HR Department (Create a Training and Skill Development Manual for field Employees)

Assignment Taken

Create a Training and Skill Development Manual for field Employees. (HR Department)

Case Understanding

The case revolves around the business of 'Fresh Growers', a company that was established with a vision to offer fresh and unadulterated farm produce to the Indian population. The company carries out the business of procurement and delivery of fresh farm produces. Currently, it faces a lot of issues across multiple departments, namely Finance, IT and Business Analysis, HR, and Marketing. The most prominent challenges that the business faces include a falling number of subscriptions, stiff competition from local players, marketing challenges, achieving TAT targets, quality and cost considerations, and the incongruence between the goals of farmers and the company. However, the company aims to surpass all these challenges and expand its business operations to at least 3 metro cities, in the next 2 Years. Post the lockdown, the company witnesses a fall in the number of its subscribers adding to its troubles. So, the major challenge in front of the company is to retain employees, increase sales, align all departmental goals with company goals, and arrange finance for its expansion strategies.

BCS Solution Summary

The solution highlights the role of HR in helping the company resolve its challenges cutting across multiple departments. Field workers play a very important role in both the procurement as well as delivery of fresh farm produce within the concept of 'Farm to Table'. The solution highlights the probable courses of action for HR to address the issues that will benefit the entire company as well as dive deeper into the creation of the training and development manual for field employees.

Solution

Solution: There are a plethora of courses of action in front of the HR department with respect to addressing the issues within the business of Fresh Growers:

1) Motivation of Field Workforce: There are a lot of field workers involved in the procurement and delivery of fresh produce. The efficiency of such workers plays a very important role in ensuring the least turnaround time (TAT) in fulfilling the orders. Relevant motivational techniques, majorly monetary incentives, need to be leveraged in keeping the workforce interested in their respective jobs. Giving them timely performance-based incentives and providing them with necessary capabilities play a pivotal role in achieving the relevant targets.

2) Training and Development of Field Workers: Providing the field workers with required training and development from time-to-time to help them in their career progression. A detailed plan of training and development activities need to be chalked out and implemented to yield higher productivity and lower TAT.

3) Changes in Selection Plan: The HR should focus on hiring contract labors and must frame their compensation strictly based on performance. This will not only help in higher performance levels but will also help in cost savings for the company as a whole.

4) Stakeholder Management: Another major concern for the HR department is the stakeholder management, which includes relationship with farmers, distributors, and other service providers of the company. As a Business Partner, the company must bring in incentive plans for farmers, for carrying out demand-based harvesting, so that their interests get aligned with that of the company and it becomes a "Win-Win" strategy for both the parties. Not only this, the HR must think to create new job positions on the field that can ensure direct supervision over all the agricultural activities. This will bring in quality control of the produce and will help the organization to achieve its USP on a sustained basis.

5) Employer Branding: Last but not the least, the HR department must strictly focus on establishing the brand equity of the company as an employer to retain the workforce and build its goodwill in the market. This will not only help in reputation management of the company but will also help to withstand stiff competition from local suppliers and app-service providers.

Create a Training and Skill Development Manual for field Employees

1)Sales executive The following points go into details in important categories in the sales process. A salesperson has to be the one who leads the whole process. Understanding all the elements of a sales process helps leading become more naturally

• Building trust

Introduce Fresh Growers. For a prospect it might be suspicious if he has not heard of the company before. Even if he has, give a brief information package about our company's operations. The focus should be on the company's strengths and the benefits that it can offer to a prospect. A prospect can sense if a sales person shows pride for working for the firm. The following introduces some ways on how to be more likable to others:

1. Smile

There is no denying the importance of a smile when you are trying to be likable. It is said that people make their opinion of you within the first few seconds after meeting. A sincere smile helps with that opinion being a positive one.

2. Be confident

When talking about successful sales people, there is a tendency for them being confident. Good records are followed up by new deals. This confidence comes naturally for those who have had success. A prospect can also sense this. With confidence you are able to convince the customer of yourself, your company and your product. On the other hand, there is a risk that a seller might confuse confidence with arrogance. Arrogance is not considered a likable feature in a salesman.

 

3. Listen to the prospect

Listening to a customer is way more important than being a talkative person. If a prospect feels he is being listened to, it is more likely that he trusts and respects the sales person.

 

4. Have a neat appearance

People will judge a sales person by its cover, as they do other people too. For this reason it is important to dress well or be hygienic. People find others more reliable if they have a clean and tidy outfit and appearance. Have clothes that fit, a cologne that is not overpowering and a fresh breath. Elements that are needed in every situation in life to make a good impression can become assets in negotiations.

