What is wrong with the young people? Where exactly did you get this boy? I am disappointed. During interviews, we asked him: can you work under pressure? He said, yes. And that he likes work that requires him to put in more effort. On coming to work early, he said that since his childhood, he has been going to class by 7:00am! He is used to waking up early. He even joked that unless you want me at 4 am! We were all happy that you had identified for us a great employee. He not only had great marks in all national examinations, he is a great communicator. Now can you imagine, this young man comes to work after 9:00am and leaves before 5pm? Some days he just sends a WhatsApp to the Supervisor “I will be going to visit my sister at School; I will not come to work today.” He never gives a performance report to account for his time at work. Did you really know this boy well before referring him to me?”
Refer someone for a job at your own risk. The quality of staff in many organizations is wanting. For that reason, if you don’t have a job, you can easily find one especially in private companies. The owner of the business is always looking for some great talent that is ready to rise the bar.
Our current education is producing people whose skills are not ready for the demands of the job market. Employers need people who can write great reports. Can pay attention to detail. Are great at public relations and marketing. Can use the resources available well. I mean, not all businesses are government which has a deep pocket of the tax payers! All businesses now use computers to run the critical processes of their businesses like clients’ management, finance, marketing, human resources, audit and service delivery. To do this, almost 90% of the company staff have computers with Microsoft Office applications. Unfortunately, majority of the staff with computers use just 20% to 40% of the capabilities of the applications in the computers. Just Microsoft Word and Excel, which are the most common and essential tools, people don’t know how to use them better. That means there is poor resource usage! Imagine a government institution spending over US $ 80,000 dollars annually to renew a Microsoft Office license for which staff use just over 40% of its capabilities! It’s total wastage.
The same happens to some of you readers. You have a powerful mobile phone somewhere at home or with you right now. But you only use it to chat, call and browse the Internet. That is just about 20% of its core capabilities! So just reading the phone’s user manual and going an extra step to learn how to optimize resource use can make you a star employee. If you know someone who is good with advanced skills in Microsoft office apps like Word, Excel, Access and Power Point; give them my contacts for I have a job for them. Companies are always looking for great employees. People who not only look busy but are ethical. They are performers and deliver results because no one can hide an elephant. One of the characteristics of a star employee is providing on-going communication and update on the progress of the assigned tasks. Star employees always go to their supervisor at the start of the month, explain their understanding of the business objectives, their roles and the focus activities for the coming month and request the supervisor to confirm that understanding. Thereafter, they communicate daily or weekly, so that the supervisor is never surprised.
Now I have stopped referring people I don’t not know very well for job opportunities. It is one of the easiest way to lose your reputation – recommending a person without good work ethic, respect for the job and lack of integrity.
Try, to identify a practical skill you can learn. Start with Microsoft office, and be a recognized champion wherever you are. As you do so, take a moment to appreciate the grace of our Lord Jesus on your life and give thanks for it.
