ARE YOU EMPLOYABLE?

(Published in Daily Independent Newspapers in

2008)

This is a question I like to ask

participants who attend my Career
Development Seminars or those who
approach me for Mock Interviews.

Are you employable?

Not until several years ago, a simple unwritten contract
glued the relationship between the employer and the
employee. Employers offered loyalty; in return, the company
offered security. Employees did what they were told, seldom
questioning corporate policies, and rarely skipped from job
to job. Companies more or less assured employees a job for
life, issued a regular pay cheque and offered a predictable
pension and a golden handshake upon retirement.

Noted leadership expert, John Paul Kotter called it, “a

Psychological contract” – i.e. an implicit contract between an
individual and the organization which specifies what each
expects to give and receive from each other in a
relationship.

Much of this however has changed. Within a few short years,

the old taboos against job hopping have evaporated. It has
almost become a badge of honour to have the stamp of
multiple companies on one’s resume, with many employees
becoming passive job seekers – having their eyes open for
new opportunities.

I remember a couple of years ago, as a Consultant, while

attempting to market some training programmes; I walked
into the then, NNB Bank Plc, and was accosted by a very
Senior Manager, who asked if I had come to headhunt him –
this is not the only time this has happened.
What this change therefore portends is the end of any
unwritten psychological contract between the employee and
the average employer. Today’s career ladder seems to have
fewer rungs, less ladder climbing, an increase in lateral
movement between positions/companies; the average
promotion usually entails a greater leap in scope and
responsibility; with employees working laterally instead of
vertically. The traditional view of what constitutes a career is
no longer valid. Companies are beginning to have missing
rungs on their ladders as corporations become flatter and
leaner. The new career currency is learning through stretch
assignments and great bosses not advancement.

Job security is no longer guaranteed. Many companies now

hire temporary staff in order to avoid paying the high cost of
health insurance and terminal benefits. Others outsource
non-core staff and focus more on their core competencies.
Management consultant, Tom Peters, said it so well when he
said: “Security doesn’t attach to a job title, desk space or
even a company name”. Your security has nothing to do with
how well you did on your last performance appraisal,
training, raises or even a commendation. Your security is
tied to the company’s overall business performance.
When the profits and market share begin to wane, the
company may have to let you go. This kind of security is
gone with the wind. Allow me to introduce you to the new
kind of job security which is a security which lies in your
“employability”.

Employability means to be so-o skilled, so-o useful; to

constantly seek personal improvement and career
development. It is now up to you, not your company or its
training department or development plans to keep yourself
employable and relevant to your industry. The driving force
of a career must come from the individual, not the
organization. You must act as though you were an
independent contractor with an eye on your market
value and worth.
A job with lots of growth opportunities, mentoring,
challenges and projects is what you must seek/create. You
must develop loyalty to your Resume- building into your
resume one achievement after another.

I really love what John Sculley, former Chief of Apple

Computers, said in his autobiography, “Apple computers
can’t promise you a job for life, not even for 5 or 10 years.
Not even for a couple of years. What Apple can promise is
that whether you are aboard for 3 months, 6 months, 6
years, or unlikely as it may be, 16 years, you will be
constantly learning, constantly challenged. At the end, you
will be demonstrably better positioned in the local or global
market than you would have been had you not spent the
time with us.”

“Your sense of job security lies in your employability."

This statement was corroborated also by Robert Waterman,

Judith Waterman and Betsy Collard in their Harvard Business
Review article titled, Towards a Career Resilient Workforce, in
which they stated the opinion of some Management thinkers
that, instead of the traditional focus on employment, the
focus should now be on employability. In other words, we
should forget about clinging desperately to one job, one
company, or one career path. What matters now is having
the competitive skills required to find work when we need it,
wherever we can find it.

The job search process has thus been transformed

from a single event in life to an on-going career
process. You must therefore learn to position yourself for
“long term employability”. Long term employability means
no longer thinking of yourself as a mere job description/
statistic, but as a living brand, a living package of skills
that can be transferred from one project/job to the
next, it means keeping your job and interpersonal
skills up to speed through self training and personal
development. It means developing and managing
your “personal brand equity”; and learning how to
prepare, update and market yourself. It means
positioning yourself as a unique brand in order to
close the gap between your desired market value and
your perceived market value - this, my friend is how
to toot your horn without blowing it!

Peter Drucker said:

“A brand with no clear vision has no future. If you do not
plan the future you want, you will get the one that shows
up”

“Those who do not create the future they want must endure
the future they get.”
Draper L. Kaufman, Jr

Friends, I am sure that it is your wish to increase the level

of your employability. Keep reading this column as I begin
the process of showing you how to make yourself
employable.

Kay Olufemi-Ayoola has been a practicing Career

Development expert and Coach for over 5years; he has
inspired thousands to reach personal and professional
fulfillment and transform their careers. Using individual and
group coaching, conducting hands-on workshops and
seminars and consulting with organizations , he coaches his
clients to advance up the corporate ladder quickly, and love
the job they have or land their dream job. Kay’s active
engagement in Human Resources and Career Development
began in the mid 1990’s as an undergraduate conducting
Personal Achievement Success Seminars (P.A.S.S) and Career
Talks, which were aimed at helping students maximize their
potentials regardless of prevailing obstacles in their
environment. He has extensive work experiences from
various Consulting firms and was Head, Human Resources
Vigeo Oil & Gas Limited, and Chief Operating Officer,
After School Graduate Development Centre before his
appointment as Head, Human Resources &
Administration, Spring Life Assurance Plc (a
subsidiary of Bank PHB). Kay is the founder and
Coordinator of Daystar Christian Centre’s Career
Development Unit – CareerPlus+ (started in 2004). He is a
frequent speaker at seminars conferences and has
published well over 60+ articles on Career Development,
Personal Branding, Career Change & Transitions and
Graduate Employability to date. He is the co-founder &
Executive toolkit: Peak
Partner of
Performance Coaches.