Everyone should strive to be a valuable asset to their work team. Once you reach the point that a company fights to keep you around, you’re going to get a far better ROI for your time there. Being valuable can mean potential internal promotions as they open up, provide opportunities to take on important tasks/clients, and more negotiating power regarding raises, benefits, or special work arrangements. However, that doesn’t happen right away, even with a strong resume. You need to have a track record of practices and habits that show you are valuable to a company. Here’s a closer look at what that entails.
Good Habits Can Make Someone Essential.
Let’s start by looking at some of the top habits that make people an essential asset in their workplace.
Industry Expertise: This is probably the most obvious point, but still bears mentioning. If your business is contingent on knowing a specific programming language, operating a particular machine, or some other specialized skill, anyone with that skill suddenly becomes an essential part of that business. However, what doesn’t get discussed is how important it is that an employee continues to try and improve themselves. Employees in this position shouldn’t try to monopolize job security information but find ways to pick up new skills and make some tasks easier for other people to understand.
Communication Skills: The vast majority of workplace tasks are a team effort of some kind. On that team, you may have many different people with different mastery methods or preferences for communication. A truly valuable employee will juggle all these different points for their benefit and the company’s benefit. Need to communicate with one department that prefers email? Fine. Need to hop on a video chat with a client? Fine. Another important ability is to take high concepts that you use with your expertise and break them down so the layman can understand them.
Being Proactive: Some employees may be content with doing their job requirements at a baseline, then leaving at the end of the day. A truly valuable employee takes this to the next level, though. Not only are they doing their job, but they’re also thinking of ways on how to do their job better or apply their skills in a new way. An approach like this may not always fit into your company plans, but a proactive spirit is essential to keep your company growing and ready to handle sudden issues.
Accountability: The fact is that even the best employee will make a mistake once in a while. What gets concerning is if they make the same mistake repeatedly or try to pass off their failure. Accountability is the capability to determine what led to one’s mistake and take concrete steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Every company wants accountable employees because it makes them faster and more effective in stamping out problems. The alternative is not finding the root issue because no one wants to take the blame.
Personability: This last point may seem like more of a luxury compared to the rest. After all, if a person is good at their job, it’s worth keeping them around even if they are a bit rude, right? And a nice person who’s bad at their job isn’t particularly useful, right? Maybe, but morale is an important factor in many businesses. If people feel uncomfortable in their careers, they’re more likely to look for greener pastures, even if paid/compensated well. As a result, you want to create a team with skills that are also personable and professional.
Good Contributions Can Make Someone Essential.
So, with this in mind, what are some of the benefits of developing and encouraging valuable employees?
Trust: Nothing is more frustrating to a company’s leader than having to check the status of progress on a project constantly. The ability to delegate is one of the most important traits a leader needs, but to do that with confidence, they need people working under them with proven skills and work ethic. Those valuable employees have already proven this time and time again. As a result, all that leadership needs to do is give them the base information and leave a communication channel open for questions. Instilling this kind of confidence with leadership allows them more time to work on macro-level initiatives instead of micro-level initiatives.
Mentorship: The fact of the matter is, even the best company will need to start onboarding for one reason or another. The business may expand, people may leave, or someone may need to be replaced. Valuable employees help with this in a variety of different ways. For one, they serve as a friendly and useful resource to help new employees get used to their job and the work atmosphere. Second, they serve as a good example to follow. If you put out a bad initial impression in terms of company culture, that can easily rub off on employees. Thus, work with people who put their best foot forward in that regard.
Loyalty: When an employee is valued and knows that they are valued, they are more likely to stay as a part of your business. 
Loyalty is important for a variety of reasons. For starters, the higher the initial employee position, the more it’s going to cost, in terms of money and time, to train a new person up to that level. Also, having several skilled long-term employees is a plus in terms of recruitment. New talent is more likely to see you as a permanent or long-term settling ground for their career, rather than a stepping stone.
Preparation: Good employees are not just doing their jobs, but also increasing their knowledge and expertise for future challenges. Abilities like this make them essential for building a business that can handle the ebb and flow of different industries. Furthermore, if you don’t have a set of valuable employees to take on these challenges, you may deal with heavy employee loss during rough periods. Employes who don’t provide this type of value could also start to sink a business.
When everything is working well, and you have a team full of skilled and valuable professionals, your daily tasks and workflow can hum like clockwork. However, if a new challenge arises that goes outside of your expertise, or you don’t have an internal person/team that fits the bill, it may be best to outsource the project.
In those cases, consider an outside partner to help with solutions. When it comes to marketing, branding, or advertising challenges, look no further than Glint Advertising. We can provide a level of work that not only aligns with your valuable employees but returns a high ROI for your company.
