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In recent times, companies have had to remove close to 25 per cent of our newly hired employees on grounds of non-performance. This is true for all organisations, from all genres. Bangalore-based HR professional, Preeyan, gives invaluable tips to fresh recruits how to keep the jobs after cracking the interview. It’s important to know and build your position in the team, effectively, says our columnist, in the first part of the three-part series, in the weekly column, exclusively in Different Truths.
This is a very sensitive subject, where most people will be ready to disagree with what I have to say in this write-up series. I have seen and worked with so many individuals and I can say, there are less than 10 per cent of the employed lot who value a position they hold and the job they do. Employees have become so self-centered that they do not care about the importance of the position they hold and their importance in the organisation. A fancy pay and a jump in career are all that an employee is looking forward to without considering what they have learnt and what they are capable of. This gap in understanding and capabilities is what needs to be addressed at the earliest.
I have tried to address this in a series of three parts, this should enlighten a few, and for those who disagree with me to start a debate.
With the boom created by the IT industry in India has brought in a lot of changes in the way people look at employment. Securing a job for anyone in IT had become too easy with the kind of projects and availability of positions.
The present scenario shows a trend where jobs are getting difficult to get. Without personal references, it gets difficult for the job seeker to get a chance to get a face to face interview.
Interviews have become a mandatory standard in multinationals. For every position, there is resource already identified by someone in the system and for the sake of following a process, three others are interviewed and then it is documented to prove that a proper process was followed as per company norms and the position was awarded to the right candidate in a fair manner. “It’s all an eyewash,” everybody knows it.
This is more prevalent in the middle and the senior management levels. For fresh recruits, it is more open but the number of available positions are getting lower by the day, thereby increasing competition. The average time taken by a post graduate to secure a job is increasing with time. In case you do not get a job through campus recruitment you end up wasting a year or two looking for the right job.
Let us assume here that you have finally got a position in an organisation after all the struggle. And once you have landed the job what should you do to ensure that you keep it.
In recent times, we have had to remove close to 25 per cent of our newly hired employees on grounds of non-performance and I would say this is true for all organisations from all genres. This is because our youth, are not getting the grooming required to ensure that they conduct themselves in a way that is appreciated and they look at personal gain only. We, in India, are fighting a race with the western countries adapting a lot of cultures from them and yet we do not create the kind of infrastructure required by our youth to get themselves a job.
What is important in this is what we call life skills. How do we behave in a crowd? How do we work as a team? How do we interact with people? How do we convince people to accept our point of view? How do we make others respect us for who we are and support us in what we are weak at? How do we follow instructions and how do we make others follow instructions?
These are all small things we have done and dealt with in the past, but never really paid attention to and were busy being selfish. Because it was all about us.
What you should remember is that once you have landed yourself in a job, is that you need to let go off all your demons, like selfishness, arrogance, status and ego. Your best friends are going to be your confidence and your ability to learn and adapt.
Know your position in the team, and build importance to this position.
Your job is like a Motorsports team, you may be an individual contributor, but you are a link in the long chain which makes a difference between winning and losing.
To ensure that you are on the winning side it is critical to understand your job. You need to have all the deliverables in writing from your reporting manager or place it on record by an email just to reiterate what you need to do as part of the team. You have to do this to express your seriousness for the position.
Do not shy away from something because you do not know how to use a tool or how it is done. Take this up, accept that you do not know, learn how it is done, make mistakes – only if you make mistakes you will learn, do not repeat these mistakes and move forward. This will showcase your resolve in handling tough situations.
You will now be in a position of importance in the team and it would have been clear to you of what is expected and how well you can contribute to the success of the team.
Before you take up a task it is important to understand why it is done and the importance of getting this done. I generally tell this to my managers that they have to ensure that they explain, to their subordinates the importance of the job/task, why is it required and how important it is. You need to know this and if it is not told to you, you need to ask the right questions. I can’t stress enough about you asking questions. You will eventually get answers while doing it or will be explained by your team member.
At the risk of being repetitive, mistakes are common, we are only human and we end up making mistakes on all fronts of our day to day routine. “Ensure that you do not repeat the mistake”.
There will be a lot of times, you will face in your career, where you may not be able to identify what you did wrong. Trust me when I say this, you may feel that you did not do anything wrong but if you step back and look close enough or “objectively” you will see that you indeed went wrong somewhere. You may face problems for which you may not see a solution, during such times you just need to share this with someone and work towards finding a solution. Socialising officially is very important. You will be surprised to know that help may come from the most unexpected interaction.
By this time, you are building importance to your position. You will know you have accomplished this when you see that your manager does not hesitate to give you a task to handle and your responsibilities in the team keep increasing.
Remember you are the one who created this importance for yourself.
Stay with me to see what more you are capable of.
(To be continued)
©Preeyan Abraham
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