Become an indispensable employee

A non-government organisation that has operated in Uganda for 25 years celebrated this milestone last month. What left many open-lipped, however, was the oldest worker who had been with the organisation from the onset.

On the occasion, the employee was awarded, according to the chief executive officer, for his hard work and allegiance.
Somewhere in the speech, the boss said this particular employee was ‘indispensable’ and everyone on the team counted on him to complete tasks.

Staying long on a job is a dilemma many of us usually have to grapple with but how do you turn this dilemma into gold.
According to Nuh Mukiibi, an internal business partner and recruitment consultant at NFT Consults, staying long on job is challenging. However, he says, it might help you to brand yourself as an employee whose absence will always be felt.

“Turn yourself into an indispensable employee because this will place you in a position where you do not worry about anything even when it means moving on to a new job,” he says.
According to career experts, being indispensable, at any level in an organisation is one sure way to secure your job.

However, this is achieved overtime and comes with a number of demands such as doing your job well, being reliable, going an extra mile, and easily gelling into new responsibilities.

Mike Collins Turyakira, a human resource manager at Green Resources Uganda, says there are a number of things such as punctuality that many employees never take serious. However, he notes, these are some of the measures that bosses use to assess how dependable an employee is.

“These things seem small but once you are punctual at work, there are high chances of being a more productive and reliable employee,” he says.

Yasin Musosi, a consultant, and director at Addie Consults believes that apart from those assigned tasks, you should go an extra mile to elevate yourself above other employees so as to become an indispensable employee.

turn yourself around
Turn yourself around. Many employees have at some point suffered fatigue, especially when they have stayed long on a job. However, you can your long stay into gold.

Become indispensable

Do your job well
According to Mike Collins Turyakira, the human resource manager at Green Resources Uganda, doing your job well starts with understanding your responsibilities and taking them seriously. Beyond knowing your responsibilities, he says, you need to be punctual and always listen to your bosses unless it is inevitable not to.

Be reliable
You should always be available when you are expected to be because you don’t want to create unnecessary crises. According to Yasin Musosi, a consultant and director at Addie consults, being reliable translates into being efficiency and cooperative.

Go an extra mile
Musosi says this elevates you from the others and “in the end makes you a reliable employee”.
Companies, he says, are always on the outlook for employees that go beyond the ordinary. Therefore always burn some extra fuel to take the company and yourself to another level.

Learn to gel into new responsibilities
Some of us have been there. You are given a new responsibility but you just seem not to find a way to handle.
Such challenges, Musosi says, stand between employees and winning that tag of becoming an indispensable employee.
“See to it that you learn things that are valuable to your company even when you don’t need to at that time,” he tips.

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