Among life’s little challenges is getting, and keeping, a job.    

In Workplace ROI, we coach people to view employment as an investment.  People enter the workplace for many reasons but we all desire the same result:  a return on our workplace investment.  What is the investment?  Why do we want to make the investment?  How do we earn our return?  The answers to these questions are found in the 10 lessons that comprise Workplace ROI. 

Three of the 10 lessons are:

• Faith
• Delayed Gratification
• Do the right thing

Faith – The employer and the employee come together trusting that each will honor their commitments.  The employer is responsible for the success of the new employee and the employer is responsible for the success of every other employee in the company.  The employer is also responsible to the achievement of the mission of the company, which may occasionally in the short term be antithetical to the success of the employee.  The employee has a role to play in the overall success of the company.  The employee likely will not always be included in decisions that will impact the employee’s job in the company.  Therefore, the employee will have to demonstrate faith in the company’s leadership.  Faith will often rest on observation, interpretation, and awareness by the employee of the actions of the employer.  Misunderstanding of actions can lead to lack of faith and ultimately to the demise of the employer/employee relationship.  Faith is a silent activity reliant on one’s ability to accurately interpret the 70% of communication that is conducted in silence. 

Delayed Gratification  -  According to WebMD, “Researchers from Yale University looked at why there is a connection between delayed gratification and intelligence, concluding it has to do with a particular part of the brain, the anterior prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain helps people to manage complex problems and deal with simultaneous goals, leading to better self-control. The study has been published in Psychological Science.”  The ability to forego something desired today for something better tomorrow is the definition of delayed gratification.  In the workplace self-control, and patience, are virtues that are vital to attaining a return on investment.

Do the right thing – We have certainly seen plenty of examples of the opposite behavior in the workplace.  Specific companies such as Tyco, Enron, WorldCom, and Wall Street banks and investment firms as well as religious institutions and government institutions have all failed to do the right thing in recent years.  What is “the right thing?”  The right thing is behavior and it is determined by values, work ethic, awareness, and courage. 

Your career success, your financial rewards, your family stability, the quality of your life experience is dependent on your knowledge of Workplace ROI.