Use a Task Tracker for Accountants to Eliminate Performance Reviews

 The world of HR is full of people groaning about performance reviews that come through annually, quarterly, or monthly. These reviews are meant to provide feedback and help everyone work together better but the fact is that they also give people reasons to do the bare minimum or to push the limits because they know they have room to make mistakes. This is a problem that stems most often from lack of accountability.

A task tracker for accountants might be the exact tool that you and your managers need to begin eliminating the performance review system and implement something better while giving the employees a reason to hold themselves accountable for their actions and take initiative on a regular basis.

Why is Accountability So Important?

At this point, you might be thinking that you can just improve your performance review tactics and get away without a task tracker for accountants or any other form of tracking accountability. The thing is, if you never track accountability, then employees will always know that they won’t be held responsible for their mistakes. You can tell them that they will be but when they see it in front of them in a list with deadlines they can see in real time how their goals should be met.

This improves time management skills and motivation individually as well as throughout the office. Accountability is a part of office culture that should not be overlooked. It’s a feature that can help you turn out leaders instead of people who stay stuck in the same place for their entire careers.

Promote from Within

One of the best ways to motivate employees to do better is to show them that they have somewhere to go as a reward and that means promoting from within. If you hold employees accountable and encourage leadership skills, you will be setting up people in the entry level tier to move up at your firm.

This is good for everyone because you’ll retain employees that know your firm well and have a repertoire with top clients. Accountants feel motivated to become leaders and clients feel secure in always having someone handle their account is being praised for their work.

The Phase Out Strategy

It is important not to simply get rid of performance reviews and move to a new system immediately after. That kind of change can be jarring for people who are used to a routine and the stress of it causes anxiety as well as a decline in performance across the board. Meet with your managers and put a strategy in place to transition slowly to using a task tracker for accountants and a system that relies on accountability over reviews.

Learn about the system you currently have and why people do and do not like the way it works. You can take the elements of what does work and put them into the new system. These familiar positive points will help people transition to another way of doing things. You’ll be taking all the good things that people actually like about your current methods and bringing them along through the transition.

Evolve with Modern Employee Standards

Review practices are not the only part of your firm that will evolve over time. Your employees themselves evolve with new technology and available education and the ways you choose to review their performance and hold them accountable must also evolve. When you’re phasing out your old system interview the employees to find out what they find challenging about the rules.

For instance, some offices implemented a no cell phones policy many years ago and that made sense because answering calls and text messages was distracting. However, mobile devices are the primary way that most people communicate and you can actually save money by eliminating landlines in certain areas of the office and issuing company cell phones. Another example is offices blocking social media sites. They’re actually keeping employees from using a valuable marketing tool and connecting one on one with clients. Think about how these things might pertain to your office culture.

Watch Employees Flourish

Accountability does more than give employees motivation to do better or teach them to own up to their mistakes. It also gives people a greater sense of accomplishment when they do complete goals. A task tracker for accountants helps managers stay on top of these goals and provide support and motivation to move them forward. Try these tools and you’ll find that you have the makings of many leaders right in front of you and ready to learn.

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