"Contribution" can manifest itself in many ways at the workplace:

1) Bottom line impact
Bottom line impact is one contribution indispensable employees make. Do you know your bottom line impact? Divide your employer’s revenues by total staff – this is your average contribution. Now look at your activities to generate this revenue figure – are you directly involved in selling? Are you supporting sales via marketing, operations or administrative support? Do you keep costs in line and therefore contribute more directly to profitability?

2) Productivity
Indispensable employees are efficient and effective at their jobs. Efficient employees are quick to completion and not wasteful of resources, including management time. Effective employees do their jobs at high quality. Are you both efficient and effective in your role? Do you need to focus on building better systems and habits to deliver more efficiently? Or do you need to upgrade your skills and expertise to perform more effectively?

3) Positivity
Indispensable employees are enjoyable to work with. We all know of a colleague people dread collaborating with. We also all know colleagues that people love to work with. You look forward to seeing them. After interacting with them, you’re more energized. You don’t have to be friends with everyone in your company but you want to be that colleague with the positive energy. Are you easy and enjoyable to work with? Do you need to build in more breaks, cut down on the caffeine or adopt some other healthy habit to improve your positivity?

4) Reliability
Indispensable employees deliver what they promise and on time. Can people count on you? What is still on your To Do list that others are waiting for?

5) Creativity
Indispensable employees come up with ideas or ask thoughtful questions to encourage ideas. At the next meeting, aim to add at least one helpful comment or make one supportive remark to someone else’s comment. Focus on solutions to problems that are raised. In your day-to-day role, think about how you might approach one of your responsibilities differently. This may lead to an increase in productivity or in your perceived positivity. How can you be more creative in your current role?

6) Diplomacy
Indispensable employees know how to navigate office relationships. Dictionary.com defines diplomacy in part as “the skill in handling people so that there is little or no ill will”. As with positivity, you don’t have to be friends with everyone, but indispensable employees figure out how to get things done – collect valuable information, enroll colleagues into helping them even when there is no official reporting relationship. Are you able to handle your colleagues in a way that generates little or no ill will? Do you need to listen more, communicate more clearly, or be more engaging?

7) Marketability
Indispensable employees are valuable to their company externally, not just internally. Whether it’s having a client-facing role, such as sales or customer service, or it’s being a brand ambassador for your company in recruiting, industry conferences or other professional events, indispensable employees contribute to a halo effect for their employers. Wow, that employee is impressive, therefore that company is impressive. Are you a brand ambassador to your employer? Are you knowledgeable about your company overall? Can you compelling and informatively explain to people why they should work at your employer or do business with your employer?