Doing what the job demands…and only what the job demands

 

The relevance of an employee to the organization is too complex a metric to be decided on the basis of assumptions and depends on certain other factors. Some of these factors are directly under the control of the employee, while some others are driven by bigger wheels. That statement essentially points to another question – What can an employee do to ensure that he/she is relevant in his role?

Broadly speaking, every business in the world runs on the basis of a customer’s need, which it fulfills through its products, services or some combination of both. Whether the need is genuine or one created is another point of concern, but let’s not go into that now. In most cases, customers either purchase a product/service that fulfills their need completely, or they settle for whatever is available that best fulfills it. The same principle that applies to the relationship between the business and a customer also applies to the relationship between the business and an employee.

Typically, an employee who answers an advertisement for an opening, is expected to fulfill a specific need, which the employer is well aware of. An unfortunate trend in many cases is that the employee ends up doing exactly that – and nothing more. From the moment an employee begins working in an organization, he/she is knowingly or unknowingly part of a learning process. As an employee becomes comfortably familiar with the character of a business and its behavior, he/she also gets an insight into what other needs are remaining to be fulfilled. Some may be within your limits, some may not.