Career Development Plan Summary - Essay Example

Career Development Plan Summary We have embarked on a very difficult journey with the merger of two companies. We have had several trainings and a variety of insights and changes have come through our company. We have seen employees come and go and now we are looking towards the future. We are not always able to see the changes that everyone needs to make but we do find that our teams are shaping up and we can see where we need to add new employees. The task that is set before us now is to find the differences between those jobs we have and those we need. This is an important process because we want to make sure that we add to the teams instead of detracting from them. In order to do this it is important to develop job descriptions and qualifications for the new people. Job Descriptions and Qualifications The following job descriptions and qualifications are suggested: 1. First Level Management Position--Regional Sales Manager (full-time) Job Description: This person is responsible for building sales within their territory to new and existing customers and they will manage the regions pipeline of information. Qualifications: This individual should have a background in sales and in particular a background in Solutions Based Selling. He or she should have a proven track record and have excellent program planning skills. The track record should be verifiable as to their quota and how it was reached. This individual will head one of the sales divisions and they should be able to hit the ground running. They should have excellent verbal and written skills and be able to communicate well with upper management and their employees. This person should have a minimum of 3 years of sales experience in the cleaning industry and have a track record of acquiring new leads easily. They also must be willing to travel up to 50% of the job. 2. Lead Generation Sales Associate (full-time) Job Description: This person will be responsible to handle leads for the company. Although we have had sales people handle their own lead in the past, it is a good idea to have someone who can generate leads as their top priority. This will make sure that all employees have enough leads all the time. This person will be the key appointment setter and will do outbound calls to find new businesses that will work with us for their cleaning supplies and cleaning needs. This individual will work directly with the regional director to help find leads for a particular region. They will be responsible for working with local business and they will prepare reports on a daily, weekly or monthly basis depending on the needs for the company. Because this is a large job we would like to hire two Lead Generation Sales Associates. Qualifications: We need people with strong telemarketing experiences who have worked within the cleaning industry in the past. They need to have a track record of generating leads and they definitely strong written and verbal communication skills. They will need to have computer skills, particularly in CRM systems and the total Microsoft Office Suite (2007). They should be financially driven, a self-starter and able to be a team player. 3. In House Trainer (part-time or ¾ time)-- this trainer will train current and new employees in Solution Based Selling as well as topics that are identified by managers. The individual will work closely with managers to create trainings that are relevant to the needs of the sales force. Qualifications: This individual should be knowledgeable about the market for cleaning solutions and be up to date on what is new and what keeps a company competitive. They should be innovative and have a background in sales and marketing as well as curriculum/training development. They should have at least five years of training experience and a Masters Degree is preferred. 4. Marketing Specialist (part-time) -- this individual will be responsible for the marketing end of the sales force. As the company moves further into the specialty area of cleaning solutions they will need to create a marketing focus that will spotlight the new direction that the company is taking. This individual will report to the regional manager and will work closely with them in order to create the best marketing plan. Qualifications: The individual should be flexible and have a background in marketing cleaning solutions or cleaning products. They should have at least five years of experience in marketing and a track record in successful marketing campaigns. They will need to work well with all different types of people and be able to gear the campaign to diverse businesses. This individual will work closely with the general marketing professional for the company to integrate the sales marketing with general marketing of the company. 5. Diversity officer -- the responsibility of this indivudal will be to keep the company abreast of the changes within the global marketplace for cleaning supplies and cleaning solutions. Their main responsibility will be to help the company identify the steps to take to become competitive in a global market. This individual will also be responsible for maintaining current relations with in house staff and helping them to interact effectively with one another. Qualifications: At least five years of working with diversity and designing programs for companies who are within the global market. A knowledge of diversity, what it means to a company and how the company can benefit from making sure that their company is diverse. Training Program Generally speaking there will not be a special need for training for the new hires if the company sticks to the job descriptions. We will have the opportunity to design new training with the training manager so that we can make sure that training is specific to the needs of everyone. Ongoing training will be created and conducted when there are updates needed for OSHA standards or when the industry has changes that we want to implement. All staff will be trained on an "as needed" basis. We will continue training in solution based selling as well as specific sales skills like customer service, telephone sales, closing the sale on the telephone as well as in the field and