 

• Define the need

Selling a product to a prospect is a lot easier when you know something about his situation. The more information you can dig out, the better. People can want a product or see a product as something they could benefit from, but if you are able to make them feel that they need it, you are on a different level. It is important to use open questions during need definition so you can figure out the real answers. The questions that a prospect can answer with "yes" or "no", should be avoided at this stage. Good question words in this phase are the likes of "why", "when", "how often", "who", "how". What is also useful is to know the current situation of the prospect when it comes similar products that he already possesses. Another key thing to remember is to find out whether the person you are talking to is the decision maker.

 

The sales speech about proving the need should include the following elements:

 

1. Explain the feature of your product or service and its benefit for the customer
2. Prospect has told in his own words about his situation, go back to those words when proving that your product is the solution.

 

3. Use the word 'need' instead of 'benefit'

 

When customer has confirmed that he agrees what has been said, the salesman can move on to closing smoothly, if he sees it is a good time for it. If the customer disagrees with the argument, the sales rep should go back to P(rove the need) phase. That way you can come up with a new benefit and convince the customer with that. This circle can go on as long as salesman thinks it is necessary.

 

Buying signals

A sales person must be aware that buying signals can come up at any point during the sales process. Verbal signals consist of different questions related to a product in search of more information on it or the purchasing process of the item. Buying signals are clear signs for a sales person that the prospect is thinking of buying. However, this does not necessarily mean that they are ready to make the purchase. A sales person needs to recognize the strength of the signals. As an example, if a prospect asks about delivery time, it means he is already thinking the practicalities after purchase. This can be considered a strong buying signal. Some of the buying signals are:

"What kind of warranty does it have?"

"Could you explain it one more time?"

"How do we proceed?"

Hence questions can be about various of topics. A sales person can always be encouraged every time a prospect asks a question about the product or service. It is down to the sales person to act on a right way.

Positive statements

If a prospect talks up the product during a demonstration, it is highly likely that he is keen on having the product for himself. A key thing to remember is that sometimes it is down to a customer persona that he says these things.

Gestures

Prospects can make some non-verbal buying signals and for many they are hard to recognize. Non-verbal signals comes in forms such as body language, vocal inflection and voice tone. Inexperienced sales people have a tendency to focus only on verbal signals. As a sales person it can be vital to keep eyes open throughout the sales process so that non-verbal signals will not be unnoticed. A simple gesture as brining out glasses to see better can be viewed as a sign of interest in a product. Sometimes a prospect does not feel comfortable listening to demonstration and can be seen hands crossed. This is a typical sing of being protective and not approachable. It is as if a prospect is keeping a wall around him. A salesman can feel easier when the prospect opens arms. It implies that the prospect is more open towards salesman. Therefore, it is more likely he might be keen on the product as well.

Objections
Prospects are not meant to make a sale easy. Objections are a natural part of a sales process. A salesperson need to overcome a fear of rejection and objections in order to succeed in a sales career. With objections a prospect is giving hints on which things are important for him. Some sales professionals even suggest that selling starts when customer says no. seller needs to figure out is whether an objection is real. There is no gain for dealing with objections that a prospect has just thrown in as a defence mechanism. Once a seller has identified an objection as something that prospect really think is an obstacle for making a purchase, he or she must take it into account.

Closing

Closing is natural if a prospect is convinced on needing the product. A sales person has closed all corners so that the prospect has no other option but to agree on the need. If there is an objection, the prospect will tell you after you try to close the deal. As far as the procurement side is concerned, the HR must come with some robust strategies to enhance the business opportunity. There are a lot of field workers involved in the procurement and delivery of fresh produce. The efficiency of such workers plays a very important role in ensuring the least turnaround time (TAT) in fulfilling the orders. Relevant motivational techniques, majorly monetary incentives, need to be leveraged in keeping the workforce interested in their respective jobs. Giving them timely performance-based incentives and providing them with necessary capabilities play a pivotal role in achieving the relevant targets.

 

Another major concern for the HR department is the stakeholder management, which includes relationship with suppliers and distributors of the company. As a Business Partner, the HR must bring in incentive plans for farmers, for carrying out demand-based harvesting, so that their interests get aligned with that of the company and it becomes a "Win-Win" strategy for both the parties. Not only this, the HR must think to create new job positions on the field that can ensure direct supervision over all the agricultural activities. This will bring in quality control of the produce and will help the organization to achieve its USP on a sustained basis. Such field workers can be made to work with the farmers on the procurement side to ensure the inflow of quality material into the organization. Further, such field workers on the procurement side will eventually help the company in better inventory management, crisis management, and enhanced planning and control.

Conclusion

The training and skill development programs proposed as a part of the HR department will help in better 'Stakeholder Management' bringing in a plethora of benefits for the company (for employees, for customers, for produce acquisition at the procurement stage, as well as for the quality control mechanism).

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