Employees that contribute value-added work will be one of the determining variables when companies decide to downsize and eliminate employees, and put in the list to keep, if the company is not performing based on bias and favouritism. All people work with different kinds of motivations, some are working without the heart to perform the work, duties and responsibilities, just focus on what the person does, no what he or she says.
For most of the managers (I mean really manager for their work and duties with managerial responsibility, not just merely title) who promote based on the Peter principle, above their level of competence, and not have the capability to do value added work at that level, you will expect to go out from the position at a fast speed in the modern and future of work. Almost all enterprises are digital companies nowadays, with real time global reach and collaboration, make the top and operation employees can communicate in a transparent manner. Managerial level employees expect to value-added managerial work, to get things done and show results via the people they supervise. If they can not perform under that manner, and under the current mass resignation waves in the next normal, compared with the operation, they should be the first to go, because of supervisory responsibility. It is also very common to see promotion from within based on the person performing the operation job, for example performing a good job to serve customers, then to promotion as sales manager, despite it falling short in the salesforce management and leading other people to get things done. Sooner or later, you expect to see the unit not capable to perform in the level as expect, because managerial level got lot of value-added works need to be done, beyond just get sales, such as training the rest of sales team how to perform better, build up the team spirits and managing sales force. In military terms, the general key responsibility is to manage and lead the troops, no you go to execute the solo soldiers work that matters. See the difference? One good sign we expect to see is the rest of the people in the salesforce to perform as part of the teamwork, and you as the leader get the recognition of it. Delegation of the works, even the job that will show credit to the person who perform it, should not be kept under the sales manager’s hand, unless the person has the team mindset as a whole, sooner or later, will create the problem for the entire unit, department or division under the person supervision.
It is surprising to see some employees remain no clear what is value added work and what is non value added work. Unless you are clear about the difference, you for sure will end up contributing non value added work.
Every business is incorporated for only one reason, to serve the market they exist for. Whether you incorporate a company to produce a product, then it is important to make sure it sells well, and do all the necessary to help your business to align with the right resources or get the most from the external help to push sales. In another word, whether you are in customer services, then make sure you respond to each inquiry and to understand and see how it will help the company in the bigger picture first, then offer your help to assist the company to do what is necessary. That is value added work.
Non value added work is the reverse side of the story, doing work, day in and day work, despite you seeing how busy you are, your top management and your coworker and downline will know, whether you are performing or not, it is too obvious from what you do. As some management guru always highlights, the worst part for some companies is getting the wrong person onboard, and affecting the rest of the great team intent to do good work for the company and contribute to the good customer services. Because, regardless of how long the company established or how great you are, whether for been 100 years over company, you will fall and collapse, once the soul of the company, to serve with the good attitude is no there, the higher the position for that kind of person in the company hierarchy, the worst it can be, since it influence all the people, from internal to external. Company is a legal entity, it executes activity via the people they hire to help perform various works back. Employee is the mirror the other is seen from the outside, whatever personality and behaviour the employee does, whether good or bad, will reflect in the market.
This is why most of the great companies fail, no really they lack resources, they possess a lot of the resources, but fail to execute the strategy via the people within. Once we have the employees that possess a deadman working mentality, carry out and keep delay for customer services and response, if you are the customer, what will do? First obvious response is to shift the business to an alternative supplier. Or maybe do business with the second choice supplier who possesses the soul and heart and is willing to listen, respond and do business with you, since what you saw, again is via the employee as a mirror, a company worth doing business with, despite said product slightly less quality or price slightly higher. The same principle extends to the marketing channels, for those depend on the channel partners.
With endless disruptive innovation, we keep introducing new and better products. You will be surprised to see even the great companies will fail to catch the next waves of big things. Is it because there is a lack of people knowing what is going on? It is more on the inertia side, especially when you have a lot of employees collectively thinking of their interest over the company’s future. As such, they fail to catch the next waves of big things, and when the time comes to respond, it is too late for even great companies to turn around. Does the story sound familiar? Because it keeps repeating itself years after years.
E-SPIN Group in the enterprise ICT solution supply, consultancy, project management, training and maintenance for corporation and government agencies did business across the region and via the channel. Feel free to contact E-SPIN for your project requirement and inquiry.
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