• Performance evaluations, how your employers rated you as a worker, contain invaluable info for you if you’re seeking employment or  just want to keep your career on a fast track.  

Your Strengths

• Your evaluations inform you  of what you excelled in at your workplaces.
• Knowledge of your strengths is an essential part of creating a dynamite resume, interviewing well, networking and promotions. 

Job Choices

• Have your positions utilized your best skills or have you just taken a job because you needed the money? 
• How could you match yourself better to openings?

 Career Focus

• Every career needs to have a focus. You need to know what you want from a job, and your goal should be to find it. Evaluations tell what career choices worked, and which ones didn’t. Your focus should be based on the components that did work.

Workplaces

• Some workplaces bring out the best and allow you to maximize your skills and provide job satisfaction.
• Which workplace was your favorite and why? You should be targeting organizations that have the same corporate culture.
• Research and especially networking will give you insight into the companies that offer what you want in a workplace.

Career Mapping

• Evaluations can help you do career mapping, which gives you an overview of where you started professionally, and what direction your employment has taken.
• If your happy with the direction, then you can define the next logical steps on your career ladder.
• If you are discontent with your career path, you need to figure out what direction you want to go in.

• Determine the service you want to offer.
• Talk to people, who own online businesses.
• Figure out who your target market is and what marketing   strategies to use.
• Get a part-time job because an internet business can grow slowly and provide an erratic income.
• Expand or narrow your focus in response to your product or service sales.
• Make sure your website reflects the professional look that you need to draw in and keep customers.
• Learn as much as you can about SEO Search Engine Optimization. This method helps ensure that your info goes to the top of the search engines. www.dummies.org is a great source for SEO info. 
• Network-Network-Network. You can add to your customer base, but you can also learn alot about doing online business.
• Take online tutorials to find out more about technical areas that you have limited knowledge in.

Workers are allowed to have autonomy over their duties and make decisions regarding the best way to implement tasks.

Ideas on problems generated by teams or individuals are respected and usually implemented.

Open communication between supervisors and their staff is utilized.

Chances to network with people outside the company during work hours is encouraged.

Training opportunities are available.

Compensation and benefits are more than satisfactory.

Jobs are challenging and professionally rewarding.

Mutual trust between management and staff is an intrinisic part of the environment.

Safe working conditions

Resources, including support staff and equipment, are always available. 

Management is family friendly.

 Low Tech Marketing Methods

• The Yellow Pages
• Newspaper Ads
• Coupon Mailers
• Holding an Event
• Put out info at places that your consumers frequent.
• Enclose pictures with your emails.
• Press Releases
• Community Service
• Join Organizations
• Say Thank You
• Help out professional contacts.

Primary Work Focus

• People focus on one of four things: people, data, ideas or things. Most individuals have a primary focus, which provides their greatest motivation. In the workplace,  your primary focus translates into your accomplisments because that focus interests and motivates you the most.

People

• If your primary focus is people, your accomplishments could be in the areas of customer service, employee relations, management or sales/marketing. You will be someone, who builds rapport easily and can produce win-win outcomes. You will also consider outcomes based on how they will impact people-colleagues and customers. 

Data

• Data as a primary focus speaks to the importance of accuracy for you. You will determine the cost. You have superior attention to detail.That means your accomplishments could very well be in the areas of finance, record keeping or computer systems. All these disciplines require a high degree of accuracy to have any real value.

Ideas

• People, who like to generate ideas in the workplace; are usually change makers and innovators. They like change because it can reduce the flaws in existing systems or methods of doing business. They excel at creative problem solving, change management, developing new services and ways of doing business.

Things

• Workers, who have things as a primary focus; like to deal with tangible products, equipment, measurable outcomes and quality control. They value efficiency and productivity, and they look to the use of equipment, time management, and quality control to improve the bottomline-ROI.

Knowing your primary focus informs you of your perspective when you approach a task or situation in the workplace. It also gives you insight into why your co-workers may have a different or even a conflictual perspective from yours. Try to determine what their focus is, and it will enable you to cope better with opinions that differ from yours. 

Traits of a Desirable Worker

 Behavior

• Understand what the employer wants. 
• Be on time.
• Treat all your co-workers with respect.
• Be dependable 
•  Make yourself available for extra work.
• Don’t criticize your work situation.
• You’re there to listen and learn. Be humble rather than egotistic.
• Follow company policy.
• Dress professionally, take your styles cues from your co-workers.

