How Attention to Detail Increases Your Income

Remember how satisfying it was to solve a mystery just by replaying the details in your mind? Where are your missing keys? Did your sweetheart lie to you? Where did you see that statistic that you could use in your report? Paying attention to details has many benefits.

Being detail oriented is a valuable workplace skill: Detectives analyze clues to solve a case. Medical professionals keep a close eye on details so patients get the correct dose of medication. Accountants check their numbers: a payment of $100,000 and a payment of $1,000,000 is just the difference of one zero, with very different results.

From these examples, it’s clear that paying attention to detail is a vital skill to emphasize in resumes and skills assessments. Detail oriented people have more workplace autonomy because employers can trust them to keep a business’s reputation.

Attention to detail, or being detail oriented, is valuable at the workplace. There are several ways to sharpen or improve your attention to detail skills.

What does detail oriented mean?

If you are detail oriented, you are thorough, observant, and notice small details. For example, your coworker schedules a meeting for Monday, March 6th. You check the calendar and notice that March 6 is a Sunday, so you ask your coworker to update the meeting information.

Precision is an important skill for any job, but small errors can have minor to major consequences depending on the job. 

Book editors fix mistakes such as incorrect page references. Not catching this error can result in a minor inconvenience for the reader. An incorrectly typed line of computer code can result in the program not working for the user. A mistake on an invoice could mean an incorrect payment. Marking the left leg and not the right leg for surgery can have disastrous consequences.

An employer trusts that a worker with close attention to detail will be accurate and careful, and not likely to make mistakes. That worker won’t need to be constantly monitored, and their work checked and rechecked. 

Detailed oriented people work effectively and accurately on each task. Their meticulousness will save the company embarrassment from careless errors that may harm its reputation or finances.

Is attention to detail a skill?

People list “attention to detail” as a skill on their resume or describe themselves as detail oriented during interviews. However, unlike other skills such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking, attention to detail is rarely tested as part of the interview process.

Attention to detail, as mentioned already, affects a worker’s independence. A thorough and accurate worker is more likely to be given additional responsibility and more likely to be promoted. Employers trust that a detail oriented employee is careful to do each task correctly the first time. 

Paying attention to detail also has social impacts at work. This skill improves customer and coworker relationships. A coworker who remembers the name of your kids, asks about the restaurant you decided to check out on Saturday, or wonders if your sprained ankle has improved is someone you’re more likely to remember and like.

Similarly, the ability to remember small details improves customer relations and increases the likelihood of getting the customer’s business. Customers like to be remembered. It’s a great feeling, for example, to walk into a business and say you’ll get “the usual” and the staff knows exactly what you’re looking for.

Does attention to detail increase your income?

Those who are highly detail oriented are more likely to be in supervisory positions or have jobs with independence. These workers have shown that they are conscientious when doing their work. They can be trusted to check other people’s work and manage projects to complete them correctly and on time.

Attention to detail can help you get a high-paying career, particularly for jobs in which accuracy and human lives are at stake. Here are some jobs in which attention to detail is extremely crucial:

  • Anesthesiologist assistants
  • Family medicine physicians
  • Proofreaders and copy markers
  • Prosthodontists
  • Urologists
  • Archivists
  • Camera operators, television, video and film
  • Computer programmers
  • Court reporters and simultaneous captioners
  • Cytogenetic technologists
  • Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
  • Nuclear Power Reactor Operators
  • Obstetricians and Gynecologists
  • Optometrists
  • Physician Assistants
  • Skincare Specialists 
  • Watch and clock repairers

The income range for some of these detail oriented jobs ranges from $70,000 to $187,000 (averaged income for each career). If you thrive on the details, there are jobs in which your sharp focus is highly valued.

How to pay attention to detail at work

Like any skill, you can improve attention to detail over time, starting with short exercises and repeated habits.

Fun exercises you can try at home to improve your attention to detail skills include: 

  • Listening to ocean sounds or jungle sounds and paying close attention to the range of sounds that you hear
  • Studying a pair of compare/contrast pictures and listing the particular differences between the two pictures
  • Looking at a diagram and deciding whether it is the top, side, or bottom view of an object
  • Studying a picture or series of images, numbers, or letters to memorize patterns
  • Complete crossword puzzles
  • Count using a specific pattern, such as multiples of five, or looking at a page of text and counting every second word without the aid of your finger on the page

While at work, create habits that encourage you to become detail oriented:

  • Organize your desk and your emails. When you are organized, you can track deadlines and files better, and you’re less likely to forget to answer an email.
  • Write to-do lists. These lists will help you remember all the tasks you need to complete before their deadlines. You can also keep not-to-do lists, such as cutting down on TV time and spending more time on reading, exercise, or skills improvement. 
  • Create checklists. If you notice that you frequently make mistakes when writing emails, keep a checklist that you must complete before you send the email. For example, remind yourself to check the spelling of the recipient of your message and check a word you constantly misspell. You can also keep a checklist for procedures to make sure you complete all the steps before you hand off your part of a project.
  • Practice active listening. When you are the listener, don’t just stare into space until the speaker finishes. Nod or say, “um hm” or “yes” to show you are listening. Summarize or repeat what the speaker said to demonstrate that you heard the details.
  • Take notes. When you’re at a meeting, jot down important details about your tasks. During the meeting, take notes to keep you focused on details. After the meeting, these notes can become your checklist for what you must do.

