I bet you have come across the saying “your employees are your most valuable asset.” I urge you to take a look at it once more. Here in Nigeria, the number of unemployed graduates is overwhelming. Sadly, this has caused most employers to beam their searchlight on getting the cheapest person they can to fill a chair but, unknowingly, when they use that approach they are shooting themselves in the foot because each employee has the ability to really make a difference with customers and on new business. Treating them like you could care less is a sure way to get minimum effort from them and ensures that they will in turn treat you like just an employer not a place to grow their careers.

Recent research has indicated that as many as 75% of employees are unhappy in their current jobs. That should be alarming to most executives because it indicates that something is dreadfully wrong. Now that we are in a buyer’s market when it comes to employment we often find that employers do not look for the best talent, they look for the most inexpensive talent.

Let’s take a look at what I consider makes a great employee:

1. He is passionate about what his job - He loves the challenge of his position and is always challenging himself to do better.

2. He loves to implement team learning and transform conversational and collective thinking skills, so that groups of people can reliably develop intelligence and ability greater than the sum of individual member’s talents. When everyone “gets it” the organisation becomes stronger and less selling in of ideas is needed.

3. You find that he often is sending emails outside of core business hours – I get some of my best ideas during or after a long drive and I’ll often send these ideas or thoughts to clients because I get excited about them and this excitement carries over regardless of the time of day.

4. He is open to having his ideas challenged because it forces him to think – Not all ideas are good for YOUR organisation. When your ideas are challenged ask “what is this person really trying to say and what can I do to make my idea stronger?”

5. He really don’t care about job title – If someone is interested in their title more than what they actually do then they are more interested in updating their resume.

6. He is fun to work with - All work and no play… We spend too much time at work to be serious ALL the time so have some fun but know when you need to put your head down and get it done.

7. He loves to learn and keeps on the latest trends – You’ll find people like this often send summaries of the latest business books they read and how it applies to your organisation or they will take a news headline and say “this is what it means for us”.

8. He listens - Listening is not an easy skill to master but good employees know how to listen to not only what is being said but why it is being said.

9. He understands how to get things done within your environment – Getting things done usually comes easy with this person because he has his heart on the job.

10. He may want to implement change but understands that some changes are better implemented more slowly than others.

Great employees have no problem stepping out of their comfort zone because everything they do is a learning experience to them and they know that the learning never stops.

These are the people that you need to hold on to. These are the people that go the extra mile for customers and for their managers and strategically they make any organisation better and stronger.

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