This document provides guidance for new employees on basic job keeping skills. It discusses the importance of having a positive outlook, managing change, taking responsibility, and developing good work habits. The document emphasizes showing up on time, communicating professionally, providing good customer service, resolving conflicts respectfully, and maintaining a positive attitude. Overall, the key messages are that new employees should focus on learning their job duties, getting along with coworkers, and representing their employer well through hard work and professional conduct.

1. YOU’RE HIRED! NOW WHAT?
Basic Job Keeping Skills

2. WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK?
“To be successful you must first fall in love with
your work.”
- Sister Mary Lauretta
“Give me a stock clerk who wants to work and I
will give you a person who will make history.
Give me a person who does not want to work,
and I will give you a stock clerk.”
- J. C. Penney

3. CHANGE
o Inevitable part of life
o Doesn’t have to be scary
o Not always out of our control

4. RESPONSIBILITY
o CHOICES
o Responding vs. Reacting
o Self-Respect
o Own it!
o Keep commitments

5. GOOD WORK HABITS
o Earn a living
o Keep your job
o Get a raise/promotion
o Work toward your dream job
• Build skills, experience, credibility
o Feel good about yourself
• Pride in a job well done,
confidence

6. BEING A GOOD EMPLOYEE
Employees
work hard
Products or
services
are created
People buy
or use
products or
services
Employer
does well
Employer
can pay
employees

7. WHAT ARE YOUR JOB GOALS?
o Short term
• Ex. “I want to do well in my trial period”
o Mid term
• Ex. “I want a good review and raise at the end of
the year”
o Long term
• Ex. “I want to become a supervisor”

8. WHAT MAKES A GOOD EMPLOYEE?
Be dependable
Work hard
Be honest
Customer Service
Professional

9. SAMPLE EMAIL - PROFESSIONALISM

10. WHAT MAKES A GOOD EMPLOYEE? CONT’D
Team player
Positive
attitude
Good
communication
Open to
improvement

11. BEFORE YOU START YOUR JOB
o Find out
 What types of clothes and shoes are OK to wear?
 What items are required (i.e.: ties, safety gear)?
 What is not OK to wear?
 Are there other policies on appearance that affect
you (i.e.: facial hair, piercings, tattoos)?
 Uniform? – How do you get it? Do you launder it
yourself?

12. FIRST IMPRESSIONS
o Know the dress code
o Be clean and well-groomed
o Get off to a good start
• Plan ahead
• Know where to report
• Know break routine
• Smile, introduce yourself
• Listen and learn

13. BE A GO-GETTER
o Stay busy
o Volunteer
o Look for ways to do things faster/better
• NOTE: may be good reason for doing things a
certain way
• Faster isn’t always better
o Lead

14. BE AN INFORMED EMPLOYEE
o Read your manual
o Know what is required of you
o Know your rights
o You have choices
• Are the requirements of the job acceptable to you?

15. IMPORTANT INFORMATION IN THE MANUAL
o Missing work
o Time and attendance
o Tardiness
o Breaks
o Use of company time and equipment
o Personal cell phone use
o Confidentiality

16. MISSING WORK
o Responsibility
• Co-workers pick up your slack!
o Miss work for the right reasons
• Good: sick or family emergency
• Bad: hangover or don’t feel like working
o Follow the right steps to call out
o Time off requests
• Know how to request off in advance

17. TIME AND ATTENDANCE
o How do you clock in to
work?
o What is the acceptable
time frame?
o Tardiness
• Plan ahead
• Make a weekly schedule
o Breaks
• Alcohol, tobacco or other
drugs

18. WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Lucy has a chance to go to her favorite team’s
playoff game. So, she asks Mia to switch days
off with her. Mia says she’ll think about it. Mia
had to cover the morning rush alone twice this
week because Lucy was late. And when Lucy
called in sick last week, Mia had to pull a
double shift.

