11 Types of Employee Your Business Needs
Every business needs a range of skills and capabilities to help it thrive. Whether you use a range of third-party services to help you operate and complete complex tasks outside of your skillset or hire team members who can do these jobs for you, a lot of input is required to help your business grow and thrive. These skills and capabilities could include technical expertise, leadership skills, communication skills, financial acumen, and a passion for the company's mission.
If building a skilled team is on the cards and you need to know what you want or need from your team members, this post will look at a few skills that can be beneficial in the workplace. These skills can help you get the job done and bode well for a happy, healthy, productive business that works like a well-oiled machine.
So, who do you need on board to support your business?
The Critical Thinker
Critical thinkers are invaluable team members. Their unique perspective and ability to identify solutions where others might not bring a sense of relief and confidence to the team. They make carefully analyzed decisions, spot issues, and provide a fresh perspective that might not have been considered. They can be instrumental in reducing errors and mistakes from human involvement in tasks, being objective, and assisting you in getting to the root cause of issues or potential problems from what you do and how you do it. In short, critical thinkers are the ones you go to when you need help with something you're stuck on or to avoid getting stuck in the first place.
The Communicator
This isn't about that team member you always find gossiping around the communal areas. It's the ones who can play a pivotal role in helping you build relationships and create an environment people trust. Not everyone is a natural communicator; communicating is about more than just talking. It is about listening, focusing on body language, knowing what to say and when, and actively engaging with others, not just talking to people.
If you lack this as a person, you need to develop your communication skills. But, having an expert within your team with communication skills can be a great way to learn, as you can watch and follow their example and pick up tips and tricks to improve your communication style and skills.
The Tech and Coding Expert
Every business needs that one person who is super skilled at tech and coding, and they're likely going to be in or be your entire tech support department. With more businesses relying on technology, having someone on-site to assist with your tech issues and digital needs can be immensely available. Like communicating, some people simply aren't there when it comes to being tech-literate. This can lead to multiple mistakes or inept processes and developments that hinder, not help, how you work.
Relying on someone who can code and helps you implement things like a react pdf viewer, for example, can make life so much easier and ensures that all of your digital functions, tech, and the team as a whole are on the same page and able to work seamlessly, not be a disjointed mess.
The Natural Leader
Ideally, as the boss, this would be you, but if you are managing management, then you need to find leaders, not just bosses. Everyone can be a boss, but not everyone can be a leader, and this is what will set you and how you operate apart. You need people supporting you who are able to support others and get the best from them. The natural leader is crucial in creating a positive work environment where team members feel valued and motivated. You don't want to create a toxic working environment where your management cuts others down, micromanages, or makes life more difficult for your team. You need people who can strive for the best and bring that out of those around them in a careful and empathetic manner.
The Accountant
Sem people have a natural propensity for numbers, and when you are running a business, you need someone able to crunch the numbers for you to avoid financial ruin. The majority of companies that fail do so due to poor cash flow, and to prevent this from becoming your fate, you need someone who speaks in numbers, not letters, to help you stay in the black and out of the red.
Whether you find a staff member who is better with numbers and can budget projects better than others, you hire an accountant or bookkeeper; you need someone in your corner who understands figures and can help you make better financial decisions to avoid disaster.
The Teacher
Whether they missed their calling in education or have fallen into that role and are actually good at it, you need to identify who in your team is the one others to learn things from. Do you have a point of call for training new employees or someone you introduce new methods or tools to first so they can teach everyone else? These employees can make your life infinitely easier and assist you in rolling out new initiatives, developing staff training, supporting you in reducing mistakes, and ensuring everyone is on the same page.
The Passionate One
If you have someone working with you who is just as passionate about what you do as you are, then you can guarantee things are going to go well for you. Their passion is not only infectious and can spread around the team but also to your customers. It can be a source of inspiration and motivation for everyone involved.
People who are passionate about what they do and what their company is about will carry this passion through everything they do. They will want to perform, be eager to try new things, be receptive to feedback, and be the person who can inject positivity when there is little to go around. In a nutshell, this person is a valuable member of the team and worth a their weight in gold.
The Know It All
On the surface, someone who knows everything might seem insufferable, but they can actually be an asset. Here's why. The more people know about their own job roles and the part they play, the more they understand how they need to work and the more they can offer in terms of input and ideas. While others might not see it this way, if that one person has the knowledge and makes it their mission to know everything, they are the one you can rely on when things go wrong, or people are confused about what needs to be done. While these employees will need the scope to do their research and learn what they need to know, they also need to be monitored to ensure they don’t become the micro manager of the team simply due to feeling they know better. In the right circumstances, however, you need this person.
The Go-Getter
A go-getter is a person who is always up for a challenge, thinking of new ideas, and is the first to the starting block. There could be different reasons for this. They might want to advance their career or feel they can do it better or know more, but you need a person who is willing to get up and get things done and make waves within your organization because these are the people who grab opportunities and open you up to different points of view so you can make more informed and considered decisions using different options and approaches.
The Implementor
The implementer is the person who gets things done. They know their stuff and are able to complete their tasks on time and efficiently. The implementor is someone you rely on and know you can trust. Attitudes they usually display can include ambition, conscientiousness, organization, and great time-keeping skills. Often, these employees can fly under the radar, as you likely have few issues with them as they simply show up and perform each and every day.
The Social Media Influencer
Marketing is an important part of any business, and in this day and age, digital marketing is a behemoth you need to be utilizing to reach your intended audience.
With this in mind, whether you have a pro on your team or you can find someone skilled and who speaks the language of social media, you can use this knowledge to help you improve your own social media presence and boost your marketing results.
Influencing is a growing trend, and if any of your team members partake in this, instead of looking down on it, embrace their unique skills and get them to use what they know to your advantage. Being a great boss is about recognizing people's skill sets, and if they have skills you can use, this will bode well for you. So, find that social media guru and reassign the tasks that use their skills to support you, which can enhance how you market your company.