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Variety boosts your value

November 1, 2007 By    

This column is dedicated to all of you who truly have an interest in improving your worth in the marketplace.

Carl Hughes
Carl Hughes

First, you should believe that the essence of the job market (the place where employers and potential employees meet to strike deals) is based on how your current and potential employers rate your value to them. In the purest sense, your boss or potential bosses are in a constant search for talent and value that they can put to use to achieve a purpose or objective.

Retail propane job market

The retail propane industry has many great career opportunities. Consider the choices you have with thousands of potential employers and a wide array of opportunities. For example, you can choose to live in a metropolitan area or in the country. In fact, many industry employees enjoy the most ideal of rural settings.

You can elect to work with a family owned company or with a large publicly traded retail propane marketer. Each offers something different in terms of pace, challenge and opportunities.

In this broad market setting, each of us has the opportunity to improve our value as an employee. The important point is we can increase our value in the broad market place. This concept of working to increase our individual value to our employer applies to all of us, whether entry-level workers, administrative staff, bobtail drivers, service technicians or managers.

Toolbox concept

You can view your value to others in the workplace as a sort of personal toolbox. Your employer will look into your toolbox to see what tools are available for them to meet specific needs. The more tools you offer, the more value you bring to the employer.

Consider your career as a process of adding valuable tools to this toolbox. The more skills you have, the more tools available to a company. This is why continuing education makes sense for all of us. Over time, some skills become obsolete and need replaced.

What you need to do:

  • Accept that this principle makes sense. If you believe that all jobs are handed out for political reasons and you can’t be evaluated fairly, this idea is not for you.
  • Gain skills – learn new tasks. If you’re a driver and an opportunity arises to apprentice as a technician, take it. If you are not strong on computers or the current company software, ask for training. If you would like to be better with customers, request specific training if not offered. In other words, when your company offers training of various types, jump in even if it is not in your specific work area.
  • Be resourceful. If you are aware of a company need that is not being filled and you have the skills to take it on, offer yourself to your boss for the task. While you must take care of your primary role first, this process alone will increase your value to your employer simply because you offered.
  • Be positive. Look at those around you. Who is negative, and who is positive? How do you react? If they worked for you, how would you rate them? Which group would you want to be in?
  • Be a problem solver. Simply recognize that by attempting to challenge yourself mentally related to a problem or a challenge, you will surprise yourself and your employer with ideas that surface.

The rewards

Managers and employers will pay more salary, benefits and other incentives to those employees who bring them the most value. As you begin to conduct your role not as a job but as a career – with the ability to increase your true worth – you will gain self-confidence that others will notice.

Message to employers

Not all of your employees will buy into this idea of increasing their value to you. But a number of them are waiting for you to provide them with additional skills. Do you have a plan to provide the growth and training path your best employees expect? The successful retail propane companies will answer, “Yes.”


Hughes is vice president of business development for Inergy LP. He can be reached at
Chughes@InergyServices.com or 816-842-8181.

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