19. USE OF COMPANY TIME AND EQUIPMENT
o Company equipment
o Personal cell phones
• Don’t abuse the
privilege
• Damage organizations
reputation
o Misuse of time
• Don’t justify to misuse
time
• Keep a log

20. KNOW YOUR JOB & LEARN IT WELL
o Go to all trainings/meetings
o Ask questions – be patient
• Watch, listen, and learn
o Put service first
• Know who you’re serving
• Be friendly and helpful
• Handle customers with courtesy

21. BUILD YOUR SKILLS
o Make sure the basics are strong
o Life-long learning
o Take advantage of employer training
o www.employflorida.com
o Local colleges
o Associations affiliated with your industry

22. WORK TOWARD A GOOD REVIEW
o Know what’s expected of
you
o Ask for feedback
o Work to meet your goals
o Track your own
performance
• Tasks you were assigned
• Positive feedback
• Noteworthy
accomplishments

23. THE BIG PICTURE
o Work within company norms
o Respect organization
o Balance your role and needs
o Guide your priorities
o Always speak
positively

24. WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
A former co-worker sends Jade a flirty e-mail at
work. Jade has always liked him and wants to
reply.
a) Reply using my work e-mail, since it’s faster and
more convenient.
b) Reply from work, but use a private online e-mail
account.
c) Reply from home using a private e-mail account.

25. CONFIDENTIALITY
o Privacy policies
o Know what information is private
o Work belongs to the employer
• Emails and work are not private
o Trust and Respect

26. THINK ABOUT IT…
How can a lack of confidentiality do serious
damage to a customer?
How can a lack of confidentiality do serious
damage to your employer?
How can a lack of confidentiality do serious
damage to you?

27. COMMUNICATION/LISTENING
o Build communication
skills
o Be a good listener
o Watch what you say
and how you say it
o Body language
o Keep messages
brief/clear
o Work at writing well
o Phone skills

28. PROFESSIONAL RESPONSES
What you mean: Tell the caller
“He is out.” “He is not in the office at the moment. Would you like
to leave a message on his voicemail?”
“I don’t know where he is.” “He has stepped out of the office. Would you like to
leave a message on his voicemail?”
“He is in the men’s room.” “He has stepped out of the office. Would you like to
leave a message on his voicemail?”
“He hasn’t come in yet.” “I expect him shortly. Would you like to leave a
message on his voicemail?”
“She took the day off.” “She is out of the office for the day. Can someone else
help you or would you like her voicemail?”
“He doesn’t want to be
disturbed”
“He is unavailable at the moment. Would you like to
leave a message on his voicemail?”
“She is busy” “She is unavailable at the moment. Would you like to
leave a message on her voicemail?”

29. CUSTOMER SERVICE
o External
o Internal

30. WHAT IS GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE?
o First impressions are key
o Courtesy counts
o Build trust
o Build professional
relationship

31. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Getting what you expected or even more and
feeling good about the entire experience.

32. THE DIFFICULT CUSTOMER
Common Reasons a customer may be difficult
Tired or frustrated
Confused or overwhelmed
Defending their ego or self esteem
Never been in a similar situation
Feel ignored
Don’t speak/understand the language
Treated poorly in similar circumstances
In a bad mood
In a hurry/waited a long time for service

33. EMPATHY
Empathy is simply relating to or trying to
understand how someone else feels
“I’m sorry this happed to you Mr. Smith. I can
certainly understand how that can be
frustrating. Let me see what I can do to help fix
this problem for you.”

34. REMEMBER:
Respect the customer
Don’t take it personally
Identify the problem and
reason
View from their perspective
Focus on problem not person
Empathize don’t sympathize
Stay calm
Keep things in perspective
Encourage small steps
Be professional
Long term change
Be proud of a job well done
Take pride in their satisfaction

35. COMMUNICATION REVISITED
o Key in customer service
o Pay attention to the customer
o Listen for feelings and reason for them
o Acknowledge their feelings
o Active listening
• Hearing to understand
• Takes practice!

36. BE PREPARED
Ask your supervisor how you should handle tricky
situations such as:
• “What if I can’t meet the customer’s needs?”
• If the customer is getting abusive, I should…?”

