For a new employee the whole cumbersome process of seeking a job, finding it, interviewing and joining day is over and hence your new focus should be your valuable contribution to the organization.
At the end of the day you should be asking yourself- What high added value did I do to the organization today? If you can’t recall any or if you didn’t add anything, there is always another opportunity which is the next day.
The focus should be on adding value to the organization. This process ensures that you don’t just draw a paycheck but also help the organization by being an efficient employee and making it more profitable.
When it comes for career advancement, the biggest issue or question is the organizational value added by you to your earlier organization. As the company pays you, you are their investment and they naturally expect a return.
The higher the return, the higher is the possibility of more investments in the future and that too in a bigger and better way than the earlier way. It hints at raises, job security, promotions for the employee. So, let us list a few points in which you can add value to the company or organization.
10 Ways New Employee Adds Value to their Organization:
Here are few tips on how to value a company and other value added activities
1. Solve problems:
This is a simple way to add employee value without stressing yourself too much. The obvious issues which have been long unsolved in your departments are the one you should go for as you walk the floor.
They are the ones which are called the Low Hanging Fruit. There might be issues like idle time of operator, excessive distance to get a part, excessive material staging, lack of supervision etc.
Just pick such one issue and start resolving it. In most of the cases, solving such issues takes setting of clear expectations and in some it might take some extra efforts but in all cases it is worth it. You might need to dig a bit deep to resolve it but it would be beneficial in the end.
2. Use lesser overtime:
The first step is to determine whether the organization is running overtime or not. Try and reduce it to the minimum. The reason could be any, you need to challenge your coordination and organizing skills to try and add that time to the normal working time framework.
If your efforts save only 10% of the overtime, you are doing great help to the organization by saving that much money.
In few cases the reasons could include rework, increase in volume, quantity, excess scrapping and/or lack of adequate required hours for a particular work. These issues are avoidable and can be easily resolved by simple efforts.
3. Use an agenda for your team meeting:
Have you left a meeting sensing that it was a waste of time and nothing much was accomplished or it was expected to achieve much more?
Whenever you run a meeting or attend a meeting, if you have a clear agenda that is deed driven can reduce the meeting time by 40% and everybody will leave the meeting feeling alert and ready to take on the work next day.
All you need to do is to create a uncomplicated agenda, follow the track, stop side conversations, personal talks among the attendees and “one offs”, assign actions with dates, take long discussions offline and at the end appraise all actions with dates so that you have a clear idea whether the stated objectives have been met or not.
If a topic is left, it can be touched upon in the next meeting. Having agenda streamlines the whole process and leaves everyone satisfied.
4. Reduce breaks and lunch time:
Yes, it might not sound good but it is impactful, especially if followed by more number of people. This is a quick one you can secure.
You will not be the most appreciated by the other employees but you will be saving the company money in the end and you need to A major amount of productive time is lost because people are taking an extra five minutes to start to work.
Say, an organization has 100 employees and they take 100*5 = 500 minutes i.e.,500/60 = 8.33 hours, almost equal to that of one day work time of one employee. So, if all start thinking and working on time, they would be helping the company and saving it a huge amount.
5. Have a Daily Review Meeting with an agenda:
If you have a daily meeting to review the work with the specified agenda and cut your meeting times by 40%, it would be really impacting the organization in a positive way.
As leader or manager, it is important that you meet with your subordinate leaders and juniors to ensure they are on right path and achieve the targets on time.
You can do this by scheduling a daily review meeting at the early part of the shift. It is the best way to plan the day and in the process, anticipate any barriers and solve them then and there. A thing to keep in mind is to be sure to have an agenda and stay on plan.
Such a meeting should be targeted on the results of previous day, making the plan for today and estimating the problems that may prevent the team from achieving the goal. It should be fast and focused.
If you feel that you need to talk about a point in deeper way, you can have the discussion during your main meetings so that even others can participate in it.
It will also allow you to review if your team is working on the right track and targeting the right aim. This can be done in all industries and will be beneficial to all.
6. Start learning about your department:
Having information about your company is essential but what is really meant by this point is start learning the data of your department.
You can ask you technical support, manager or anyone who could give you all the data which is related to the department. The next step would be sorting of the collected data. It can be done using any software like excel.
After sorting, determine the priority as per the importance. When the data is sorted and prioritized, it becomes easy to finish the important thing first.
Also, important data is available within your reach and classified. So the next time you need any information, you just need to look for the list and you are done.
7. Set clear expectations:
We all know that when we talk about goals, targets and about a plan, we should always use the S.M.A.R.T. method. It means specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound.
The need might be to get things done quickly or a shorter method but if we make a conscious effort towards using this method, it will create fewer problems as the team will be very clear about the goal, it will be focused and will decipher what they exactly need to do.
8. Start a training plan:
Every team should have a training plan. The key area of the training plan is to decide the levels of guidance and how many skilled, trained people you need for each activity. The gap in each training and activity should be then determined and bridged.
9. Create a policy:
A policy is a managerial document that directs decisions. The objective of a policy is to steer clear of an unconstructive effect for a positive outcome.
If you notice an activity or behavior of any co- employee that does not seem right you can ask the employee directly, without trying to offend them.
The aim here is to follow the policy. Firstly you need to follow the policy and then make others follow it. However do not boss around and be polite in your endeavor.
10. Create a procedure:
A procedure is a standard, a method by which an activity is to be done. Procedures in the work place could comprise of work directions which lists all the steps in performing a task, technique of delivery of result, how to scrap product, etc.
Not for any particular activity but every activity should have a standardized procedure. Another advantage of having typical procedures is a steady training method which eases the burden on the employees and the organization alike.
Conclusion:
Whatever the new employee does, it has an impact. Yes, all our actions have an impact on the organization. As many positive actions you do, the better effect it will have, even if we don’t realize it. We should strive to create positive, measurable and powerful outcomes.
More actions will make people take notice of your deeds and inspire them too. Even the managers, the senior management will want to keep you happy and at the same time, reciprocate your efforts.
A job description might seem like a list of tasks to be done however the main focus is to achieve the goal of the company and hence, the level of value you contribute to the organization will also influence your increments and your status in the organization. You will be rewarded suitably and you will not have to ask for them. It will come naturally.
