6 key points to success at work. How HR can be a help

“Success is dependent on effort” – Sophocles

Two variables, one relationship. The more effort you put, the more successful you will be.

This is what Sophocles, one of the three ancient Greek tragedians, said. He believed that people control their own success.

In real life, of course, success is an objective term and different people define it in different ways.

Moreover, external factors which can affect this relationship may occur and success may be delayed.

These factors may include unexpected events or miscalculated risks which have the power to prevent people from reaching their goals.

In this blog, I discuss 6 key points to success for employees to help people secure their trip toward success and help HR professionals realize how improving their employee value proposition (EVP) can help people become more successful while impacting the company’s overall performance positively.

Create a “blurry” vision

Everyone talks about how critical it is to “know what you want” in order to succeed, but no one talks about how you can get there.

How do you make it clear to yourself what you want? “If you love what you do, you will succeed,” they say, but how do you define what makes you happy by doing it?

Well, to answer all these questions you need first to try and fail; and then try again and fail again, and maybe also try something else.

You need to keep an open mind!

In high school, I used to participate in different math-based inter-school competitions, and I always won.

Years in a row, I was first in the city I represented and that made me think that my future should be related to numbers.

Honestly, I enjoyed the numbers, but at the same time I enjoyed helping people, and I hated listening to stories where people were not treated well by their employers.

In the final year of school though, I had a great experience involving consultancy meetings, managing people, and hiring people for a purpose, and this experience made me realize that as much as I enjoy numbers, I enjoy people-related projects at least twice as much.

It was then I decided to focus on HR. I had a blurry vision of my future, but trying different things actually helped me realize what matters to me.

Now, creating a “blurry” vision of success as a first step is not a bad thing. It gives you the opportunity to make mistakes and try new things.

Wanting to succeed in two or three things instead of one means that you do not have to stick with the one thing even if you are good at it; if you do not really enjoy it, then at some point, you get bored of it.

Instead, you have the opportunity to try something else which is still within your “blurry” vision. Therefore, do not be afraid of having a blurry vision when starting your career.

Have several goals and try to figure out which one most fits your needs and ambitions. Explore what makes you perform with a purpose.

Set short-term goals for success and always keep your bigger goal in mind

If you only set long-term goals, you will likely get tired of putting so much effort and not seeing any results yet.

On the other hand, by setting short-term goals you get the opportunity to celebrate your achievements every once in a while, thus keeping yourself motivated to continue your efforts for your bigger long-term goal.

Achieving something every now and then makes you feel you are on the right path; it makes you believe you can achieve even more.

To help you with the goal-setting process, Edwin Locke suggests that your goals need to be “SMART”:

1. 1. Specific – After your blurry vision helps you decide what matters to you and what makes you happy, it is time to set specific/clear goals to know what you are working for.

1. 1. Measurable – Your goals must allow you to demonstrate and measure the results to decide which behaviors you need to reward.

1. 1. Attainable – You need goals which are achievable. Unachievable goals will only bring you disappointment. You will not meet your own expectations. Therefore, make sure you know what you are capable of. Be honest with yourself.

1. 1. Realistic/Relevant – You need to ensure that your goal is realistic, within your reach, consistent with other established goals, relevant to your life purpose, and fits in with immediate and long-term plans. Are you willing to commit to your goal? 

1. Time–bound – Your goals must have a defined time frame which includes a start date and an end date, otherwise, there is no sense of urgency to start working toward your goals.

Communicate; build a reliable network

Networking is free, most of the time. It gives you the opportunity to meet like-minded people and people who come from different backgrounds.

From both groups, you have a lot to learn. Like-minded people can probably help you with advice and stories on how to reach similar goals, and people with a different mindset will most probably help you become aware of the threats and risks involved in your decisions.

This can help you avoid mistakes and protect your efforts toward meeting your goals.

Networking is a great way to market yourself, and it can always lead to future opportunities for both parties.

As some people say, “your net worth is only as good as your network.”

