Are you a valued employee? Evaluate yourself

In today's dynamic work environment it is essential to evaluate your own performance on a weekly or a monthly basis, if not daily. Evaluating your performance regularly will help you identify areas that you need to improve upon and ensure you are a valuable member of your team.

Here we present 10 key indicators that will guide you towards performing well and ensure there are no surprises at your annual performance review.

Job knowledge
Do you believe that you are competent and have the necessary knowledge, skills and attributes required to perform all aspects of the job? Identify the competencies, technical, functional and personal, that were exhibited in completing assignments and the gaps. Wherever you find lacunae, consider upgrading your skills with an appropriate course. If the smallest task and the merest change in the system give you the jitters, consider moving to a field you are better equipped to handle.

Business knowledge
Are you aware of the current trends and issues in your organisational field? You need to be aware of current opportunities. This makes your decisions focused and relevant to a broader context. Consider reading up on your field and begin actively networking with your peers and seniors at work. This will give you a broader perspective of the industry.

Execution
Are you able to prioritise your tasks to manage your key responsibilities? Has your actual output been in line with expected output in terms of cost, time, quantity and quality? In today's work environment it is essential to be able to manage time effectively in order to meet deadlines and deliver across budget and schedule constraints.

This is where time management and goal-setting come in. Put in place goals and objectives that you would want to achieve -- daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually. Once your larger goals are clear, it becomes easy to break them down into smaller, achievable chunks.

The author is director, HR and Placements at PurpleLeap (www.purpleleap.com), an organisation that works with colleges to make students employment-ready. He is an MBA in HR (XLRI) with 12 years of experience in training and recruitment across IT and manufacturing sector.

Do you believe that you are personally responsible for ensuring high-quality results, as an individual and for team efforts? First, ask yourself if you are satisfied with the effort that has gone into completing your work. Also, if someone were to pin-point mistakes in your work (the end) or your style of functioning (the means), which are those areas?

Dependability
Are you viewed by the organisation as someone who follows through on commitments, represents data accurately and can be relied on to complete assignments on time and within expected standards? In times of crisis, do others think of you? If you are viewed as dependable at all times, the organisation will make every effort to retain your services.

Initiative
An ability to discover or create new opportunities which will enhance organisational results is well rewarded. If you are able to anticipate unforeseen problems or bottlenecks and  proactively work on addressing them and willingly accept increased responsibilities, you are displaying initiative, a highly sought quality.

There may even be times when you may have to go beyond the call of duty to resolve organisational problems. These problems may not always lie within the definition of your job role.

Have you been able to build personal relationships and informal networks inside the company to influence others and gain their cooperation and consensus towards the achievement of common goals?

If you are able to channelise the energies and talents of members of the organisation towards the organisational goals, you are well on your way to being successful within the organisation.

Problem solving
Can you recount challenges that you have overcome in the last week/ month/ quarter/ year? If you have demonstrated the ability to anticipate potential obstacles and develop contingency plans as well as effective solutions, you are a valued member of the task force.

On the other hand if you are constantly fighting fires and permanently in a crisis management mode, it may be a negative indication that all is not well.

Flexibility
In this fast-changing environment, organisations are facing newer problems and these problems need newer solutions. Are you up to it? Do you usually come up with innovative ideas and procedures?

There may be times when the organisation expects you to do something that places organisational interests above your own personal interest. How well you adapt to the circumstance will determine your standing in the long run...

Customer focus
At the end of the day everything boils down to business. How 'keyed in' are you to customer requirements? If you are able to continuously establish goals with the customer in mind (internal or external), you are focused towards the most important business of the organisation.

To maximise the benefit of the given suggestions, make a list of the above key indicators and honestly rate yourself on a weekly basis over a period of one to three months. You will quickly identify your weak areas and be able to address them visibly using the suggestions.