flexibility Archives - Dover Staffing

Employers seeking to thrive in the modern business landscape are increasingly recognizing that one of the keys to meeting corporate goals and boosting profitability is creating career development strategies that improve their employees’ progress and career advancement. Of course, ongoing training is essential to career development, but there are many resources and strategies for growing a more knowledgeable workforce that is ready for the digital world. Individuals and businesses that embrace these concepts will reap the benefits at both the enterprise and employee level.

This approach applies to all industries, including manufacturing, education, telecommunications and retail sales. Today, every job requires digital skills and nimble employees. According to Sanquinetta Dover, founder of Dover Solutions, that means everyone benefits when employees pursue higher goals. “When you give individuals the tools necessary to improve their performance, it grows your company along with their individual careers.”

In this article, we’ll explore how that philosophy applies to the following career development strategies.

Become Excellent at Your Current Position

Although businesses strive to hire qualified candidates, no one has mastery of a job when they begin it. Management should provide ongoing training for your position so that you can stay abreast of recent developments, but you are responsible for upping your skills. The best path forward is to set short-term goals for improvement. Perhaps you want to process your insurance claims with 98% accuracy instead of 95%. Maybe you want to raise your customer service ranking to a five instead of a four. Your goal might be to produce more product in less time. Research how to improve and then establish action steps to achieve your ultimate goal one milestone at a time.

Develop New Skills

If you want to move up in your company, you need to learn new skills. Study for the job you want as well as the job you have. Almost every employee can benefit from computer hardware or software training. Your employer may already offer classes in these subjects or pay for outside training. Many upper-level positions in corporations have global ties, which provide excellent opportunities to expand your skills. You can improve your value by fine-tuning your ability to communicate cross-culturally, or by learning a second language. Similarly, if your industry is one that particularly values higher education, consider taking courses that will benefit your career progress.

Be Open to Lateral Moves

If you cannot move up the ladder right away, think about moving laterally. Your willingness to learn a new position will impress your management team and also make you a more valuable employee at your current company — or at another business. You will learn new skills and prove that you are flexible. Employers prize workers who will take on new challenges and prove their worth as team players.

Be a Volunteer

You can make connections and learn new skills when you volunteer for special projects. Although volunteering often means more work without a pay increase, it does deliver rewards. For one, management will notice that you are eager to help and to grow. You may get management experience yourself by leading a team to complete a project. And your efforts will impress other employers if you decide to look elsewhere for a position in the future. So offer to plan the company’s charity baseball game! You will help your community and yourself.

Self-Evaluation

You need to be brutally honest with yourself in order to develop your career prospects. Part of your plan should be to identify your weaknesses and then take corrective measures. Are you bad with deadlines? Are you hesitant to speak up in meetings? Do your customer service skills need work? You must be clear-eyed about your skills and not defensive, otherwise, you will never improve. And yes, you should also catalog your strengths; know your worth!

Final Thoughts

Both individuals and companies benefit when there is a strategic focus on career development. As an employee, you need to take advantage of any opportunity to improve your skills and move up the job ladder. Employers need to offer these opportunities to create a stronger workforce and to encourage employee loyalty. Skill growth is key. Employees who stagnate limit their job opportunities and are less valuable to their employers.

How Dover Solutions Can Help

Dover Solutions believes in maximizing opportunities for individuals through workforce development. We take a holistic approach to employee training so that employees can meet the demands of their employers while learning skills that will propel them upward in a healthy career trajectory. Successful job placement is a partnership between employer and employee, and at Dover, we specialize in facilitating these matches. We also work to garner public, private, and non-profit resources to knock down barriers to employment, such as disabilities or lack of training.

For help in strengthening your career path or building an employee team, contact Dover Staffing Solutions and take advantage of our Dover Training Institute. The institute offers many services, including licensure and certification, entrance examinations, and training assessments. As a full-service staffing firm, we understand the needs of today’s employers and employees. Get more information by filling out our brief online form or calling 770-434-3040. Remember, success comes when you “Dare to dream. Dare to do.”

