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How to... make yourself Recession Proof

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Source

This month’s CP Career comes from Source - a specialist recruitment business, dedicated to the digital, integrated and traditional creative communications industry.

 

They work to support the needs of advertising, marketing and design agencies, in addition to in-house departments of corporate clients and provide permanent, contract and freelance solutions.

This month’s article looks at the positive steps you can take to make sure you stay secure in your current role. Jonathan Lindon, Director of Source, gives us the lowdown on how to impress your boss and keep your job.

Making yourself Recession Proof
Recessions worry us because companies respond to economic retraction by reducing their workforce - often in advance of a reduction in job orders from their clients! If you’re a worker - and that’s most of us - that’s a terrifying thought. If you’re living pay slip to pay slip, redundancy can be the first step toward economic ruin. So if you still have a job and you want to keep it, what can you do to try to recession proof yourself?

Research just completed by Monster, the online jobs board, shows that only 57% of employees plan to look for opportunities to shine and demonstrate to their employers that they add value. 7% said they would get in earlier and stay later, whilst 5% said they would make more of an effort; for example always looking smart. Incredibly 25% said that they won’t be making any changes with regards to work and their relationship with it!

From the point of view of any employer, the attitude of that 25% is just not acceptable. When companies are struggling to make ends meet, the individuals who are not interested, or willing to put in a little extra effort to help safeguard the whole company’s future leave themselves very exposed. We all want to keep our jobs, yet some people feel that it’s only the responsibility of the employer to make relevant changes to secure their businesses and that the employees have no influence over the maintenance of the company’s health. That really isn’t the case.

Clearly if three quarters of a team are pulling in one direction and making a real effort, but a quarter is doing nothing, the bosses sit like a Cox on a boat with less than a full complement of oarsman. Competitive rowing like competitive business requires the whole team to work together and make a real effort.

Our Top Tips:

  • Impress your employer - ask what you can do to help beyond your job description
  • Work harder and smarter - utilise every minute - Think ’Am I being effective’.
  • Getting in earlier and working later works if you are actually doing something in that time!
  • Don’t be a Mood Hoover - stay positive!
  • Celebrate small successes internally with your colleagues; we can all boost each other in this respect
  • Air your ideas - your boss will want to see you being innovative and will welcome the thinking
  • Be on time (or early)
  • Be alert!
  • Don’t let your personal life interfere with your job, turn off the mobile during the day, get off Facebook, Yahoo and any other time sapping sites
  • Forget the smoke breaks and the long lunches!

 

In such unprecedented times, it’s vital for everyone to demonstrate that they value their job, their place of work and their employer. Financial pressures shine a spotlight on sloppy approaches to work such as lateness, incompliancy, untidiness, blamers, laziness. We all respect people who take responsibility, go above and beyond the call of duty and who are positive, so emulate those traits yourself. It’s tough out there, but if you don’t do all you can to be indispensable you’ll kick yourself when it’s you that gets the call into the boardroom!

Contact:
If you would like to have a further conversation about being a freelancer and how to get ahead, please contact Jonathan from Source

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