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How To Ensure Your Employees Follow Through On Their Commitments

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By Perminus Wainaina

As part of our HR support to our clients, of late I’ve been privileged to attend weekly client meetings where managers with their employees review weekly performance across various departments. In a majority of those meetings, I’ve observed the utter frustration from the C.E.O/Manager when they realize whatever they had agreed upon to be actioned by an employee has not been done and the employee doesn’t have a reason, let alone a good reason why it has not been done.

My business lesson this year is that you can plan all you want, and you can dream big, but if there’s no commitment from management/decision makers on follow through and keeping staff accountable then you’ll not achieve your goals and worst case scenario you’ll do worse. At the core of any business, good business performance is dependent on whether plans and decisions you’ve made are being implemented/executed.

As a business owner or manager leading a team, you know how important it is to have employees who deliver on their promises and meet their deadlines. But how do you ensure that your team members follow through on their commitments and avoid conflicts, delays, and excuses?

Imagine two scenarios:

Scenario 1: A team meeting concludes with a flurry of action items. Each team member nods enthusiastically, promising to complete their assigned tasks. Days later, the project deadline looms, and critical tasks remain unfinished. Frustration mounts and the team struggles to deliver. 

Scenario 2: Another team gathers for a meeting. A clear agenda is set, and specific deadlines are assigned to each task. The team discusses potential challenges and agrees on strategies to overcome them. Regular follow-up meetings are scheduled to track progress and address any issues. The project is completed on time, and the team celebrates its success.

Why Do Commitments Fall Through?

While many factors can contribute to a lack of follow-through from managers and employees, common culprits often include:

  • Poorly Defined Expectations: You requested an employee to do task A but then they understood something totally different. Ambiguous or unclear goals can lead to misunderstandings and missed deadlines.
  • Lack of Accountability: Human beings always opt for the easy route. If there’s no one tracking performance or holding us accountable, our default behaviour is to be lazy or to do the bare minimum. That’s why KPIs are essential for each role.
  • Insufficient Resources: I’ve met employees who want to do a good job but the boss is not providing the resources and therefore acting as an obstacle.
  • Overcommitment: Don’t be carried away by the heat of the moment. Ask yourself whether the targets are realistic. I remember attending a meeting where the bad debts were in excess of 20M and due to the pressure from the GM the chief accountant ‘promised’ to collect 80% of the debt by the end month (30 days) which was not realistic considering some of the debts were over 4 years old.

What can managers and business owners do better?

  • Remain in your role as a boss. Your role as a boss is to guide and direct your team. You’re not their parent nor a dictator, so the good news is that it is not your job to make them do anything. Your job is to provide direction and assistance and then to hold your employees accountable. It’s up to your employees what they choose to do. Your focus can be on making sure you’re creating a healthy, positive environment and doing everything you can to help your employees succeed. If you find there are things you could improve on (communicating more clearly, ensuring a realistic workload, etc.), be willing to do that. And if you’ve done all you could but the employee is not measuring up then termination is an option.
  • Address issues early. If you are dealing with a repeat offender then you need to make the disciplinary process formal. Continuously giving verbal warnings or expressing your frustrations without making it formal actually sends the message that this behaviour isn’t really an issue. You open the door for the employee to be able to question any disciplinary action because they’ve “been doing this for a long time, so why now is it suddenly a problem?” For more effective performance management, provide an opportunity for improvement, and if issues persist, move to formal discipline. Again, tell the employee when you’re getting to the point of moving to formal discipline so it’s not a surprise.
Other Hands-On Strategies Managers And Leaders Can Apply.

Set Clear Expectations:

  • Be Specific: Clearly define what needs to be done, by when, and to what standard.
  • Communicate Effectively: Ensure that everyone understands your expectations and their role in achieving them.
  • Provide Context: Explain the “why” behind the task to increase motivation. Employees can’t read your mind. Don’t make assumptions. It’s better to take 15 minutes extra explaining than having another Monday meeting where you get frustrated and complain for an hour.

N.B: If your organization doesn’t have the basic HR structures in place i.e. job descriptions, KPIs, staff performance appraised regularly, an updated HR policy etc then you are setting yourself up for chaos. If you feel your HR department/processes need strengthening, reply to this email for a free consultation meeting.  

Establish Accountability:

  • Assign Ownership: Clearly assign responsibility for each task. Define the who, why, when, how etc.  
  • Set Regular Check-ins: Schedule regular meetings to track progress and address any issues. Don’t wait for the next meeting to find out the progress. It might be too late.
  • Use Accountability Tools: I’ve found Excel to be a straightforward tool. Keep it simple if you want to automate.

Provide Support and Resources:

  • Offer Training: Sometimes employees fail to deliver because they don’t know how or are lacking in one skill or another. Some trainings that have a positive return on investment include leadership, sales, customer service and performance management.
  • Allocate Resources: Provide the tools of trade whether it’s airtime, transport or anything that the employee needs to deliver.
  • Remove Obstacles: Identify and address any barriers that may hinder progress. For example, do you need to make that call to open doors?

Encourage a Culture of Accountability:

  • Lead by Example: Practice what you preach. Do you deliver on your promises? If you have a habit of not meeting your promises to staff, then they’ve most likely learnt from you and will do the same.
  • Celebrate Successes: If the employees deliver, do you acknowledge good performance or do they only hear from you when things are not working?
  • Address Underperformance: Repeat poor performance should be documented at the earliest opportunity. Things always go from bad to worse if not addressed early.  

Managing employees who repeatedly don’t follow through can be really frustrating. By addressing situations promptly, focusing on the key issues, and holding employees accountable, you’ll be able to keep this negative behaviour from spiraling too far out of control. At Corporate Staffing, we’ve specialized in helping business owners, C.E.O and managers focus on where the business needs them most. If you feel that dealing with staff issues is taking too much of your time. Let’s discuss how we can help you.  

In my next article, I’ll address why some managers and business owners struggle with holding employees accountable/poor in follow through. If you have a question or comment, please reply to this email.

Perminus Wainaina is a Certified HR Consultant and the C.E.O at Corporate Staffing Services. He helps Directors, executives, and managers solve their people management issues for business success. For more on, visit our HR consultancy services page. For a free consultation meeting on your people management issues, reply to this email.