Have you witnessed a situation where a particular employee is more valued than anybody else in the organization? Further, if that employee leaves the employer he is so missed as opposed to the rest who have left the organization in the past. The answer to this behavior is that some employees are more valued than others and hence they are indispensable. In the market situation where employees continue to enhance their skills to gain an edge over their counter parts and prove their real worth, are they making themselves indispensable to the company.

How do you become an asset and not a liability for an organization?

How do you differentiate the following people from the others? Bill Gates? Michael Dell? AR Rahman? Steve Jobs? They all have performed exceptionally well in their respective fields, highly efficient crisis managers, solution oriented, loyal to their stake holders, accountable, proactive individuals who are irreplaceable. To put it simply, they are ‘indispensable’ to us. 

If you are a high-flying performer, dependable, self-motivated and most importantly, entrepreneurial in your approach towards work, you are an indispensable employee for the organization. An indispensable employee performs his/her duties diligently, scores high on their appraisals and can be depended upon for any critical assignments.

If you are a quality conscious person who appreciates detailing and your aspirations are aligned to the organizational goals and culture, then you definitely belong to the regime of people who are good in work, goal and customer oriented, have no behavioral issues and who wins trust of people around them. The organization starts relying on such people and delegate with greater responsibilities. In some time we feel that this person has taken ownership of his or her process and is therefore considered as ‘indispensable’.

The real test of the traits mentioned above of an indispensable employee is during tough times. After all, when times are good, an indispensable employee is rewarded for his/he work that motivates him/her to stay on, but when times turn bad, how does he/she react to the situation and behave under dire circumstances are of prime importance. Does he/she leave the company in the lurch at a time when they were counting on their most bankable employee? Does he/she become unproductive? If yes, then he/she wasn’t indispensable to begin with.

An indispensable employee in such time will prove his worth by going an extra mile to bring in increased revenue for his organization. He would be a team player and a role model for his subordinates and will enable them to act positively and commit themselves for the betterment of the organization. However, there would be some who will prefer to move on and then comes a challenging task of getting a replacement for such a high flyer employee. Positions which require specialized work is a challenge to fill in and maintaining the same levels of motivation in the team is also difficult. Various cost such as hiring, training, replacement and opportunity comes into play and chances are that we might not get the new resource as good as the previous one.

Ways to become indispensable for your organization:

• Understand the business and capitalise on market opportunities.
• Be responsible for directly impacting the business and get a grip on the levers that influence business.
• Be the first mover and take initiative.
• Help the team perform their best.
• Inspire and influence people with exceptional commitment and integrity.
• Lead by example.
• Strive hard to achieve your functional targets or to reach closer to the same during such turbulent times.
• Continue to remain loyal to the company because at such times, the company will truly understand your real worth.
• Be willing to work on a new job profile.
• Put more than normal hours of work.