Kerrie Koestner taught a class on accountability workbooks at Applied Net 2024. She is passionate about the accountability workbooks she created. Her approach to managing her team stems from a combination of practical experience and a deep belief in the value of clear structure and personal ownership. Read on for additional insight about the benefits of this tool.
ACN: What is an accountability workbook?
Kerrie Koestner (KK): It’s a really simple concept. I have created an Excel spreadsheet to track frequently used activities and key metrics for our service team. This spreadsheet captures the number of calls answered by the team and the amount of documentation completed for specific and frequent transactions. To populate the workbook, I run canned Epic reports to gather activity counts on common transactions, alongside reports from our phone system, RingCentral, to track call volume and other call-related metrics. I gather this data on a monthly basis, which allows my team to maintain a clear view of our team's daily operations and overall performance. This process helps us monitor the team's productivity, identify trends and ensure that all necessary documentation is being completed efficiently.
ACN: Why is creating some sort of accountability workbook a must in today’s environment?
KK: The idea for creating the team workbooks came when we all started working from home. With the shift to remote work, I needed a way to track my team's performance while also holding them accountable. This was a pivotal moment in supporting the work from home transition. One of our agency's core values is employee commitment, and part of that is ensuring we can align flexible hours and remote work with accountability. By creating these workbooks, we’ve been able to provide clarity on everyone's workload, making sure no one feels overwhelmed or falls behind.
Another key reason for developing these workbooks was to make it easier for managers to track activities, output and hours worked. It also helps us manage errors and omissions (E&O) exposures and spot any gaps in our workflows. Since the pandemic, I've heard a lot about how remote work can sometimes lack the direct oversight found in an in-person environment, which can lead to disengagement or missed deadlines. By creating a simple Excel accountability workbook, I’ve given managers a tool to monitor progress without micromanaging. This helps ensure remote workers stay on track. The workbook also allows my leadership team to quickly identify potential bottlenecks or workload imbalances, ensuring we can intervene and offer support before problems escalate.
ACN: What are the key components of an accountability workbook?
KK: I’m a big advocate for creating frequently used activity lists for each position within my department. I use this information as a management tool, for training new hires, as a base for bonus programs and for the accountability workbooks. Understanding the workflows your team is using on a daily basis gives you the ability to monitor and focus on their productivity more effectively.
For each team’s role, I’ve tailored the workbook to include the common activity code they enter in Epic. This helps ensure we’re focusing on workflows that directly contribute to the team’s success. For example, if my boss asks how many CSM calls are related to phone payments, I can easily pull that information from the Excel workbook. Also, because I have been creating them year over year, I can see trends.
Another example: My sales team workbook tracks “calls made out” and “policies sold vs. quoted,” while client service teams may track “calls answered” and corresponding activity codes. This allows me to track the documentation in comparison to client interactions.
Another key component of the workbooks is the use of color-coding for accountability. I assign every team member a certain color that is confidential. Only the employee and manager know who has what color. It’s a simple but effective tool for assigning responsibility and tracking progress. Color-coding adds a layer of visual feedback that’s easy to interpret at a glance and helps create a safe, anonymous environment for accountability. It works well to identify who is performing well and where additional support might be needed, all while encouraging a non-judgmental, constructive feedback culture. I highly recommend giving it a try — it’s been incredibly helpful for both managing and boosting morale.
ACN: Why do you think accountability workbooks are crucial for team management?
KK: The workbooks have been a huge asset to me and my leadership team over the past few years. They've allowed us to hold the team accountable for the work we expect from them. We're able to track key metrics like upselling, rounding accounts and even the level of documentation each team member is completing, all based on simple Epic activity reports and data we’ve been collecting. As I mentioned earlier, these insights help us identify hiring needs based on real numbers, which makes decision-making more informed.
The workbooks also provide clearly defined, shared objectives, giving us a solid framework for aligning team members with the expectations of their roles. When expectations are laid out clearly, it becomes much easier to help everyone stay focused on achieving collective success. At the same time, they allow individual performance to shine.
My managers can use the workbooks to track how consistently each team member is performing. If discrepancies arise, they can pinpoint the issues and address them through targeted interventions.
In my opinion, the biggest benefit of all is the transparency it brings. Transparency is key to fostering trust within a team. The workbooks make it easier for everyone to see both individual and team progress, which encourages open communication and feedback. They give managers and peers a clear, objective framework for providing feedback that is data-driven, leading to actionable insights and continuous improvement.
In conclusion, whether your team is working remotely, in a hybrid setting or in-person, my simple Excel accountability workbooks, built from Epic activity reports and phone system data, have proven to be a powerful tool for managing team performance. They ensure transparency and foster collaboration across the board. By incorporating structured metrics, clearly defined goals, and visual tracking, these workbooks give both managers and team members the clarity they need to stay aligned, productive and engaged. The result is a more efficient and cohesive team, no matter the work environment.
Below is a snippet of my template for our service team. I hope it inspires you to begin creating workbooks of your own.
Save the date for Applied Net 2025 in Las Vegas, October 6-9, 2025! The Applied Net 2025 Content Committee is now accepting session proposals. If you’d like to share your story with fellow Applied Systems users, submit a proposal by Friday, Jan. 31, 2025.