Be your own evaluator

Most companies have yearly appraisal programs to evaluate their employees. In this kind of appraisal, employees get evaluated by their manager for their performance during the year they left behind.

Based on this evaluation, together with their manager, employees set goals for the next year.

It is a good way to keep personal and team goals aligned with the company’s bigger goals and to identify what kind of value each employee can add to the company.

But is it enough for you as a person to identify your strengths and your points that you need to improve?

Of course not!

You should not wait for this yearly evaluation to tell yourself what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong.

Take time yourself every week or even every day and think about what have you done, what have you achieved, and what you would change with regard to a particular behavior or situation to have achieved better results.

You need to be your own evaluator and not wait for others to assess your performance. Being your own evaluator also helps you to build stronger self-efficacy.

You will be able to identify those types of behaviors that you need to keep and those that you need to change, minimize, or eliminate.

Be passionate

It is critical to loving what you choose to do. Being committed and enthusiastic when performing something help you become more motivated.

David Lucatch, the CEO of Yapnn Corp., believes that “a person with a passion typically exudes confidence, and confidence creates value for themselves and others by leading the way, not showing the way.”

Passion helps you also create enthusiasm, and as Michael Virardi says, enthusiasm comes from a Greek word “en-theos,” which means “the god from within.”

Find your god. If you are passionate about what you do, then you have found what makes you feel fulfilled. 

“When you know what you want, and want it bad enough, you will find a way to get it.” –Jim Rohn

Find a healthy work-life balance

To become successful you first need to find a way to improve your productivity.

Productivity is defined as a measure of the efficiency of a person, machine, systems, etc. in converting inputs into useful outputs. Output, in this case, will be the level of success in achieving the goals you have set.

On the other hand, the input will consist of the efforts, energy, the time you spent, and all the other resources you used to achieve your goals.

Thus, it is very important to master your time-management skills. It is necessary to also find the time you need to spend with your loved ones.

Food, sleep, mindfulness, and exercising are important factors which, if managed properly, could help you increase your productivity and thereby chances of success.

(To read more on how people wellness affects productivity, go here.)

How does the need that people have to become successful affect HR and Talent Acquisition?

The role of HR within an organization should be to ensure that employees have the necessary knowledge, skills, practices, processes, learning opportunities, development opportunities, support, benefits, and freedom which will allow them to perform at their best potential, aiming to achieve their personal, team and organizational goals while having as a motivation organization’s overall vision and mission.

Whereas, Talent Acquisition’s team goal is to ensure that the company has and will attract the best talent available for each existing or future role.

Knowing that people like to feel and become successful, HR and Talent Acquisition (TA) should adopt a more strategic perspective and help their employees in their efforts.

Here a few tips on how HR and TA can achieve that:

1. 1. Build a company culture which promotes values such as individuality, eagerness to learn, job enrichment opportunities, initiative, and creativity. Allow employees to take on new projects which will help them identify their best fit in terms of skills or character.

1. 1. Celebrate short-term goals and quick achievements. Thus, you will help your employees feel proud of their efforts and their self-efficacy will increase.

1. 1. Organize cross-functional meetings and events which will allow your people to meet more people from other departments and functions and therefore build a bigger personal and professional network. It benefits both the business and employees by making knowledge sharing easier.

1. 1. Provide your people with clear communication about the bigger goal and the organization’s vision and mission. Make them perform with a purpose.

1. 1. Implement different programs which allow your people to build a healthy work-life balance. Provide them with the opportunity to enjoy their time outside the company and at work by offering benefits that help to avoid burnout.

1. Include all the aforementioned in the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) package you communicate to candidates while assessing them for a specific position.

Think smarter and help your employees succeed. It helps your organization to succeed as well. 

Popular posts like this

1. 6 key points to success at work. How HR can be a help

2. HR Technology trends to follow in 2019

3. What is Social HR? – The new rule of talent acquisition

Automate your hiring process using HackerEarth’s Talent Assessment Software

Nikola Tore Author 6 Blogs