Image credits: Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

Being ranked No. 1 in your university class or training program is a great asset, but your skill set is not enough to secure your dream job. To succeed in today’s job market, employees need to bring more than technical skills to the table. Employers are looking for someone who can bring added value to their business. They want employees with soft skills, those human traits that machines cannot duplicate.

The recent pandemic highlighted the need for soft skills to deal with the fear and anxiety many felt. In this post-COVID-19 world, qualities like empathy and kindness make the workplace run more smoothly and profitably. You need to hire candidates who possess these skills in addition to technical ability. The following are five of the most in-demand soft skills that you should seek from today’s talent pool.

1. Emotional Intelligence

Effective employees possess emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence includes the ability to understand others’ unspoken feelings and care about what happens to them. This caring builds trust between employees, clients, and management, and can increase productivity at the workplace. Hiring people with high emotional intelligence leads to fewer staff conflicts and helps to attract and keep clients. A brilliant financial planner with no people skills will not be as successful as one who has slightly less financial savvy but more empathy. Remember, your clients want to feel heard and understood as you meet their needs.

2. Self-Motivation

The pandemic turned millions of people into remote workers, and many of these employees will continue to work from home at least part of the time. This shift in the workplace means that employers can’t monitor employees as closely as if they were in the office. As a result, they are looking more than ever for highly motivated, self-directed workers.

A self-directed employee can map out their own workday and produce the necessary results, whether they work for an insurance company or conduct online college courses. They do not depend on someone else to keep them productive. Employers need this type of employee even more than they did before the pandemic.

3. Creativity

The future of work includes the need for creativity, something that cannot be automated. Creative employees may develop beautiful media designs or elegant ad campaigns, but other job types require this trait as well. All companies need creative people who have new ideas and can apply those ideas to current systems and problems. Companies must have innovation to prosper, and innovation comes from creative people in every industry, including manufacturing, customer service, education and financial services.

You should hire creative people to fill your new positions, but your current employees can learn to be more creative through collaborative projects, soliciting feedback, and writing down ideas. Do not assume that only new hires can bring new life to your business.

4. Flexibility

Companies need workers who can quickly adapt to new situations or problems. Life and work seldom go as planned, so you need employees who can handle disruptions and embrace new ideas and work processes. Employees who possess good job skills but who are not flexible will not be as productive over the long term as those who are willing to step out of their comfort zone.

During the pandemic, many businesses had to drastically change how they did business. Restaurants, grocery stores, and retail operations had to shift quickly into delivery mode to serve their clients. Customer relations became even more of an online enterprise since people stayed in their homes. Employees who were stuck in “how things used to be” were of little help. Adaptability is key, especially post COVID-19.

5. Integrity

Integrity may sound like an old-fashioned value, but employers are emphasizing it once again. A highly competent employee who has no scruples can do incredible damage by misleading clients, lying to coworkers, or breaking promises to management. An employee’s quality of work means more than the ability to invest money or manage an office. Management and customers need to trust the people who work for them.

Integrity is important for all job functions, roles, and industries, and when prospective customers think it’s lacking, it can result in lost business. Salespeople, for example, can — often unfairly — be seen as willing to do anything for a sale, which can make it more difficult for customers to trust them. Your company needs to hire people who would rather lose a sale than mislead a customer about your products or services. In the long run, your business will benefit from honest and ethical employees.

How Dover Staffing Can Help

Dover staffing can help you find employees with the soft skills you need. At Dover, we understand that hiring skilled employees is not enough. In this post-COVID-19 world, you need skilled employees who also have empathy, character, adaptability, and self-discipline.

For help building a team with both hard and soft skills, contact Dover Staffing Solutions. We are a full-service staffing firm that understands the needs of today’s employers, including corporate, government, and nonprofit clients. Get more information by filling out our brief online form or calling 770-434-3040.

Image Credits: Photo by Christina on Unsplash.

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Top 5 Strategies for Career Development in the Modern Workforce