The Future of Employment: Maximizing the Value of Employer and Employee

(This is the 6th and final installment in a series of articles about the problems associated with government's attempts to ignore free market principles in a free market world ecomony.)

The solution for all the economic and social woes we face will naturally occur with the improved understanding of value.

The World of Employment Will be Enhanced by Understanding Value.

Let me describe an entirely new relationship between a business owner and the employee which will raise everyone’s standard of living, and reduce the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots." As I have said, everything revolves around the understanding of value. Value can no longer be associated with time, with products of services as ends in themselves. Value must be aligned with the realized ability of a product or service to improve the life conditions for the buyer.

Value for an employee must be seen in the same way. An employee, recognizing the responsibility to provide value as the foundation for determining a worthy wage, must realize, then appropriately communicate, how his participation does just that.

The Employee Approach to Job Search will be Changed. Earnings will be Improved.

Employees will no longer be interested in merely trading time for money. They will be more concerned that their companies, and their company’s customer, are able to be positively and recognizably impacted by what they do. "Getting a job," as though an employee is taking something from someone, will be replaced by rendering a service, as though an employee intends to make a real and recognizable contribution on his company and on the company's customers.

The Employer Approach to Recruiting will be Changed. Earnings will be Improved.

Employers will stop recruiting for positions, too. Instead, they will be communicating their vision and mission, their reason to exist, and will be seeking good people who can align themselves to the completion of those missions.

Employers will not be looking for people to put in positions, so much as looking to discover the impact of having a particular person at work to fulfill the company's mission, and to serve its customers. Employers and employees alike will not want to exchange money for things done, so much as for measurable impact of the things done. This will automatically raise the earnings for an employee’s service as he or she is able to raise the profitability of the employer. Job security will be of little concern.

Great employees who make contributions to the profitability of their employers will be desirable everywhere. Once an employee knows his best contributions, and is able to produce them confidently wherever he is placed, he will have confidence enough to know that will eliminate his fear of serving where there is a mission to be fulfilled.

The More You're Worth, The More You'll be Paid. The Greater Your Impact, The Greater Your Compensation.

Once value is understood in the mainstream of our economies and our lives, it will start to make no difference what any other person is paid. It will be understood that one's pay will be less than the contribution made. Whether you are Roger Clemens, Lebron James, Bill Gates, or John Doe, once you understand how to look for and deliver value, you will begin to earn in accordance with the value you provide, and to your heart's desire.

This is the key to a better future. It is the solution to most every economic and social problem. It is the only way that our long and well developed capitalism can endure. It is the best way to correct perceived income inequality.

We may not remember that there is no "free lunch," but remember we must, if we are to survive.

CJ Coolidge is a regular contributor to HRTools.coms.
You can now get your own copy of his groundbreaking book, The Squaredime Letters.
You can vist CJ online at www.cjcoolidge.com.

A Strengths Based Approach Makes the Job Search Easy, and A Lot More Fun

I’ve been counseling college students to forget what they think they know about “getting a job” to pursue a “strengths based” effort to become involved with an employer where they can maximize their entry value in whatever enterprise that may be fortunate enough to hire them.

It’s a simple and effective process.

Let's say you want a job.

Begin with a change in perspective. You are really not simply looking for a job, as if you were taking something from someone, but, instead, you are looking for an opportunity to serve someone, as if you are actually giving something valuable.

To do this confidently, you must absolutely know how you naturally work best. This knowledge is what Marcus Buckingham calls a talent, which is the foundation for a strength. Once you can identify your real and natural strengths, you can approach employment in a new way. What you'll learn isn’t what job you should do, as is customary for career counseling services, but how you should uniquely approach anything you might choose to do.

It’s a five step process:

• Discover your strengths. Read Now Discover Your Strengths, and take the online assessment.

• Understand these strengths as areas of near perfect performance. Learn what results they can almost automatically offer, simply because of who they know they are.

• Research companies to discover ones with visions and missions that are aligned with the kinds of things they can be passionate about.

• Take a different approach. When talking with a prospective employer, don’t ask things like, “What positions are you currently looking to fill?” and then try to make the resume look like a fit. Instead, using their knowledge of their strengths, engage a business on the basis of the expected outcomes that their employment will produce for the company. This helps the prospective employer frame the hiring decision. It changes from, “Do I have a position for your?” to “Do I want the outcome you offer?” Managers and business owners are hungry for outcomes, and the average applicant rarely offers any.

• If the first company declines, ask what other companies in the space are in need of the outcome you deliver.
  

Experience tells me that this approach leaves a better impression than the typical employment interview. Rather than the employee-centered approach, this one shows a business owner that the primary interest of the applicant is producing a beneficial outcome for the business. The applicant is there to help him. If the offer of a great outcome is declined, consider that it may lack clarity. Revise it.

No business person worth his salt forgets the approach. And, if the outcomes are well presented, few can resist the strong temptation to take advantage of the opportunity you present. After all, should they pass on a great outcome, their competitor might get it. This is a risk too great for many managers to take.

Besides, you don't really just want a job, or do you?