By: Syazwan
Schools Out, Its Summertime!
With internships or even full time work beginning to take full swing this Summer, one thing on most new employees/interns minds is, “How can I stand out in this organisation?”. As the adage goes, first impression counts and it is all the more true when joining an organisation for the first time. This could have implications for future events such as securing full time conversions for our interns as well as promotions and the like for our fresh graduates. Fret not, for we have compiled a list of tips and tricks that you can use to handle the situation.
This guide centres around the principles of preparedness, communications, accountability and independence. The tips gathered here are from our research, personal anecdotes as well as from interactions with HR professionals.
It is our mission at the NUS Human Capital Society to assist you in bringing greater value to the organisations that you are a part of, and we hope this allows you to do so. We sincerely hope that this will aid you in having the best possible start to your work and internships to nail that first impression down.
Independence is a key trait that will distinguish yourself from others in your work
General
Being independent and able to navigate yourself within the organisation is a combination of the above three points and more, as autonomy becomes an increasingly important trait organisations look for in their people. This was an interesting point that came off from interactions with various HR professionals across the managerial and even senior level positions. The ability to show autonomy and handle tasks and projects by your own is especially important. Micromanaging is being phased out as organisations leverage on the people who can get tasks done on their own accord without the constant need to be excessively handheld which wastes valuable time and disrupts the work of managers. Syazwan, Y3 NUS BBA (HCM), has this to share, “Speaking to my mentors who hold key positions in talent management and senior partnership in large MNCs, one thing in common which they mentioned was that they look out for those individuals with the ability to handle things on their own. This state of being an independent worker does not mean that one eschews assistance from others but rather that one is easily able to understand how work is done and the processes/people associated with it”. This factor can differentiate you from others as it shows that you can exercise autonomy by preparing strategically for work, communicating effectively with the relevant parties while being accountable for the entire process.
How to display independence
Independence can be broken down into three constituent points (in both virtual and physical settings), namely preparation, communication and accountability. We will explore the first of these topics, preparation, below in this article. Given the current circumstances, we approached this from a dual perspective of working in office and via telecommuting.
General - Refers to both physical & virtual forms of work
Physical Specific - Physically working together in a shared space
Virtual Specific - Working through telecommuting
Preparedness: Prepare, prepare and oh did I mention? Prepare.
General
As with any endeavour in life, being prepared is a crucial element to success. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”, stressing the importance of preparedness in your pursuits. Coming into work prepared and ready to tackle the challenges that may follow is critical towards your first impression into the workplace.They allow you to present your best skills, capabilities and presentation to your managers and fellow co-workers, bolstering their view of you. Justin Sze, Y3 NUS BBA (Finance), mentions the following when asked on how he prepared for his internship role; “I thoroughly read through my job scope to understand what I needed to do for the internship”. A thorough understanding of the role and requirements of your position gives you a heads up in breezing through the tasks given to you. As such, Preparation is a key factor that allows you to level the playing field to your advantage, coming in strong to work as a noteworthy part of the organisation.
Physical Specific
There are some important nuances to take note of when preparing to work at a physical location. These include aspects such as ensuring you have the appropriate attire, your work items packed and ready and even (or rather especially!) directions to get to the office. While seemingly commonsensical issues to take note of, it is often the case that these minor details are shunted to the side in our excitement to start creating an impact through our work. If left unchecked, this can lead to some nasty occurrences such as frantic last-minute purchases of attire or packing of work items or worse, being late because you got lost on your first day (please don’t be THIS person). “Really knowing how to reach your workplace on time will save you a lot of trouble, and it really will give a good impression as well,” was what Deon, Y3 NUS BBA (HCM), mentions in his preparation for his internship role. When working in a physical office, don’t forget to prepare for the little things that will make your first days (weeks even) of work so much easier before it becomes routine clockwork.
Pro Tip 1: Google Maps (not a sponsor) really is your best friend, you can even adjust the timing settings to more accurately plan your route to work, so please do use it to your advantage.
Virtual Specific
With the current COVID-19 situation pushing organisations to work from home (WFH), optimising telecommuting would give you the edge in both adapting to this new model of work and providing excellent work quality. Telecommuting, while necessary in the current situation and an increasingly prevalent form of work in normal circumstances, is an entire different animal when compared to the physical office space. Some key things to take note of are to ensure that you have a conducive home working environment, the right equipment (especially if you need your assigned laptop to work on sensitive files) and (what most people are coming to realise), the patient of working from home amidst other distractions such as not being under the hawk eyes of your manager or other family members. Given the paradigm shift presented to us, Ang Chong Kiat, Y3 NUS BBA (HCM), posits that we need to ‘be open-minded about it as you can still learn a lot from the experience”. Keeping an open mind, which is to stay positive and flexible to adapt to different conditions, on WFH allows you to continually improve how you prepare for each and every day of telecommunicative work. Preparing to work from home presents a strange dichotomy, while it is a new working environment, the actual environment itself isn’t new. It is being able to adapt to these changes and make the necessary adjustments to prepare that will make you an outstanding individual.
Pro Tip 1: Telecommuting will involve a lot of online meetings, if you prefer to be in comfortable home clothes, have something to put on over your top to make yourself look presentable during the meeting then take it off after.
Pro Tip 2: It's a matter of perspective, treat your home office as your own office, and not a home, and you’d put yourself in the right frame of mind to actively engage in your work.
Conclusion(?)
Preparedness is definitely a key factor in highlighting your autonomy as an employee to your managers and colleagues. Being well prepared allows you to hit the ground running in becoming an outstanding worker in your field.
Curious about how we can better showcase skills in communications and accountability? Stay tuned as we release Pt.2 of this article in the coming weeks!
If there are any other topics related to HR, feel free to drop us an email at nushcsoc@gmail.com and we may consider it as the topic for our next article. Until then, thank you for your support of the NUS Human Capital Society! :)
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