It’s not just getting a job – but keeping it too!

“Our attitude toward life determines life's attitude towards us.” – John N. Mitchell

I was rather shocked to say the least.

For the past five months, in conjunction with the Capital Region Human Resource Association (www.crhra.org) and WRGB CBS6 (www.wrgb.com) I have been conducting a monthly Employment Index survey of close to 150 local companies to measure hiring plans, last month’s activity etc.

Each month we pose a Question of the Month. This month’s question was this: Given the number of job candidates in the market not, have you, will you or are you considering replacing a current employee with someone in the market to save money, attract a skill or improve performance.

I knew the answer would be yes in many cases. I didn’t expect close to 50% said they would. Goes to show one – if you have a job, you need to work hard to keep it! There is someone out there willing and likely able to do what you do.
Given the high percentage, WRBG asked for an interview and to share some tips on how to keep your job in a competitive market. If you would like to see the interview and tips: http://www.cbs6albany.com/video/?videoId=605565894001&lineupId=1143371293
So what does this mean to you?

You need to work to keep your job and perhaps change your approach to your employer and co- workers. Three words:

• Value
• Attitude
• Expectations

Value – What you did for your employer a year ago, a month ago or a week ago is history. It is what you do today and everyday to add value to yourself and your employer that counts. Perhaps going the extra step to take on a challenge others have shunned or taking on a new responsibility – find something you can do and let others know you are doing it. Yes that is self-promotion – but required.

Attitude – It doesn’t matter if you are the best at doing your job if you have a crappy and bad attitude, you will get chopped. People want to work with people that like. Few want to work with someone who has a bad attitude, dumps on co-workers or the company is just complains. If this is you, time for an attitude check – or time to move on.

Expectations – I remember so well just a few weeks ago someone in my office telling me they never expected to be fired – and it occurred because they did not know what was expected of them. This is a bad for both employee and employer – no one made the effort to find out what was expected of each other. Talk to your boss – be sure you clearly understand what is expected of you and how you will be measured. As Peter Drucker said: You cannot manage what you cannot measure.

BTW, if you would like to see the Employment Index Report for the period of 7/15 to 8/15, click here: http://www.cbs6albany.com/video/?videoId=605565819001&lineupId=1143371293. Fewer employers are planning to hire, but there are new jobs being created in the market – that is good!

I hope this is helpful, and thank you for reading this. - Dan