¶ … Qualities of a Good Employee
When selecting the right employee for a given role the emphasis is often on education, skills and previous experience. However, the employee's personality and their approach to work is just as important and deserves at least equal consideration. Four qualities that are essential in a good employee are an ability to work with others; an interest in developing and learning new things; an attitude that allows for flexibility; and a high work ethic.
The first essential quality of an employee is the ability to work with others. Every job requires people to interact to some degree. In some cases, employees have to communicate with outside parties including customers, suppliers or the community. An ability to work well with others is essential for these roles. This applies even when the employee is not actually working with another person. For example, a customer service officer does not actually work with the customers they serve. However, since the company provides something that the customer wants, the customer service representative becomes the person managing the relationship between the customer and the company. This makes the relationship between the two parties, one very similar to a working relationship. The same applies to many other roles. An individual working as a maintenance supervisor must work with other companies to provide the maintenance required. They must organize plumbers and photocopier technicians and anyone else required to complete the tasks necessary for the organization to continue to run smoothly. The better these working relationships are managed, the more effectively the company runs. These examples show that it is not only those people that are specifically in customer or relationship-focused roles that need to have these skills. Almost every employee must work with some outside party. The ability to work with others is also important for how things work within...
An organization is essentially a group of people working together to achieve a common goal. Each of the people in the organization have different roles and different tasks to perform. However, ultimately every employee is working towards the same overall goal of the company. For this overall goal to be achieved, employees need to work together. In a manufacturing company, research employees have to communicate with marketing employees so that the products designed will meet the customer's needs. Similarly, research and marketing employees have to work with manufacturing employees to ensure the product is manufactured correctly. The ability to work with other people is also critical on a day-to-day basis. Employees need to be able to work with their supervisors and their immediate peers. It is rare that an employee can complete their job without interacting with other employees. This makes the ability to work with others essential for the everyday running of the organization.
The second quality required of a good employee is an interest in developing and learning new things. An employee may have the skills to complete the tasks required of them at the current time, but this may not be enough for the longer term. Organizations and situations change and employees need to be willing to change with the organization. A good example is with computer skills. Many organizations have computer systems as a key part of their business. This may be in the form of customer information databases, accounting software, or computer-based machinery. While an employee may have the current skills to use these systems, it is certain that these systems will change and employees will have to learn new skills. An organization also must improve itself constantly as a means of remaining effective, efficient and keeping up with customer demands and the competition. The organization improving means the employees must also be willing to improve…
