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by Kathryn Troutman
January 5, 2010
Federal employees are the lucky ones in 2010. As we begin 2010 with the US unemployment rate at 10%, federal employees can just be thankful for their jobs. And in being thankful, it's time to think about the future in terms of self-performance management strategies - to protect your job. What if your agency, mission and your job was in jeopardy? What could you do to save your job - before this happens? Even though your federal job is "safe", it could still be a good idea to consider protecting your job, the best that you can, within your own power.
Here are some ideas for higher performance, greater awareness of mission, and contributing to changes that are probably going on in your agency.
From what I am seeing with my career development training, every agency is in some kind of major change. No matter what agency, I can simply ask my audiences, "What are the changes going on in your agency?" or "Are there any changes going on here?" Usually there is large reaction in the audience, because of HUGE changes going on in the agency, in fact, sometimes there are entire new missions with new customers and strategies! Whether it's increased services due to the economy and stimulus activities, increased or decreased budget, restructuring in the agency due to the war changes, BRAC changes, or other mission changes, all of these changes affect the managers and employees and their jobs. That's why it's good to step back and think about protecting your job with overt actions and purposeful performance improvements for 2010 - just in case.
Here are my Tips that could help you protect your job and improve your performance at the same time:
Find ways to be more efficient with your work. Look around your desk and think about your daily tasks. Is there a way to perform more in a day? If so, work on becoming more efficient with any activities that you can. Talk to your supervisor or staff about how to be more efficient, make this an action with results required with a deadline, not just "we need to be more efficient." Even one new efficient action can save time and improve service. Being efficient could be recognized by supervisors and appreciated by customers. This could protect your job.
Work harder to accomplish current projects, so you can take on new projects. Make a list of your current projects for 2010 and make an objective to complete them, or work toward a benchmark, so there it is clear status of ongoing projects. Being able to take on more tasks and projects could protect your job and show your value to achieving project objectives.
Think of ways to improve services to customers. Think about who your customers are and make a list of ways to improve communications, services and problem-solving. Identify your top customers, and then ask them what you could do to improve services. Customer awareness can only help you perform better in your job. Take good care of your customers and even provide recognition to them by letting them know that you are there to support their needs. Customer services should be a priority in 2010 to protect your job.
Save money for your agency by looking at costs and recommending new methods. Is it possible to save money in your job? If so, try to document this, so that you can write about your cost savings at performance review time. Saving taxpayer money can be a credit to your job and performance. Also, you might need to demonstrate your value to your agency at some point, so try to document this savings and your ideas and efforts to achieve this. Saving money for your office or agency could certainly protect your job.
Ensure that ongoing training is provided to those who need it. Employees can always perform better if they are trained. Take a look at staff who can use training or development in certain areas, look at the budget and see if training can be provided, or assign staff to experts, so that the training can be systematically gained. This can increase performance and morale at the same time. Continual development and training is critical to protect one's job.
Fix things that are broken. Look around and find the broken services, procedures, performance, or attitudes and work on fixing them. Problem-solving is not a pleasure, but it's time to solve the problems from 2009 for 2010. Recognize problem systems, services, people and attitudes. Work on them one-at a time, and then they will go away. Problem-solving is a highly-valued core competency, which will protect your job.
Communicate more with team members and staff about your objectives and current activities. Create more transparency in your work, and therefore, more cooperation and understanding. Have a quick meeting to begin the New Year to talk about what everyone's top objectives are for 2010. Also talk about their biggest "takeaways" for 2009! "The ability to communicate orally" is also a highly-valued KSA, this demonstrated skill could protect your job.
These ideas come from my 2009 training classes in career development, performance management, and BRAC (find a new job) agendas. The best way to get promoted, be well liked, and keep your job is to have new ideas, perform at your highest level, get recognized (even if not on paper) for good deeds, and care about your job and mission. These accomplishments, competencies and actions are the best protection for keeping your job in 2010. Make it your New Year's Resolution!
Kathryn Troutman is the founder and president of The Resume Place, Inc., located in Baltimore, Maryland, specializing in writing and designing professional federal and private-sector resumes, as well as coaching and education in the federal hiring process. For the past 30 years, Troutman has managed her professional writing and consulting practice, publishing and federal career training business, and with her team of 20 Certified Federal Resume Writers, The Resume Place advises and writes more than 300 federal resumes per month for military, private industry and federal clients world-wide. She is also the author of several critically acclaimed books, including "Ten Steps to a Federal Job", "Writing Your NSPS Self Assessment", and "Federal Resume Guidebook".
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