Staying Relevant at the Workplace

Objectives

• To inculcate continuous learning desire into employees
• To make workers relevant even as reorganizations take place

I got a call from a friend recently and he confided in me that he had just being relieved of his job. Has it ever occurred to you to have a back up plan in case you lose your job? I hear you say God forbid. In this era of downsizing, rightsizing, restructuring or whatever name it is called, you need to have a back up plan. You could either do a business plan or begin to develop transferable skills that will make you become almost indispensable.

What are skills?

Skills can be defined as developed talents, abilities, competencies and capabilities which could be technical or interpersonal that can be used to solve problems and overcome challenges in order to achieve organizational or individual goals.

Where are you heading to?

Whatever you do now, it’s important you know and identify the direction in which your career, organizational strategy and national economy is heading towards. This will enable you to determine the skill, knowledge and attitude gap. Hence you will be able to chart a course to bridge the gap. You do this by revitalizing technical skills that date very quickly, building transferable skills and continuous learning. Developing your skills take you out of the competitive plane and place you in a class of your own. By doing this you ensure your employability and survival in an age where job description change quickly. It also helps you to take advantage of opportunities that may arise, or that you may create.

How to develop your skills

It is important you identify learning opportunities around you. You could consider furthering your education in a tertiary institution around you or pursue and online course. You could also go for training programmes which are usually vocationally relevant, and address specific measurable aim and objectives. In addition to this, you should take personal responsibility for developing yourself by private reading.

Even if you do not desire a promotion, you still need to develop yourself to maintain your present position. You need to develop yourself to use your full potential at each stage. Look at the people who are at the top 10% of your organization and assess your skills against them. That gap is what translates to the difference in remuneration and opportunities. I will like to remind you that there is nobody today who knows something that they did not learn or develop.

How close to Indispensable are you?

Commitment to learning and development is what can convert your talents to skills. Talent without skills will not suffice. You can survive with talents but you need skills to be significant. Are you indispensable? How quickly is it easy to replace you? If you tell your line manager today that you are going will he try to convince you to stay? Answers to these questions may be an indicator to how skillful you are. Remember that you need to continuously acquire, update or improve both technical and interpersonal skills.

Position Yourself to become a Star

If your organization sends you on training programmes, count it a privilege. Note that nobody owes you development. After all you reap the benefit of a developed you. Today my friend has realized that the reason why he lost his job is simply because he failed to update his skills. Finally let me submit that “the more skills you develop, the less the likelihood that you will be stranded”

Oluyemi Adeosun

A Consultant with Generis Solutions

www.yemiadeosun.blogspot.com