How To Add More Value At Work

Whether you are in your dream career or can’t wait to get out of your current position, everyone should be looking to add more value at work. Why? Why not?! Adding more value can lead to more responsibilities, opportunities, increased pay, and a more enjoyable work experience. Especially if you find yourself counting down the minutes until you can clock out, you should be looking to add more value where ever you are.

Not only can adding more value make work more enjoyable, it will lead to skills that will put you ahead of the curve in any and all endeavors you pursue. For myself, I’m committing adding more value to any work position I find myself in now and in the future. I must say, I love becoming this kind of person! It benefits everyone in my life. So let’s get into how you can add more value at your job!

Focus On The Bottom Line

Though it’s not strictly the only thing contributing to your value at work, bringing in more money to your company is probably the most obvious. After all, that’s what businesses are there for: to make money. The wonderful thing about this is that you will benefit as well. Businesses want to pay their employees, and hopefully pay them well.

This doesn’t necessarily mean bringing in more clients or making more sales. That might not be possible depending on your position, so look for other ways to help the bottom line. Can you make processes more efficient or develop new ideas to make daily tasks easier? How can you possibly produce more than you currently are? Innovation is an invaluable skill you can bring to the table, don’t hesitate to use it.

Contribute to a Good Work Culture

I definitely wasn’t thinking about this when I was job hunting, but I now realize it is incredibly important in any workplace! Having a good workplace culture can truly make or break a company, let alone someone’s day. Being someone people want to be around in the workplace is highly valuable.

Now you don’t have to go out of your way and bring donuts to the office every day. You don’t even have to be “friends” with the people you work with. You can however, encourage some activities that build relational equity (plan a happy-hour hangout, create a small group activity to do on breaks, ladies lunch days). Bringing a positive attitude can really be the best thing you can do for your work culture. People notice when you put in an effort to create a great place to work.

Overdeliver in Your Position

Practice this thought: “I overdeliver in my position”. Now, this is NOT to be confused with over-working! You can overdeliver in your position and still remain between the hours of 9 and 5. It simply means that you go above and beyond in your job. You take pride in everything you do while at work.

Think of it like this. When you were hired, your boss thought they were getting a ___ (receptionist, nurse, marketing strategist). However, they didn’t realize they were also getting a scheduling expert, a time management wizard, a master problem solver, an office-event planner, and lunch time DJ all at the same time.

Keep Increasing Your Knowledge

Think of a doctor; not only do they study extensively in med school, but it is their job to continuously be learning more about their craft. You probably wouldn’t be interested in working with a doctor who took zero interest in continuing education, would you? Increasing your own knowledge of your position will also add to your value at work.

Now you may not have to take more classes to further your education. In fact, you may not even have to stick to knowledge about your job. Simply learning about personal development and mindset work can make you a better employee. You could probably learn about many different topics indirectly related to your job that can make you a better employee.

Related: How To Build Unbreakable Confidence

Be 100% in While At Work

This is one I feel pretty strongly on myself. Since I have so many interests outside of work, often times my job is not the thing I’m most excited about. I can sometimes let myself become distracted or spend all day waiting to clock out. I made a decision early on that I wanted to be someone who was 100% in where ever I was. So while at work, I am 100% invested in work.

For me, this looks like not checking my phone all the time at my desk. It means I am always looking for ways to be productive and do my job better. I try to stay knowledgable about what is going on at my company. I try to help people in any way that I can. Most importantly, I always bring a positive attitude.

Become More Efficient

Efficiency is a more concrete way of adding more value at work. If you can do your job just as well, but do it in 75% of the time, that frees you up to help solve other problems. Efficiency takes time to get good at, but it also take a little effort. People like to get attached to the way they do things after a while, and habits can be hard to break.

Efficiency can also take some preparation on your part. It helps to prioritize what’s most important to get done first and make sure it gets done. You also have to be disciplined to avoid distractions. You may even have to ask for help sometimes. But people notice when you are efficient. It means you can use your skills in other areas and help more people.

Help Solve Problems Big and Small

Being ready and willing to help any coworkers or clients is a huge asset. Come into the office with an attitude of service, and that no task is too small for your to handle. Someone needs you to order company lunch? No problem. Need to make some posters for someone’s birthday? Got it. Review some resumes and conduct phone interviews? You’re the girl for the job.

I absolutely love that people know they can come to me for help. Although I must say there is a difference between helping someone out and doing their job for them, most people go out of their way to help you when you do the same for them. In the end, this helps everyone out.

Be Well Rounded- (Have a Life!)

I saved this one for last because I think it’s the most important, and also the most fun! Sometimes you may feel like you’re adding more value at work when that’s all you think about and invest in. However, being a well rounded person is something that will be an asset to any life situation you find yourself in. Having interests and hobbies outside of work makes you happier, it exercises your brain in different ways, and it takes the pressure off of only being good at one thing. (This is something we would stress a lot in theatre; having a life outside performing. However, I think people need variety in their life no matter what their job is.)

There are so many ways that having a life outside work can increase your value. Even if it only ever makes you a happier person, it will be well worth it, but you never know when some unrelated interest will be of value. (For myself, even though I work in the trades industry, there are so many ways that my artistic and performative background has benefitted me in my day job!)

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