Besides the actual skills necessary to do the job well, companies look for certain characteristics in their employees. Below are five universal work place characteristics that employers are looking for. When working at an organization you should keep these characteristics in mind. As you will see none of them are unreasonable and are realistic to achieve. If you do find the employer expecting you to show up to work on time unreasonable, you have deeper issues. By developing these characteristics you will get ahead in any organization.

Showing Up for Work:

There is an old saying that "90% of life is just showing up." From my own experience the most common reason I fired people in my professional career was because of tardiness or absenteeism. It is great if you are capable f doing a job but if you are not there to perform it, it doesn't matter. An employee coming to work on time and regularly is extremely important.

Getting Along with Fellow Employees:

Employers want new hires to be able to fit in within the company and not be a trouble maker or a source of friction. Burdens like that cost companies money. Just doing the work is not enough if that employee creates tons of problems while doing their duties.

Following Orders:

The work place is not a democracy and is not fair. The only person with final say is the one that signs the check. Companies want people willing to follow directions given by their boss. No company wants to hire some one who won't follow orders or function within a team environment. This will cause a lot of friction and energy spent on other things besides getting the job done.

Trustworthy:

Employers want to bring someone into the company that they can trust. They want to have an employee that they don't have to worry about them stealing from them. Or lying about how many hours they worked that week. They also want someone they can trust with company secrets.

Commit to the Company Long Term:

In today's economy no one can reasonably expect someone to work for them for a life time. With that being said employers do want some one who will be there for the long haul and at the very least long enough to get a return on their investment. Finding, hiring and training new employees is extremely costly. An employer wants to be able to do it as rarely as possible.

Learn more about this author, David Clemen.
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