Two Ways To Boost Your Value In The Workplace
Ever discuss your career with your buddies? There have been many times when I have had conversations with friends about how things are going with their careers and just general small talk about their particular job. One of the things that usually comes up focuses on their salary or pay scale. Everybody wants to make more money. That is no secret. So what exactly are employers looking for?
Well, for starters, I’m qualified to answer that because I am a business owner myself. I have been in business for more than fifteen years. Over the course of that time I have hired and fired a number of workers. I have been able to hold on to some of the better ones and I have seen some good ones leave for various opportunities. Every one of them wanted to earn more money. I was more than willing to give it to them too. It’s just that my idea of how to earn more money and their idea of how to get a pay raise were two different things.
Each person can be very important to a smaller sized company. Have you ever considered the fact that when it comes to running a small business, each employee has a huge impact on the success of the entire organization. If you are running a fifteen employee operation and one employee is dragging down two or three other coworkers, that person could be affecting total company productivity by a major percentage.
In an effort to find the best ones, I tend to look for employees who maintain a positive attitude. That is a huge deal to me. If you are the type of person who comes to work in a good mood and greets everyone with a smile it means a lot. It is so easy to choose a crappy attitude. People don’t realize it but that attitude can easily spread to the people they work with. Before I even consider increasing someone’s pay, I’ve got to see that kind of attitude present on a regular basis. Of course there will be exceptions, but for the most part you’ve got to be a happy person.
Another deciding factor in my decision about whether to give someone a salary raise or not is based on what reasons the person appears to be working for me. Obviously everyone is there to earn a wage. Yet, some workers will come in at the last second every morning or even come in five minutes late on a consistent basis. Those same people will be ready to get out of there promptly at five o’clock every single workday.
Something like that tells me that the employee can’t stand being at work one minute longer than they have to be. That is an attitude that doesn’t deserve more praise from me or more compensation either. I don’t expect my workers to love their work so much that they can’t wait to get there. But, if I can tell that you are a person who can’t wait to rush out of there at the end of the day, you are never going to become management material and I am certainly not going to want to bump up your pay or benefits. As a matter of fact, I will most likely be keeping my eyes open for a good replacement.
You will find that all of advice that Dan publishes online relates in one way or another in helping individuals learn how to get a pay raise at work. Dan is a firm believer that anyone who takes the time to make a substantial effort in the workplace will naturally earn the highest salary they are capable of earning.
