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The world going digital has provided a huge amount of benefits in all sorts of areas. Whether you run a small business or simply work for a larger one, the way that people spend their days has changed entirely since the advent of modern computers. One of the key areas to be impacted by this worldwide development is accountability, with every aspect of this part of business becoming easier to manage, even for those without huge amounts of resources. Why exactly is accountability so important, though? To help you out with this, this post will be exploring some of its features, along with the tools which can be used to help you to keep track of your company.
Recognition: There are a lot of roles being performed which are very hard to monitor without the help of a computer. In these cases, ensuring that people are properly recognized for their hard work is almost impossible. Warehouses, for example, can have their performance drastically impacted by one or two people, even when they have very large teams. Without the tools to monitor where the work is being done, though, it would be impossible to make sure that the right people are rewarded for it. Nowadays, most businesses like this will use computer systems to track and monitor the work of individuals to keep an eye on their personal performance.
Theft Prevention: Along with making sure that you can give people the recognition they deserve, having systems in place which make it hard for people to avoid accountability will also help to prevent theft. In the very same warehouses, people won’t be able to remove products without recording it on a database which also stores their name. When things go missing, it will be easy to figure out who is responsible, and this can help to reduce thefts by a huge margin. There are loads of companies around the world which have suffered huge losses thanks to inadequate ways to monitor their employees.
Other Crimes: Of course, not every business works like a warehouse. Offices, for example, won’t have items which can be stolen, and this takes a lot of weight off of the shoulders of the owners. Bullying and abuse can still be issues, though, and this is another area which is benefited by accountability. CCTV, employee attendance records, and other digital recording methods make it significantly easier for a manager to make sure that people aren’t being treated badly by their fellow workers. If you receive a complaint, it shouldn’t take long to figure out the big picture, as long as the right technology is in place.
Accident Responsibility: Accidents are simply a part of life, and most businesses come with some sort of risk in this area. In a lot of cases, though, employees will lie when they get the chance, attempting to cover their backs to avoid getting in trouble. For instance, if you have people driving trucks, having a member of the public hurt could result in your business facing lawsuits and other complications when the driver claims that they couldn’t have done anything. Tools like fleet fuel cards can solve this issue, making it much easier to track and monitor where people have been driving. They could have been somewhere which they shouldn’t have been, making them responsible for the accident, rather than your business.
Unhappy Customers: Some people simply aren’t built to interact with the general public. This can be very hard to see until they’ve been working with you for a very long time, with small annoyances often triggering explosive behavior in the workplace. If this is aimed directly at a customer, it could make them very unhappy, with people shouting at them down the phone or face to face being very unprofessional. Having a record of the communications your employees have won’t make this better for the customer. Instead, it can make it easier for you to hold the perpetrator responsible, while also making it impossible for them to do it again.
Unhappy Employees: The level of protection which employees have in the eyes of the law is very good, nowadays. Ensuring that everyone is treated correctly, the world has changed a lot in this area over the last few years, making it very hard for companies to do as they please. Of course, though, people aren’t always honest, and being fired for something completely reasonable could be taken to court under the pretense that they haven’t anything wrong. All of the various methods you have for keeping track of your employees can solve this very quickly, offering definitive proof of their poor work.
Improving Practice: Accountability doesn’t always have to be about proving when who is in the right and who is in the wrong. Instead, there are a lot of companies out there using tools like these to improve the work which they do on the whole, and this is a huge benefit as you’re growing. For example, when you are keeping a detailed log of the work which people are doing, it will be very easy to see which stages are slowing them down the most. Using this information, you can alter the way people work to make their jobs easier. This is a great way to make sure that your company is always on top of the work it has to do.
With all of this in mind, it should be much easier for you to start improving accountability within your business. When you have the tools available, it’s always worth keeping a record of as much as possible within business, as this sort of effort can have an array of benefits which will always keep you on top. In some cases, you don’t have a choice in this area, and will have to follow rules which force you to keep these records. In others, though, this is something you will have to do for yourself. It could take a little bit of investment, but the value you will get in return will make it well worth it.