Monday, 23 September 2013

What kind of attributes do employers look for?

Employers often look for key attributes in their employees and future employees, these attribute show the employer that the person can succeed in the job they shall undertake using these abilities in combination. Some of the key factors that employers look for include:

Technical knowledge: The employee must understand the role they are taking on and have the training and knowledge to accomplish the tasks they are set during their employment, a good example of technical knowledge is having the basic skills to use all Microsoft office programmes. Technical knowledge must also be kept up to date because if one person has the ability to do that that another cannot they are seen as being superior so a person could be fired for not having the skills to use equipment anymore.

Planning and organisational skills: This is a very important attribute for an employee to have as it is key in any business to have work done to schedule, this is because if work is not complete on time there could be serious consequences that happen. An example of what may happen due to the failure of time management is if say a program developer wishes to create a program for a company and is given a set time to complete it, they may be given a contract to sign with a clause. This clause allows the company to deduct some funding away from the project and this could even lead to the project being cancelled or even given away for free to the company. Though this is an extreme example it has been known to have happen too many projects.

Teamwork: Teamwork skills are needed in any field of work, this is because that all companies have separate sections to them. If one of the sections were to fail then it would bring all of the others down with it. Without teamwork skills companies would collapse in a flash. An example of failure to work as a team would be say that a the sales department of a company did not communicate with the finance department they would not know how much money was being spend and how much money was left over in the budget, this could lead to the company falling into debt or worse liquidation.

Self Confidence: The self-confidence of a person can be determined by an employer the moment they meet an employee, lack of confidence can be given away by certain action like being quiet when talking or stuttering mid speech. The self-confidence of an employee can also determine how well they can get on with their work. An example of good self-confidence is when an employee can get on with their work independently without the aid of others. This is good for an employer because it shows that their employees are efficient and don’t waste money on employing assistants to help. Though too much confidence could lead to a form of vanity that could lead to the employee doing the wrong work but being self-satisfied that the task is complete.

Working with integrity: Integrity is one of the most important attributes an employer can look for in a person. The integrity of an employee is prime in many companies across the work, this is because if an employee were to break their integrity they would face very serious consequences or most probably redundancy. It is very hard for an employer to measure the integrity of an employee so it takes a lot of trust that the employee would not break their rules. An example of integrity being broken would be a nurse showing the health reports of a news reporter in return for cash. This example is one that would be treated with the direst of consequences and could even end up with a prison sentence.


Leadership skills: Every section of a company needs a leader. Leaders are not very common as most people are very shy and lack the confidence to command people on what to do. Without leaders to keep things in check the separate work forces would not be able to work to their maximum potential. Leaders are often used to keep orders up to schedule and make sure projects are done on time, this requires a great amount of skills in itself like; time management, to keep the project running on time. Tolerance, to understand when someone needs help that they should be given a chance to succeed. And determination, to keep working at the tasks set no matter how much it takes. Leaders also show that they can make decisions and tell other what to do to keep the whole project organised. An example of a leader showing decision making is tasking each individual in a group with a specific task.