Key Takeaways

Attention to detail is a valuable skill. People who are detail oriented are trusted with more responsibilities on the job because they complete tasks accurately and thoroughly. A careless mistake can cost a company their reputation and a person their job. Careers in which attention to detail can mean life or death are lucrative. You can become more detail oriented by creating habits at work that focus your attention on details. 

How detail oriented are you? The next time you enter a room, take a look around for a few minutes, then close your eyes and try to remember as many details about the room as you can!

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Amazing Insights on Speaking Skills

Employers look for team members with strong, effective communication skills. Our ability to advance in our careers, build a business, or develop relationships depend on how well we can articulate words.

Here are some amazing insights into our speaking skills. Take a moment to think about what these insights mean to you, and how they impact your life.

  • The average person speaks about 7,000 to 20,000 words a day. The range is based on several sources. How many words you speak depends on how much you need to communicate with others. Your range of vocabulary can range from less than 1000 words to a wider range if you have a highly technical job.
  • Non-verbal communication is as important, if not more important, than verbal communication. When we speak, we focus on our words. We don’t think about our facial expressions or body language. However, your listener is watching to see if your words match your non-verbal communication.  
  • Men interrupt women three times more often than women interrupt men. It’s a behavior that starts in school and continues in the workplace.
  • The fear of public speaking is glossophobia. Some data suggests it can affect up to 75% of people. Public speaking skills have an impact on a person’s career, from leadership abilities to career advancement.
  • Are you really listening when someone is speaking? Our brain can think at a speed of 3,000 words a minute. But we can only listen at a speed of 100 to 125 words a minute.  
  • Active listening skills create stronger relationships at work. Active listening means showing that you understand the speaker by repeating what they said and using non-verbal cues such as nodding.
  • People with exceptional communication skills also tend to be strong leaders who create trust with their team members. These people are valuable to their company because they can teach others how to be better communicators.

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Lunar New Year

Always have a reason to celebrate. Just one month into 2022 and it is another new year: lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year. The occasion is about more than celebrating another culture’s traditions.

It’s a time to think about prosperity and good fortune, which is particularly timely with the rapid changes in the economy in 2022. We need something positive to lift us up.

The Lunar New Year is an opportunity to focus on a prosperous career or business (or both), as well as good health and good fortune. It’s a holiday in some countries, but even if it’s not a day off where you live, take a moment to assess and think about what you want to achieve in the coming months.

Traditionally, Chinese New Year is a time to pay off debts and clean the house. It’s a reason to decorate the home and buy new clothes.

When the new year arrives, it’s customary to have dinner with family. The younger generation receives lucky money in red envelopes from their parents and grandparents. Business managers may give bonuses in red packets. People indulge in traditional foods, such as dumplings and niango (cake).

Even if you don’t celebrate Lunar New Year, it’s a great reason to reflect on your own traditions, especially around what brings good luck and bad luck. It’s a chance to think about what new habits you want to develop going forward because this is a time for a new start.

This year, 2022, is the year of the tiger. The tiger symbolizes ambition, courage, self-confidence, and enthusiasm. This animal also symbolizes a commitment to helping others.

Another association is with the Chinese god of wealth, Tsai Shen Yeh. The god is often seen sitting on a tiger in Asian art.

What traditions will you continue in the months ahead? What new beginnings do you want in your life? What new goals will you achieve?

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AI Testing for Communication Skills: Will It Replace the Job Interview?

Communication skills are, without a doubt, vital for any job and any career. Effective written or spoken communication is necessary for sending and receiving messages in person, by phone, email, or communication platforms such as Zoom or Click-Up. Communication must also be adjusted for your audience, whether you speak with a co-worker, customer, or supervisor.

Traditionally, employers evaluate a future employee’s communication skills based on the content of their resume, their writing skills in their application, and how they communicate during their interview.

From this assessment, employers determine how suitable the candidate’s communication skills are for their future job. If their assessment is correct, they will have a suitable candidate. If their assessment is wrong, they will have wasted valuable time and resources.

