14 Aug Are you up for being versatile?

We say something is versatile when it has more than one value, use or application. The concept of versatility is applied in different scenarios; in today’s post we make reference to this concept as it applies to people. Versatile workers are becoming more and more sought after in the world of work. For organizations, having versatile people as part of their workforce means having an added value that has a positive effect on the final result. Having said that, are you up for being versatile?

Because it is an added value, the search and demand for versatile profiles has become more and more important in personnel selection processes.

What do the characteristics of a versatile profile tend to be?

• They are open to change
• They are optimists
• They have skills for planning ahead
• They are willing to learn and be team players
• They demonstrate adequate toleration of situations that are marked by uncertainty
• They are capable of recovering in complicated situations
• They have a lot of self-efficacy.

The newly employed people in our company have accepted the subject of versatility well and they have the majority of characteristics of this versatile profile. However, how do the more veteran workers in our company perceive “being versatile?” Keeping in mind that they grew up in a work environment that valued specialization in the workplace, a high percentage of them associate versatility with a negative concept:

• Cost saving
• Staff employment reduction
• Doing more work for the same salary
• Undervaluation in the specific competences they develop in their workplace, whereby their specialization disappears.

We are working on changing that perception, since with the current economic situation, with the globalization of markets, with the permanent changes of the sector, we must have labor flexibility in order to respond and adapt to these changes.

The labor flexibility we propose is committed to versatility, in the sense that people may use their capacities and skills in order to adapt to the requirements that arise at any time. This permits organizing and optimizing human resources.

In Rieusset, in order to bring versatility to all our employees, we offer the possibility of:

• Continuous education.
• Promotion in the same area or section, or in different areas or sections

We are aware that versatility encourages and promotes rotation in the organization, but this also means that people have different skills that can allow us to advance as professionals.  Why should I limit myself to always doing the same thing if I can have the potential to learn and do other tasks that allow me to give more and better service to my company?

The more versatile we are, the more capacity to carry out different tasks we have, and when there isn’t any work in one section we can apply our services in a different one.

If my company moves ahead, I move ahead at the same time, and that makes me feel more optimistic, more motivated, more of a team worker.

At the beginning of this post I already mentioned the added value of versatility nowadays, but I believe that in the future this will turn into a necessity for all companies. That is the reason why we want our employees to be prepared for this eventuality and become versatile persons within our organization without any negative consequence arising from this, only benefits instead.