The Missing Key!

Have you got the right sales people in place and is your reward scheme set up properly?

A colleague of mine bought a new car through a well-known and, to all intents and purposes, reputable dealership in Liverpool.  On completing the deal the sales person agreed to supply the missing spare key saying that it would take about a week…  6 weeks and endless calls later, my colleague still hasn’t received the key.  Excuses have ranged from ‘getting caught up in a heavy sales period’ to the ‘key supplier being on holiday’!

So imagine her surprise when she received a call from the sales person asking her why she hadn’t completed the customer feedback form because it affected his ‘scores’.

My colleague has vowed never to buy a car from this dealer again and has told just about everyone she meets what terrible service she has received and all because of a key!

So what’s going on here? 

Two things strike me.  Firstly we have a sales person who is more interested in his own personal success represented by the scoring system than he is in fulfilling his promises to the customer.  He seems to think that people will give him good marks regardless of poor service.  Admittedly his scores may reflect his pay packet at the end of the month but surely points have to be earned?

Selecting sales people who are interested in customer satisfaction first and their own scores afterwards will satisfy both needs.  Note to management – make sure your talent acquisition strategy includes something like Harrison Assessments to engage sales people with an approach that will result in customer satisfaction, repeat sales and ultimately high scores – win/win for all!

Secondly, is your reward system for sales people set up correctly?  Is it rewarding successful, productive behaviour with the types of rewards the sales people want?  The only way to find out is to ask them with an objective (not subjective) retention and engagement survey.  Here again Harrison Assessments can help with a highly cost effective, easy to complete, objective survey measuring 8 employee engagement factors, ensuring your reward system is aligned not only to the business’ expectations, but also to your employees expectations.

If you would like to know more about how we can help you, select, engage and retain your sales people do get in touch:

pat@quadrant1.com  – 07768 922244.

Attracting Top Talent – Many ways prospective employers blow it!

I have just read an article entitled ‘The five ways job applicants blow it!’ Great stuff and all points that prospective employees should take account of. It’s also important for employers to be aware of the ways they can blow it too. I have headed this article ‘Many ways prospective employers blow it!’ because I am convinced there are more than 5. So here goes.

The competition for top talent is fierce – keeping top talent and making sure engagement levels are high is a key factor to success and bottom line impact so what can employers do to make sure they attract and retain the top talent?

Here are some major booboos!

1. Failing to recognize that talent acquisition is a two way process. Too many organisations approach talent acquisition as if it is a privilege to work for them. Whilst there may be some anomalies in the job market many organisations find it difficult to attract talent – this can be to senior positions as well as to their apprenticeship schemes.
2. Making the job out to be something it’s not in the advert! We often hear of people leaving a role fairly quickly because the advertisement has asked for something the role can’t deliver. A classic example is ‘creativity and innovation’ when every decision has to be referred to the host company and takes months to be acted upon. Entrepreneurship is another – let’s be honest true entrepreneurs do not work for large organisations. What the role probably requires is the ability to take initiative, to work autonomously if necessary and maybe a level of optimism about the future.
3. Not saying ‘thanks but no thanks’ to unsuccessful applicants of the first sift. Such a simple step that can do wonders for the company brand.
4. Interviewing on the basis of eligibility factors alone – experience and qualifications are of course an essential part of the criteria. They definitely determine whether a person is capable of performing the role but do they measure their suitability for the role? By measuring suitability factors accuracy can increase from 40-45% to nearer 90-95%
5. Resorting to subjectivity at the interview stage. Eligibility factors are easy to measure and check. Interviews are often conducted on a subjective scoring system with the results being calculated and discussions taking place following the interview. Behavioural questioning can give some indication of a person’s willingness and ability to perform in a variety of scenarios but it can’t measure working preferences which are the real indicators of success.
6. Trying to fit to role by personality testing. Personality testing has little to do with job success.
7. Failing to fit with manager/leader. All too often employers fail to match their new recruits to the style of the manager causing friction and mismanagement and often resulting in the newly found talent moving on to pastures new.
8. Failing to check engagement and retention factors. What actually motivates new talent is not always the same. It is important to find out what the engagement factors are and be honest if the organisation cannot satisfy them. What are the employees expectations in relation to development, appreciation, remuneration, communication, authority, social, personal needs and work life balance.
9. Failing to satisfy the GRT of expectations. According to Kevin Kruse the best talent is generally looking for 3 things – growth, recognition of input and ideas and trust – trust in them and the ability to trust in the organization.

These are just a few of the blunders organisations can make in the pursuit of talent.

If you would like to know more about how to attract the best talent call +44 (0)7768 922244.