With every task you take on, ask yourself: How can I add value to this? And every time you achieve one of these value-add outcomes, measure the results and write them down. How much money did you save or earn? How much did efficiency or quality improve? What is the long-term impact of fixing or preventing that problem? The information you gather will be critically important in future performance reviews or when writing your next resume.

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6 WAYS TO ADD VALUE TO YOUR ORGANIZATION &
ADVANCE YOUR CAREER BY DR.MAHBOOB KHAN PHD
Over the past few months, I’ve talked about this concept at length in
numerous webinars, speeches and presentations. But this is one concept
that’s so important, it deserves a blog post of its very own.
When it comes to career advancement, the biggest question has to do
with your value to the organization. What are you doing to contribute to
the bottom line? Remember, as an employee, you’re an investment.
Your company pays you a salary and they expect a return. The more
value you contribute, the better the investment and the more likely they
are to continue investing in the future—and potentially invest in a bigger
way. That means raises, promotions and job security for you.
Your actions in the workplace have an impact, whether you realize it or
not. The more you can create measurable, positive, powerful outcomes
through your actions, the more people will sit up and take notice. The
more they’ll want to keep you happy and acknowledge you for your
efforts.
While your job description may appear to be a list of tasks, those tasks
are designed to achieve specific, valuable outcomes for the company.
How you do them influences the amount of value the company
receives—and thus, the level of value you’re contributing and your
overall worth to the organization.
Take for example an administrative professional whose role it is to
purchase office supplies. Sure, this person could simply follow the
standard procedure, place orders for items requested from approved
vendors, and ensure the purchased products are received. Or, she could
find simple ways to improve her value like…

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 Researching vendors to find more competitive pricing and making
informed recommendations to decision-makers.
 Aggressively negotiating with existing vendors for better pricing.
 Creating an “office supply sharing” program between departments
so inventory doesn’t pile up in one area while another is always in
need.
 Purchasing in bulk when appropriate to increase savings.
 Strategically purchasing to take advantage of sales, rebates and
discounts.
 Offering tips to help staff members reduce waste of supply
inventory, and perhaps starting some kind of competition or reward
system to inspire participation.
These value-add tactics aren’t defined anywhere in the job description. It
takes a few extra seconds of thought and a little imagination, but using
these strategies, this admin could save her company thousands of dollars
per year.
I know some of you may look at this and say, “I can’t do that stuff! It’s
outside my scope of responsibility.” I hear you. You’re already busy and
these things take time. Perhaps you fear others will think you’re
overstepping your boundaries. I say…RISK IT. Give it try. Find a few
minutes here or there to step up your game in the value department. If
you achieve positive results, no one will complain.
And think about it: If this admin tracks her cost-saving initiatives and
measures the positive results, she could certainly make a compelling
case for a raise in the future. If her actions have a positive impact on the
organization’s bottom line, her value is higher than that of her peers who
are simply going through the motions status quo. Every dollar her
company chooses to spend employing therefore becomes a superior
investment.

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Plus, these kinds of things also make this admin a more marketable,
competitive asset when searching for a new job. Imagine a resume full
of value-add accomplishments like this. Who wouldn’t want to hire
someone who not only understands the value of her role but also knows
how to increase that value? Who wouldn’t be willing to pay a little more
for an employee like that?
Surely you get my drift by now, so let’s move on. I have identified six
clear ways to add-value to your organization:
1. Save money
2. Make money
3. Improve efficiency of a process or procedure
4. Improve quality of a product or service
5. Fix an existing problem
6. Prevent a future problem
With every task you take on, ask yourself: How can I add value to this?
And every time you achieve one of these value-add outcomes, measure
the results and write them down. How much money did you save or
earn? How much did efficiency or quality improve? What is the long-
term impact of fixing or preventing that problem? The information you
gather will be critically important in future performance reviews or
when writing your next resume.
I’m willing to bet that some of you already do a lot of value-add kinds of
things already, without really even noticing. Hopefully this article has
helped you understand a little more how to leverage these things you’re
doing to get more rewards and recognition for the work you do.