With Bermuda's workplace competing for business on a world-wide scale as never before, it is essential every employee -- from janitor to executive -- understand that personal accountability is the key to success.

That is the opinion, based on more than 30 years' experience, of Jack Harris, director of development and training at Performance Consultants International (PCI).

"Whether we're talking about tourism or international business, Bermuda is a `service' economy and, in order to provide effective, efficient, and economically sound service, we all, individually, have to be accountable for our actions and attitudes,'' he explains.

"This applies equally to the maid who discovers that a table lamp is not working, for instance, as much as it applies to the executive who fails to complete a report on time.

Our company recently undertook a comprehensive survey on executives as to what was the most difficult or unpopular topic confronting their companies and over 90 percent responded `evaluating staff', because there seems to be such a problem in dealing with the accountability factor.'' As an example, Mr. Harris tells the story of the general manager who, on a walk around his company's headquarters with the office manager one evening, smelled burning. "The office manager said, `Yeah, my waste-paper basket caught fire'. The next morning they arrived at work and found the building had burned down. The general manager asked the office manager `What did you actually do about that fire in the waste-paper basket?' And the office manager replied `Well, I told you about it'.

Or, to give another instance: a driver walks past his manager and mentions that he has a puncture. Now, at that point, the reality is that the manager now has a puncture problem because the driver has shrugged the whole thing off. The manager has to come up with one of two comments: either, `What are you going to do about it?' or `If there's still a puncture in two hours from now, it will be unacceptable'. In other words, this lack of accountability means that employees are `passing the buck'. I have found this to be a big issue in Bermuda.'' Because of the complexity of the issue, which involves what he terms `different' value systems Mr. Harris designs a selection of seminars and training programmes, each individually planned to suit a particular company or organisation. "So if you are called in to deal with a critical issue, the first hurdle is to get a person to accept the problem, because the person who `owns' the problem is responsible for the solution. What we need to understand, both as employers and employees is that although it is possible to delegate authority and responsibilities, it is not possible to delegate accountability. We can't just shrug and say `It's not my problem'.'' With rapidly changing technical advances in the business community, Mr. Harris has reached the conclusion that it is no longer efficient to hold strategic planning seminars once a year -- as has traditionally been the case.

"We find it is far more effective to have custom-designed seminars and workshops so that planning is progressive and can continue, with adjustments if necessary, throughout the year. This is better,'' he adds, "because it enables you to address priority situations as part of an overall strategy.'' Many conflicts arise in the workplace because of clashes in company value systems and interpersonal behaviour styles.

"Many people might disagree as what actually constitutes a `value system' although I think most people would agree that the community, in general, is held accountable by a very old value system -- the Ten Commandments! Most of our laws are based on these, one of them being the concept that if you break the law, you are held responsible.'' Mr. Harris recommends an initial `needs' assessment to identify critical issues, followed by a feasibility study and then a concrete proposal for effecting change. In order to promote greater workplace effectiveness, he emphasises that every organisation has different issues and aims that may seem to be contradictory.

It may be, for instance, that a person's natural instinct to be generous is in direct conflict with a job that demands good stewardship and fiscal responsibility. "So at that point,'' says Mr. Harris, "as an employee, my `generous' behavioural style would put me in conflict with the value system of my company. Our seminars teach people not only how to deal efficiently with this kind of potentially stressful situations in a way that relieves that stress.'' Much of the work at PCI also focuses on their executive coaching programme.

"As business becomes more competitive, it's even more important to ensure that managers and executives allocate their time efficiently. After evaluating the effectiveness of a company's executives in one on one sessions, we design an appropriate coaching plan with specific reference to time efficiency -- to achieve the best possible results within an realistic and efficient time scale.'' Mr. Harris, who qualified with Leadership Dynamics International and is accredited for their `Train the Trainer' programme, is a consultant who advises, trains and conducts operational audits for a wide selection of organisations that include hotels, construction firms, computer companies, commission agents, retail, financial/legal institutions and exempt companies.

"A consultant is employed by the company to do what is right for the company.

He has to be strong enough to realise that his recommendations could be upsetting to the shareholders, the CEO's, managers and staff members. Yes,'' he admits, "that can be hard -- but a consultant is not a public relations outfit.

"My job is to make objective evaluations, not necessarily for the benefit of any particular employee, but for the benefit of the company. In today's business world, Bermuda has, more than ever, to bear in mind what we at PCI call `The Three E's' - Effectiveness, Efficiency and Economy.'' THE THREE E's -- Consultant Jack Harris says effectiveness, efficiency and economy are keys to successfully running a business.