37. CUSTOMER SERVICE
“This is a story about four people named, respectively,
Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was
an important job to be done, and Everybody was sure
that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it,
but Nobody did. Somebody got angry about that,
because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought
Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody
wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed
Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have
done.”
~Anonymous~

38. DIVERSITY
o Age
o Ethnicity
o Gender
o Physical abilities/qualities
o Race
o Sexual orientation
o Religion

39. BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION
Different Values and beliefs
Misunderstandings
Past experiences
FEAR Anger
Defensiveness
Physical environment
distractions

40. GETTING ALONG WITH OTHERS
o Earn respect of your co-workers
o Be dependable and pull your own weight
o Establish mutual respect
o Be a team player
o Learn to effectively
co-exist

41. SIMPLE TIPS TO MUTUAL RESPECT
o Share and clean up after yourself
o Treat others with respect
• Value their opinions
o Avoid talking about others
o Help others
o Barriers
• “I’m better than you”
• Jealousy

42. BEING A TEAM PLAYER
o It benefits everyone
o Get to know your co-workers
o Your supervisor has a big say
o Appreciate your supervisors role
o Take note of your supervisors style of
managing
• Feedback/praise vs. focus on mistakes
• Freedom vs. keep close tabs

43. WHAT IF I DON’T LIKE MY SUPERVISOR???
o CHOICES
• Weigh your options (staying vs. quitting)
o Get assignments right!
o Keep your supervisor informed
o Keep things positive

44. TEAM PLAYERS WORK AT GETTING ALONG
o The usual (i.e., friendly, polite, helpful, etc..)
o Respect co-workers time, equipment, supplies
and personal space
o Respect differences
o Give feedback to help improve
o Share ideas/suggestion – not just criticism
o Choose words carefully
o Give praise when due

45. AVOID PITFALLS
Sharing too much
Gossiping
Bragging
Talking politics/religion
Inappropriate/insensitive
jokes/remarks
Using crude/foul language
Work suffers from
socializing
Workplace romance

46. POTENTIAL CONFLICT & DECISION MAKING
o Criticism
o Anger and frustration
o Problems with co-worker
o Personal problems
o Problems with your supervisor

47. CONFLICT – CRITICISM
o Don’t take it personally
• It’s about the job
o Think long-term
• Choose your battles
o Grab the opportunity
• Opportunity to learn and grow

48. CONFLICT – ANGER AND FRUSTRATION
o Stop and think
o Get under control
o Solve the problem
o When you have to confront
issues
• Use “I statements”
• Be assertive

49. CONFLICT – WITH CO-WORKER
o Try to work it out
o Good for the team
o Discuss in private
o Use your communication and problem solving
skills
o If nothing works – go to supervisor for advice

50. CONFLICT – PERSONAL PROBLEMS
o Leave them at the door
o Talk to supervisor
• Explains temporary change in performance
• May be able to help
• Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)

51. CONFLICT WITH SUPERVISOR
o Normal to have disagreements
o Pick your battles
o Stay calm
o Provide solutions/suggestions
o Supervisor calls the shots!
o Get advice from Human Resources
o KEEP RECORDS!

52. DISCIPLINE PROCESS
o Read your manual/handbook
o Understand:
• What you did
• What you need to do in future
• Ramifications

53. BE A PROBLEM SOLVER
o Identify the problem
o Gather information
o Brainstorm
o Evaluate ideas
o Try the best idea
o Review the situation

54. SETTLING A DISPUTE
o Each party should
have a chance to
explain
o Negotiate
o Look for
compromise

55. ATTITUDE
“A happy person is not a person in a certain set
of circumstances, but rather a person with a
certain set of attitudes.”
- Hugh Downs
“Getting people to like you, is only the other side
of liking them.”
- Norman Vincent Peale

56. ATTITUDE AFFECTS
Your feelings
Your productivity
Your job
Company profits
Co-workers
Customers
Schedules
Accuracy
Work quantity
Work quality

57. STAY POSITIVE
o Choose how you look at things
o Focus on positive
o Positive thinking
o Positive self-talk

58. WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Lee and Jared have been working lots of required
overtime. Lee complains about this both at
work and at home. Jared tries to think about
how it won’t last forever, it’s good for the
company and he’s earning extra money.

59. TAKEAWAYS
o Learn what’s expected of you
o Work on creating good relationships
o Put the customer first
o Stay positive and
upbeat
o Believe in yourself!

60. YOU’RE HIRED! NOW WHAT?
Basic Job Keeping Skills