any other topics that are identified. Training will also continue with mentors and teams. Sometimes it will be easier to train our team leaders which may mean a "train the trainer" program once everyone has settled into their new jobs. Methods for Evaluation Employees For general evaluations I suggest the 360 degree program. I have been studying this information and here is a report from the United States Office of Personnel Management (1997) that is important to managers as they are thinking about this assessment (please follow the link). This is a way that goals and objectives can be started at the beginning of the year. I suggest that the goals in this program be evaluated on a quarterly basis to insure that each employee is moving towards their goals. This instrument allows the employees to see how they are doing with their managers, their peers and with customers. This gives an overall rating for them and gives the am opportunity to evaluate there own performance. From this point, we can help employees set realistic goals. When they reach their goals, they receive bonuses; when they do not the do not receive bonuses. All employees will be working towards the trips and they will be receiving their commissions with their base. The basis for our discipline process should be based on the individuals performance. If there is a need for discipline it may look like this: 1. First time they will receive a written request from the supervisor for a meeting. During this meeting the employee and their manager will discuss what is going on and how to "fix" the problem. The individual will have three months to work on the problem. They will receive more mentoring, training or resources at this stage that are necessary to help them improve. 2. If they do not improve within that three months, they will receive a warning towards termination. The manager will again go over their performance and their goals. 3. If nothing improves, they will be terminated. We will want to make sure that our employees understand that there will be more than one method of evaluating them. As an example, sales will be one part of the evaluation. Elliott (2009) suggests that there be more than one way of helping employees to forecast sales and this is very important. Attitude and demeanor towards customers will also be used; this can be evaluated through the 360 degree assessment. Incentives and Benefit Programs As stated before, all employees need specific ways to be competitive in a job and to earn a bigger place in the company if that is where they want to go. Within this process, we will institute quarterly and annual bonuses, reward trips and we will pay a salary plus commission. Obviously the best performers will benefit from this plan the most. The compensation plan that we have discussed previously is fair in that anyone can receive the benefits from the plan. We have put mentoring in place and we have put weekly sales meetings as safeguards so that all employees can equally improve enough to receive the benefits of the compensation plan. We will also offer healthcare for both our part-time and full-time staff. It is very discouraging for a person working within a company not to have good health care benefits. We will work with our staff to understand their needs and then find a way to implement a policy. Strategies for managing employees career development It is up to the company to encourage their employees to move forward in their careers because they understand that the more interested they keep employees the easier it is for them to stay. According to Career Management Best Practices (2009) we have already started by including a mentoring program. A few of the ways we can help our employees in this area include: 1. Have assessment trainings to teach employees how to take charge of their own careers so the employee understands their own abilities, interests and values. From this point we can help employees understand the needs of the company and the options that they have for advancement. From this information they can meet with their managers to get on the career track that is best for them. 2. Career coaching for managers. This is a great way to make sure that everyone is on the same page. Managers do not always know how to keep their employees engaged and this is an excellent way to help managers understand the career management process, how to support their employees efforts and how to give honest feedback. 3. Establishing individual learning accounts -- this is a good idea for the future that we should be thinking about now. This will help those employees who are ready to take charge of their own careers. To do this we have to give employees money and time to do career development that can include classes, workshops, internships and other types of training. This will save money in the long run because we will not be doing "one size fits all" trainings that are expensive and not able to be used by all employees; instead this will allow them the opportunity to customize their own training. Because this will be a customized training we will be helping our employees with special needs to get the services they need. They will give us an understanding of the training they need. If everyone is working towards their own goals their managers will help them get in line for promotions as stated above. References Career Management Best Practices (2009). Retrieved May 6, 2009 from http://www.explorehr.org/articles/Career_Management/Career_Management_Best _Practices.html. from Branham, Leigh, Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business: 24 Ways to Hang on to Your Most Valuable Talent. AMACOM/American Management Association. Strategies found at Exploring HR Management. Elliott, T. (2009). Three methods of sales forecasting: Sales forecasting by multiple methods is most accurate. About.com. Retrieved May 6, 2009 from http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/cashflowmgt/a/salesforecast.htm. United States Office of Personnel Management (1997). 360 degree assessment: An Overview. Performance Management Practitioner Series, Performance Management and Incentive Division. Retrieved May 6, 2009 from http://www.opm.gov/perform/wppdf/360asess.pdf. Read More