an experience I lived through. I am not placing blame. I’m convinced that this was truly a matter of not understanding how to hold those team members accountable. I don’t believe those supervisors or managers had ever been provided with the tools they needed to maintain high expectations and balance their candor with care when they had tough conversations - and I know they’re the only ones who struggle with this so that’s exactly what we’ll do as we wrap up this look at how a lack of accountability kills profitability!