 Output

• Ask for help when you need it. Thank those, who give it to you.
• Put yourself on a fast learning curve for computer skills and procedures.
• Make sure all work you perform is accurate and meets the employer’s highest standards.

Invaluable Contributions

• Provide exceptional customer service. This can lead to repeat business.
• Look for ways to save the company money.  Share your ideas with your supervisor.
• Generate more revenue for your employer. This can be proposed in the form of sales or marketing ideas.
• Help expand the customer base by suggesting how to widen the target market or offer new services/products.

Money Generators

Often, the first people to be laid off are actually the individuals, who create your cash flow.

Marketing is essential to expand your business through making your product known to more customers and in more markets. Social networks and websites have provided cheap ways to do it, but marketing professionals know how to make the most of these venues. 

Sales Your sales’ employees are the prime source of revenue for your bottom line.

Good Customer Service is what ensures repeat and new business.

Human Resources selects the qualified candidates. They bring you talent that can work smarter because they understand your needs and help meet those needs. 

Line Workers & Cost Cutting

There is a company in Rhode Island that makes curtain rods. Walmart is a leading customer. Walmart asked them to fill orders in 24 hours rather than the usual five days. The company turned to their warehouse workers for suggestions. The warehouse workers came up with the a solution that allowed the company to meet the new deadline.

Line workers understand how the company loses money through ineffiiciency because they actually implement the company’s business systems.

Made in America

Outsourcing work to foreign countries may make sense in terms of the bottom line. The reality is that you may make it in Thailand, but you want to sell in Texas.

More and more Americans are seeing companies that ship jobs overseas as the bad guys. The anger is starting to impact market share, and that rage is only going to increase.

Executives

Executives are your most expensive employees. They are treated like sacred cows in a re-org. In fact, CEO’s are routinely richly rewarded for inadequate  performance.   Hard times require executives to make decisions that are for the good of the company, not ones that satisfy their greed.   

A place was opened in Phoenix recently; where commuters could leave off their bikes, shower, change clothes and hook up with a light rail to work. They could also have repairs done on their bicycles. It was only open one day, and four people had already signed up.

New Way of Commuting

This kind of service is definitely in step with the times. It allows the commuters to get their exercise going to and from work. It also is environmentally friendly. I hope we see more innovations that both enhance our well being and the health of the environment.

Solves Parking Problem

Another side benefit for the employer is that it reduces the headache of parking. Finding a parking space in some urban areas is near impossible. The outlay of funds for a parking lot could be reduced. Workers could be given incentives to utilize this form of commuting.

Intelligence Undervalued 

I was looking for a picture to illustrate the idea of “intelligence”.  What I found were lots of photographs of dogs and chimpanzees. The only people shown were wearing glasses-a trite idea from a long time ago.

Dumbing of America

There were plenty of depictions of stupid people. It made me wonder whether the dumbing of America had left us so enamored by buffoonery that we didn’t take pride in our intellectual abilities.

Comedies Applaud Stupidity

The comedies in our society center on the antics of people, who are less than bright. These movies re-enforce the idea that stupidity is the norm-not being smart.

Global Economy

I hope we can once more see challenging our mind as desirable-rather than too demanding-because we need that intellectual prowress to compete in a global economy.

Customer service is a huge component in repeat business and maintaining a positive reputation for your company.

Ensure Good Customer Service

Appearance-Customer service workers need to dress in a professional way.

Attitude-Customer service staff should not project the attitude that they don’t have the time or willingness to serve the customer properly.

Friendliness-Rapport
building is important for keeping customers and having them shout your company’s praises to friends and family.

Impression-The image of the company is transmitted through the customer service staff. Policies that are not client friendly can lose you customers and repeat business.

Response-Difficult customers go with the territory of customer service. Your employee’s ability to deal with these individuals effectively and satisfy them is crucial.

Commitment-If a worker is comitted to the company, then they will display  motivated behavior and the willingness to go the extra mile for the customer.

Communication-The information passed on to the customer must be accurate and easily understood, especially if the data is complex or the worker does not speak English as a first language.

Professional Excellence-Many communications are sent electronically: email, texting, etc. Professional excellence is demonstrated when those messages contain no errors in spelling, grammar and content.