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5 Ways To Make Yourself Irreplaceable At Work

There is plenty of uncertainty in the job market right now thanks to the global pandemic. While the IT industry is weathering the storm better than most, it’s still important to provide value to your company.

If you’d like to increase your job security, here are five key ways to demonstrate how irreplaceable you are in your role.

1. Commit To Core Work Ethics

Great workers have three essential elements in common – they’re reliable, trustworthy, and meet (and often exceed) expectations. At the most basic, they always do what they say they will with minimum fuss.

Consider if you’re in this category. Do you consistently meet your project deadlines and goals? Are you committed to delivering value, or just happy to get the job done to get your monthly pay check?

2. Hone Your Communication Style

Tech work demands team work, and being a great team player is an excellent way to make yourself irreplaceable. The best team players excel at communicating and collaboration.

If you’re not sure how well you’re doing on the communication front, pay closer attention to how colleagues respond to your conversations. Or you could simply ask them for constructive feedback on your communication style, and be open to act on it.

Aim to develop some master collaborator skills. Regularly include others by asking for their input and implement their suggestions. Offer help if they hit a snag, and remember to thank them if they do the same for you.

3. Keep Up Your Learning

Ensuring your knowledge remains up-to-date is paramount in the IT industry. Be the first to say yes to trainings, workshops and extra certifications, or to opportunities like being a lead on a new project. You can also look around you at what senior colleagues are doing day to day, and work on developing that skillset.

You might like to also upskill yourself on the side. A smart move is to identify an area of need at work – hopefully something niche – and become your organisation’s go-to person.

4. Be A Problem-Solver, Not A Problem-Maker

Managers are used to hearing complaints about things that aren’t working well, and having to find fixes themselves. But being the person that suggest solutions instead can solidify your importance in your team.

If you know things aren’t working and you have ideas about how to solve them, don’t be afraid to present them to management. It doesn’t always have to focus on the high level stuff. You might identify a small workflow problem with another team, or a broken process that creates inefficiencies.

Aim to become the team solutions-giver, rather than the problem-maker.

5. Focusing On Strengthening Work Relationships

Networking is an excellent way to make you indispensable at work. Nurturing relationships with not just your team members, but those in other departments, management and perhaps even key clients, is just as important.

Try to be someone people enjoy dealing with, or can rely on. This doesn’t mean you have to ingratiate yourself or say yes to everyone. Try to be positive, helpful and trustworthy, and relationships will build from there.

Working on one or more of these five areas will go a long way towards increasing your value within your team and company at large, and make you irreplaceable. As an added bonus, you may also encounter new and exciting opportunities that help propel you forward in your career. If you’re ready for your next career opportunity, get in touch with Finite.

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