What is Employability Insurance?
Are you experiencing some cliff hangers or uncertain ground in your employment pathway? With all the changes in workplace expectations, the introduction of Artificial Intelligence in specific job groups, it might be worth creating some Employability Insurance for yourself. This might help you to bridge the gaps in your pathway and feel confident that you can continue forward ven if the path is rugged!
What would employability insurance look like if it could be found? It would be a means of insuring that no matter what happened in the workplace there would be another opportunity for a job equal to or better than the one currently held.
Realities of Lifetime Employment: There was a time when companies hired people for life. Their path was laid out for them, and they were expected to follow it for life. In Japan, some companies still hire people for life. Lifetime employment generally insures a paycheck, but it does not insure the opportunity to challenge yourself mentally, to do the job you enjoy, to exercise your leadership skills, or to be rewarded with a sense of achievement.
However, the shifting tides of the marketplace are making lifetime employment with one company not only unlikely, but unattractive as well. Many of us, still uncomfortable with change, tend to fall into a complacency about our careers and expect the company to "support" us forever. This is just not realistic. Essentially, people who are satisfied just collecting a paycheck are mindlessly trudging down a path, just wishing to get to the end of it!
ENSURE YOUR EMPLOYABILITY
Six Areas of Self-Insurance to make your path successful
1. Expertise: Everybody has an expertise in something. Identifying what you do well takes a little digging. Generally those things that we do without effort are perceived as an expertise by others, but to ourselves, they seem like no big deal. Identifying accomplishments is a good place to begin. Make a list of those things that were done both on and off the job that made you really feel good about yourself. It doesn't matter that no one else was aware of the accomplishment. It is important to remember that an expertise is not the topic of the work being done; it is how well the work is done!
2. Professional Contribution: Professional contribution has two parts. First, there is the matter of shaping your skills and interests so that they enhance your value to the company. You might also consider how you could parley your professional knowledge and skills into self–employment!
3. Organization Perception: It is seldom that we take the time to really evaluate the company's needs, goals, problems, and potentials. In fact, most of us probably know more about our stock market investments than we do about the company in which we are investing our lives and futures. Each company works by different rules. Some are healthy and productive; some are petty and dysfunctional. As part of the research, each person needs to clearly identify where the opportunities are to make a difference and when some problems are part of the culture and will never change. These decisions are important for clarifying our pathway.
4. Leadership: Are you able to provide leadership for those who work with you? In the days of the wagon train, the scout would ride out ahead of the people to identify the pathways to water, shelter, and safety. If you are trying to insure your own employability, your contributions as a leader, especially as a servant leader, will help to prepare you for what lies ahead. A leader is aware of limitations in self and others. Thus it will be important to anticipate what could happen and to help prepare the way for others. This will make you more valuable and increase the value of your contributions.
5. Networking: Sharing your experiences on your pathway might be very helpful to others. And, while you are exploring the paths that other people have taken, you can also share tips you have learned along your own path. Joining up with a group of people headed the same direction on the path can also be helpful. Professional associations provide the contacts to let us know who needs help, what projects are going on, how the work is being done, what technology is being tested, what lies ahead on the path, and most importantly, who needs help. You can use internet technology to help you with your pathfinding and your path clearing.
6. Strategic Planning: Developing each of these areas requires diligent application of the sixth category of employability insurance: strategic planning. It is easy to get caught up in the day to day activities and chores of the workplace. However, just as we have insurance premiums taken out of our paychecks, we need to take time off the top of our work week to plan, organize, analyze, and develop strategies that will insure that continuous employment will be in the future. If you were hiking across the Appalachian Trail, you would have considerable planning to do. You would study your map. You would identify where water could be found, where the likely sleeping places would be, and where to replenish supplies. You 8 would also have to plan how much money you need to have with you and how many pairs of socks you need to take for this long walk. Planning ahead like this increases your success on the path. While each of these suggestions can help to insure your employability in the market place, they are also helpful in other pathways
Contact Us Today
Thank you for your interest. For questions or comments, please use the information below. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Phone
(719)-510-8902
Service Area
Entire Colorado Front Range, including Denver & Fort Collins
Business Hours
Monday-Friday: 8am-5pm
