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How to Make Yourself Indispensable at Work

​With the cost of living rapidly rising, job security is increasingly important. In times like these, it can be comforting to know you have a stable Automotive Engineering position, one that offers a regular pay cheque month after month.

One approach to increase your job security is to showcase your employee value. But this needn’t automatically equate to doubling your workload or working excessively long hours. There are plenty of ways you can prove you’re irreplaceable while maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Consider these key tips about how to become indispensable at work.

1. Hone Your Soft Skills

It could be argued that in today’s working world, soft skills are just as important as technical ones, if not more so. As such, honing your soft skillset is a valuable use of your time.

In the Automotive Engineering field, a high-functioning team with collaboration at its heart is essential for success. You can focus on developing your collaboration skills by regularly including others as well as asking for their input and implementing their suggestions. If colleagues encounter an obstacle, offer your help.

The best team players also excel at communication. If you’re not sure how well you’re doing in this area, pay close attention to how colleagues and managers respond to your in-person and digital conversations. Or you could simply ask them for constructive feedback on your communication style and be open to act upon it.

2. Prioritise Professional Learning

According to The Engineer’s 2021/22 Salary Survey, 68% of Engineers say a new challenge is important. This can equate to learning new things, which is a smart method of making yourself irreplaceable in your role.

This can take numerous forms such as keeping updated on industry best practices and trends, undertaking courses to enhance your skills or simply asking your manager to be considered for additional learning opportunities within the business.

If you’d like to learn more about the most in-demand skills and qualifications for current Automotive Engineering jobs, connect with a specialist recruiter like us at Fields and Rudd.

A key part of our role in helping candidates in their UK job search is staying abreast of the latest happenings in our industry. We’re more than happy to share that knowledge and assist you in boosting your indispensability at work.

3. Become the Office Specialist

Becoming a task expert is a tangible way to demonstrate your employee value.

Working as an Automotive Engineer, you already possess a highly developed technical skillset. Consider if there are further skills you could develop (or ones you already possess) that set you apart from your colleagues¬ whether it relates directly to your Engineer duties or around the office or factory floor.

It might be your knowledge of particular software systems or your knack for understanding the finer details of project scope. Whatever the case, you exponentially increase your value by becoming your company’s go-to person in a certain area.

4. Commit to Showcasing Superior Work Ethics

Elite employees share a number of common traits, with two being reliability and trustworthiness.

At its core, reliability means doing what you say you will, whether that is something as large as hitting your project deadlines or smaller such as showing up on time to meetings. When your co-workers and management know they can rely on your words and actions, their trust in you naturally rises. And a trusted employee is not one you’d consider letting go.

Another way to demonstrate your work ethics is to seek out methods to increase your productivity. One options might be minimising distractions by paying attention to things that take away from your main tasks during the workday. Perhaps you’re spending big blocks of time checking your phone for personal messages or scrolling social media. Once you know where your distractions lie, you can work on reducing or eradicating them.

An additional way to up your productivity is to commit to taking your breaks (which has the added advantage of balancing your work/life scales). On the surface this seems counterintuitive, but by regularly taking time to rest and refresh your mind and body, your productivity increases.

5. Consider Going Above and Beyond

Take a moment to contemplate whether you’re committed to delivering true value to your business or content to just get the job done.

By being willing to do more than what is required, whether that is accepting extra responsibilities or taking initiative and looking at ways to build the team, you show your dedication to your role and the company.

6. Aim to Be a Problem-Solver

It is common for Managers to hear about things that are not working well, which requires them to find appropriate fixes. By being the person who suggests solutions, you can solidify your importance in your team.

You can be pre-emptive as well by identifying areas for improvement and brainstorming possible resolutions. It might be inefficient processes or procedures or perhaps workflow problems with another team.

7. Strengthen Work Relationships

Networking is a fantastic way to make you indispensable at work. If people within your business know who you are and enjoy interacting with you it can translate to inclusion in future opportunities or decision-making processes.

Aim to nurture relationships across the board including team members, people in other departments, management and key clients. When speaking with others, show interest, engage in the moment and offer help where appropriate.

8. Acknowledge and Appreciate

Recognition is very powerful. Try to go out of your way to show your appreciation of others. If someone assisted you with a task when you were busy, thank them. If a colleague exceeded expectations on one of your projects, compliment them.

You can even extend your thanks to your manager for their support of you and the greater team, especially given the industry has faced so many changes and challenges.

9. Consider Mentoring

A wonderful way to showcase your employee value is by offering to mentor or train others, particularly if you have been in your role for a number of years.

It might be onboarding and training up a new Engineer, sharing what you learned at a professional development or industry event or simply checking in with colleagues to see if they need a hand (provided you have gaps in your schedule).

Summary

Working on one or more of these nine areas will certainly assist in increasing your employee value, firmly cementing your position within the business.

If you need additional advice on becoming indispensable at work, feel free to get in touch with one of our specialist recruiters. With deep experience in the Automotive Engineering recruitment industry, we’re well-versed in understanding what clients truly value in their employees.