Commercial Integrator April 2022 - 5

However, when an employee is terminated
or their position is eliminated, the
primary reason can be traced to a failure
by the employee to provide value to
the employer. To put it another way, to
protect and ensure their employment,
employees must monetize themselves.
In other words, employees must " pay
for themselves " in one or more ways
under the umbrella of perceived value.
They need to provide more value to an
employer than they cost to retain. Let's
examine the issue of how employers
perceive employee value.
By the economic necessity of business,
employers seek to get more than they are
paying for. If an employer pays someone
a wage or salary, that employer wants
the employee to bring in more value than
what the employee is paid. In short, the
value that the employee provides must
meet - if not exceed - what is being
asked of them by the employer. That
last part is critical. Value is not what the
employee wants it to be; rather, value is
what the employer says it is. Employment
and longevity on a job are dependent on
providing value. This invites the question
of how an employer looks at value both in
aggregate (from an accounting perspective)
and from the individual perspective
(performance and contribution).
Aggregate value begins at the accounting
level. It's all about dollars and cents.
When everything that the employee costs
is subtracted from all that the employee
provides, the remainder is employee
value. This is classic return on investment.
What follows are a few costs that accountants
consider:
› The costs of recruiting, hiring and
training.
› The fixed costs of salaries, which tend
to go up over time.
› The ever-increasing cost of employee
benefits, as well as government-mandated
employment costs (e.g., Social Security,
Medicare, worker's compensation).
› For many companies, there are expenses
for travel, food and lodging.
Assessing Business Costs
Apart from the obvious expenses above,
there are additional costs that relate to
the overall business. These might include
commercialintegrator.com
Motivated individuals are beneficial to companies because they can deliver quality
work while, at the same time, becoming powerful role models for their colleagues.
the costs of utilities, maintenance, rent/
mortgage and business insurance. There
are also equipment expenses (e.g., for
computers, phones, automobiles) that may
be general or department specific. From an
accounting point of view, these expenses
may be divided equally among the number
of employees to determine individuals'
contribution to these total expenses.
These factors relate to the balance sheet
and the overall health of the business. Certainly,
they must be kept in mind. However,
there is more to consider than aggregate
accounting math. Only by evaluating the
individual, their performance and their
contributions can we determine the real
value an employee brings. This invites another
question: What makes an individual a
valuable employee?
Valuable employees are those who
exhibit dedication and use their skills and
attitudes to positively influence their work
environment; meanwhile, they continuously
improve their individual performance.
Experienced and motivated individuals are
beneficial to companies because they can
deliver quality work while, at the same time,
becoming powerful role models for their
colleagues and coworkers - in many cases,
even for customers. Employees who know
how to add value to their jobs tend to command
higher salaries, receive assignments
for more exciting projects and gain better
job opportunities. Companies value talent
like this so much that they'll do everything
possible to keep them, even in the event of
a recession, a layoff or a merger.
Employees Must Know Expectations
To provide value, an employee must first,
at a minimum, know what is expected of
them. A Gallup poll revealed that almost
50% of employees don't know what their
managers expect of them. Also, some
companies have limited (or no) official job
descriptions. If an employee is not 100%
sure what's expected of them, then they
must talk to their manager, rather than
trying to figure it out on their own. An
employee must ask the boss to enumerate
the specific tasks associated with the job,
any ad-hoc duties, how all those tasks are
measured and their ROI to the company. In
some cases, the manager might be just as
uncertain about the specifics of the role as
the employee is. Thus, it's very important
that the employee talk through things at
the outset.
Together, the manager and the employee
can and should define the core objectives
and the resulting tasks related to the job.
Included in this should be the performance
metrics that the employee needs to achieve
so they can objectively say they met - or
exceeded - expectations and provided
tangible value.
In most cases, it is not difficult for
employees to add value to a company if
APRIL 2022 Commercial Integrator
5
.SHOCK/STOCK.ADOBE.COM
http://www.commercialintegrator.com
Commercial Integrator April 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Commercial Integrator April 2022
