Tag: Results

How To Become A Results-Driven Employee

Two focuses of my blog are Career Discussions and General Education. No all employees are created alike. Some are more effective than others. There are keys to become one of the former. The following contributed post is entitled, How To Become A Results-Driven Employee.

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Now more than ever, recruiters are particularly concerned about hiring the right candidate for a job. The truth, though, is that every job applicant has their strengths and weaknesses. However, the focus should be on their suitability for the advertised job and how they can benefit the company. Considering that a little over 6 million people are unemployed (August 2022 stats), you will find it crucial to be that team member any company would not want to lose. These are some ideas to help you become a results-driven employee.

1. Be innovative in measuring your outcomes

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Although your employer may have a performance rating system to measure your productivity, there is more you can do. When you work in sales, marketing, and figure-crunching roles, it can be easier to measure your outcomes. All you need to do is to measure how much money you brought into the company or how much you helped the business to save. It is pretty clear-cut and straightforward in these roles. However, it can be a little difficult when you find yourself in a role that does not offer these clear self-evaluating indicators. Fortunately, there is another way. All you have to do is return to the signed job contract.

What KPIs and expectations are outlined in your employment letter? It would be best to summarize the points and make each one a personal goal. Every month, measure your outcomes and match everything you have done in the period against your overall goals. If it aligns with your KPIs, you are on track to being a results-driven employee. On the other hand, if they don’t, you may need to rethink your role and the personal strategies required to excel at it. Being results-driven goes beyond doing your job. It has more to do with the value you bring to the company. More importantly, it has everything to do with the positive outcomes of your daily tasks.

2. Always have a contingency plan

You can never underestimate the essence of a backup plan. They can be lifesaving and speak to your proactive nature as an employee. It is unarguable that no employer wants to lose money. Whether through operations or workers, the focus is on minimizing risks and maximizing time and profit. That is where you come in as a results-driven employee. Having a contingency or backup plan means you have already analyzed the risks likely to arise when completing the tasks and projects you handle at work.

The alternative methods you have planned will come in handy if obstacles or challenges arise. It shows preparedness and is also evidence of your personal drive to succeed, regardless of the prevailing circumstances at work. As Kate’s podcast puts it, you must hold yourself accountable.

3. Prioritize your tasks

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How often do you group your work activities under the following priorities: important, urgent, costly, etc.? Prioritizing tasks offers an opportunity to progress with several activities simultaneously. It reduces time wastage and is a constantly motivating technique to complete daily tasks. For example, if your car developed an engine problem and a flat tire, you would expect the mechanic to attend to the most pressing issue. This would be the engine, after which the tire can be sorted out. By understanding the impact of timely decisions on your work, you set yourself on the path to becoming a results-driven employee.

How Can You Stop Your Lab From Landing Negative Results

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and STEM. Medical labs are critical pieces in the healthcare industry as they help doctors understand the maladies that their patients face. Just like academic and industrial labs, it’s important to still do quality science. Doing so will assure continued business. The following contributed post is entitled, How Can You Stop Your Lab From Landing Negative Results.

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Medical labs are the backbone of the healthcare industry. From the development of new medications to the diagnosis of conditions; it all starts and ends in innocuous-seeming labs just like yours. As such, most of us have come to hold entrepreneurs within this industry in high esteem. Still, assuming this positive industry reputation will save your lab would be naive. Life-saving heroics aside, medical labs are as liable as any business to stumble into difficulties and even face failure.

If your lab-provider relationships keep turning negative, then, you may soon face issues. Instead of moving forward with misplaced ideas about saving the world, you need to address why things are going wrong. We understand that this can feel like a distraction from your ‘higher purpose’, but failure to get to the bottom of this will stop you from saving lives down the line.

That’s why you need to keep reading to find out how you can turn those negative results into a positive that saves your lab’s life.

Store samples properly

Collecting samples from patients can be a time-consuming and expensive process for medical professionals. If you carelessly ruin the integrity of said samples by failing to store them properly, it’s no wonder you aren’t making any friends.

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It’s incredible how easy it is to contaminate or ruin results by getting this simple point of your processes wrong. What’s more, there is no one-size-fits-all standard for how you should and shouldn’t treat each test that comes your way.

Of course, there are some basic staples, such as a lab refrigerator from Rollex Group and companies like them. You should also be sure to keep vials well-sealed, and within uncontaminated areas. For some things, though, such as specific blood tests and skin samples, even more specialist storage will be necessary.

Whatever you do, never play guessing games when it comes to this. Everytime something unknown comes into your lab, do thorough research into which storage processes you should put in place. If in doubt, it’s even worth asking the healthcare professional who’s sending it your way. Better that than risk making a mistake and having to come crawling later on. Once you have some idea, make notes. That way, you’ll always be able to implement proper storage processes for repeat samples down the line.

Implement a team who work well

There’s no getting around it; qualified lab technicians can be downright expensive to employ. The role requires intense training, after all, and the best teams are those who have a fair few years of experience working within the industry.

To save costs, though, it’s tempting to hire inexperienced staff who are fresh out of the classroom. And, guess what? This could be another fatal flaw for your lab’s success. Of course, all new graduates have to start somewhere, and taking on college-leavers could even work if you leave experienced members of your team to train them.

If your team solely consists of cheap and inexperienced team members, though, you’re fast heading for trouble. In this instance, you would be far better off hiring less staff with more experience. That way, you can balance costs and still enjoy results you can trust in.

It’s also worth noting that your team needs to have decent teamwork structures in place if your lab is to see any real success. A lab team have to collaborate on everything from test times to results across the board, after all. If your employees aren’t talking, things are never going to come together, and clients will never get the results they expect.

Make sure, then, that your team understands the importance of talking to each other about what they’re doing. You could even arrange a few group team working activities to bring the point home.

Speed up your processes

Whether your lab focuses around diagnostics or research, slow processes are never going to work in your favour. If you have a healthcare professional waiting on results, delays mean that they look bad in front of patients. You can bet that they wouldn’t hesitate about turning to a more trustworthy lab as a result. Equally, excessive delays from a research perspective could see the findings you’re working on or similar being released by another lab in the interim.

Of course, speeding things up is never worthwhile at the detriment of your work. A rushed research study is evident from a mile off and will never buy you the respect that you need. Still, it is possible to quicken your processes without compromising your work.

We’ve already mentioned the importance of teamwork. That alone can go a long way towards making sure everyone works faster with the information they need. The correct equipment, too, can speed processes no end. And, of course, a system which sends results straight to healthcare computers could lessen lost time at the end of your research. All while ensuring results land straight into the correct inboxes in no time.

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Make sure your insurance is inclusive

Lastly, lacking insurance policies could become significant nails in your lab coffin if you aren’t careful. The fact is that you’re dealing with lives, not just faceless samples. Everything you do (or don’t do) can create a ripple effect. And, this is what your insurance policy needs to account for.

If a doctor ends up getting sued for a misdiagnosis off the back of your test results, for example, you need to ensure that you have the correct malpractice and liability insurance in place. Mistakes happen, and results don’t always get things right. Still, this would ruin relationships anyway if a healthcare provider had to foot the bill due to your lacking insurance policies. Make sure, then, that you implement the correct insurance at all times, and keep your plans updated.

Negative results aren’t something we embrace in any lab, especially when they’re of this kind. Make sure that you’re able to turn things around as soon as possible to bring much higher levels of success to your lab door.