The communication skills required to ace the interview process are not necessarily the same as those needed for the future employee’s job. How we communicate with potential employers is not the same as with customers or supervisors.

One solution is to test a candidate’s communication skills by recreating communication scenarios that are similar to what the future employee will encounter on the job. These scenarios can be duplicated through computerized assessments.

How effective are assessments at determining a candidate’s communication skills? It depends on the skills you are testing and how closely the tests mimic actual work scenarios.

Communication Skill Tests Reveal a Candidate’s Strengths and Weaknesses

Communication skills are one of many soft skills that are transferrable across occupations and industries. Soft skills include leadership, creativity, problem solving and time management.

Communication skills are more than listening and speaking. They include observation, empathy and non-verbal communication.

How well can a candidate convey an urgent message to their team? How well can they use technology to understand a customer’s issue and communicate an appropriate solution?

In addition to the job interview, we can ask a candidate to complete a standardized communication test online or complete a language assessment. However, these tests might not evaluate how well the candidate pays attention to detail, shows empathy, or demonstrates active listening.

A skills assessment created for the types of scenarios that a candidate will face on the job will more accurately test their strengths and weaknesses.

Will the candidate be managing teams and multiple projects? An AI test scenario could be a recording of a team member calling in to say he cannot meet the deadline because of a family emergency. In the recording, he summarizes what he has completed and what still needs to be done.

As part of the test, the candidate records their response on the phone call. Do they show empathy in their response? Do they show active listening skills when they repeat the details of what needs to be assigned to another team member? How clearly do they articulate their message if the test requires a timed response?

This is just one example of using AI assessments to determine how a candidate will communicate in a workplace situation.

Test for Specific Types of Communication

To decide what types of communication to include in an assessment, an employer first needs a clear and detailed description of the future employee’s job. What will be their responsibilities on a day-to-day basis? Who will they interact with? What problems will they need to solve?

When the employer has created this description, the next step is to determine what communication skills are needed to perform those tasks.

Some skills that employers often test for include:

  • Active listening: Showing the speaker that the listener is involved by nodding, paraphrasing what was said, or asking questions that show the listener heard what was said.
  • Comprehension skills: Understanding and responding to straightforward or complex workplace problems.
  • Language proficiency: Articulating clearly and efficiently the speaker’s message to the audience.
  • Problem solving: Providing a solution in a clear, concise manner with minimal or no errors.
  • Social skills: Dealing with customers or co-workers, particularly if there has been a misunderstanding or the other person is emotionally distressed over an issue.
  • Adaptability: Handling new situations that were not taught in training or haven’t previously occurred at the workplace.

After deciding what types of communication skills to test for, the next step is to create a test that can accurately assess a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses for these skills.

Why Use an AI Communication Skills Test?

AI software has greatly improved over time. Assessments provide a more accurate evaluation of the candidate’s communication skills, allowing recruiters and employers to assess a candidate’s suitability for a specific role.

These tests can be completed as part of the interview process at the employer’s office or at the candidate’s home after logging into the testing system.

As technology continues to advance, companies have changed how they operate. More people can work from home, meaning companies have become more global. One company can hire employees from multiple cities and even other countries.

The benefit is without the limitation of location, companies can hire the candidate with the best skill set for the role, regardless of where the candidate lives. However, communication skills become even more crucial with remote teams if employees no longer meet in person.

With these changes to companies, communication skills become even more vital. How will the candidate handle problem solving when working at home? How will they use the technology to communicate by email, phone, or communication apps to solve a customer’s issue or work with team members they have never met?

With AI communication testing, the employer can re-create scenarios that occur with their customers. The candidate will complete a typical scenario they will encounter by phone or email on the job.

Their answer is then recorded and evaluated. Unlike standard testing, with AI assessments, more than one answer is possible. The candidate might not know the correct answer to a question because they are unfamiliar with the company policy or procedure. However, the employer can review how the candidate responded and evaluate only the clarity of the answer.  

These communication assessments can evaluate many types of verbal and written communication scenarios between employees and the customers, co-workers, and supervisors.

These customer/employee interactions and employee/co-worker interactions cannot be evaluated in an interview. However, they can be recreated in an AI communications assessment.

Key Takeaways

Communication skills are one of many soft skills vital to one’s ability to perform well on the job. Communication is in many forms: on the phone, by email, through messaging apps, and is more than listening to words and responding. It includes our use of language, empathizing with the speaker, how well we problem solve, and our active listening skills.

When searching for the right candidate for the job, employers need to evaluate the candidate for communication skills, but an accurate assessment isn’t necessarily possible during an interview. An AI assessment can recreate typical scenarios that the candidate will encounter when working with customers and their team while on the job.

These more accurate assessments of a candidate’s skill set will result in better hires and a more efficient hiring process.

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