EMPLOYER, EMPLOYEE AND EMPLOYABILITY IN A HARSH ECONOMY. 

Five years of loyalty wasted!

Five years of resilience thrown away!

What does my employer want? I took my ownership mentality far beyond boundaries. I did all there was for me to do, yet I was replaced and relegated! 

This is usually the crux of the employees’  complaints! 

Employees always forget to work smart. They most times find a work place so comfortable that they shun self-development and forget that there are emerging talents, new innovations and technological development often seen in new industry standards, hence the need for upskilling and self development.So, most employees want employers to bank on their years of service to accommodate their knowledge devoid of improvement as shown  in  years of no self-development,years of no upskilling, years of no innovation on  the desk entrusted to them  as talents, and years of not being able to compete at an industry standard.

How can an employee remain employable, especially in a harsh economy? Let’s have a quick look at the definition of employability.As stated by  Helen Kempster, ” employability is a set of achievements – skills, understandings, and personal attributes- that make graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community and the economy.”

Also, a quick summary of what a harsh economy means and how it has affected the world of work. A harsh economy is best seen when the economy of a country is in bad shape. And this is often caused by poor government policies, which negatively affect different sectors of the economy and ultimately weaken the legal tender of that country. This situation ultimately affect companies (employers) and their abilities to employ needed talents.

A declining or harsh economy affect employment. There’s usually a lot of unemployment when the economy is bad. There are willing talents but minimal opportunities to take them all. This situation usually lead to employers looking out for talents, who are vast, perfect fit for roles and talents who are able to multi- task and multi-hat, in order to thin down the workforce and have minimal overhead to pay for,whilst meeting set targets and goals. It’s very important to remain employable at all times, especially when the economy is in a  bad shape.

Here are a few ways: Upskilling:Olga Melynk mentioned that,”Upskilling is a workplace concept that encourages ongoing learning through training and development initiatives to take one’s current skills to the next level.Upskilling usually occur along a predetermined career path and provides employees with prominent prospects for promotions as their abilities improve. Upskilling works to fill the skills gap with additional training and learning opportunities and focuses on both hard and soft skills. ”

 

Upskilling is very important for your personal development, as it keeps you relevant in your present workplace and prepares you for future opportunities while remaining industry-relevant. Upskilling include: taking  new certification course (s) in your chosen area of interest, keeping up with technological improvement in your field, improving your communication skills, and expanding your skills to meet industry demands in your area of specialty.

1.Be social media savvy. Social media platforms have recently turned into great platforms for networking for both online and onsite opportunities. Great positive relationships are built online. It’s therefore necessary that you build positive online relationships on different social media platforms, as it increases your chances of landing good jobs.

 

C Be very intentional about improving your soft skills. Here are a few soft skills to imbibe or improve on to enhance your employability: 

Leaderships skills

Problem-solving skills 

Communication Skills

Creative Skills

Time management skills 

Interpersonal skills 

Initiative skills 

Emotional intelligence skills.

2.Be willing to multi-hat. Multi-hatting widens an employee’s horizons and exposes them to other skills that might make them more valuable to their employer and give them opportunities to earn additional income through that extra knowledge. For instance, a social media manager who goes beyond social media handle management to photo and video editing will certainly earn more.And will also be more employable with the additional skills.

 

While it’s very important to have a job, its very important to embrace upskilling and  self development at all frontiers, in order to achieve growth and career progress.

Written by Ifeoma Mogo.