Restructuring of Sales and Marketing

Restructuring of Sales and Marketing HRM/531 2010 MEMORANDUM To: CEO, Kathy Kudler From: Date:2010 SUBJECT: Restructuring of Sales and Marketing The purpose of this memorandum is to inform the CEO of Kudler Fine Foods, Kathy Kudler on the restructuring of the sales and marketing team in alignment with the new initiatives the company is striving for. The restructure will consist of five new positions to support the restructure of the sales and marketing departments. I will explain the job descriptions and qualifications of the five new positions. Secondly, I will explain the training program to enhance the skills and qualification of the new and current employees. Thirdly, I will explain methods for evaluating employees and team performance, including a progressive discipline process. Fourth, challenges for team performance will be evaluated using several factors. Fifth, a comprehensive incentive and benefits packages will be addressed. Strategies for managing employees’ career will be offered by promotions and educational opportunities. Lastly, a fair and appropriate compensation plan will be addressed. Job Description and Qualifications The first-level management position leading the sales and marketing team will be a Program Manager. Max James, PM, will research, develop, and implement a new marketing program for Kudler Fine Foods. The position requires him to define problems, develop a research plan, collect relative information, develop findings, scheduling and then take marketing and sales action. The new sales team will have a Marketing/Sales Manager. The manager must be able to identify problems, develop course of actions, analyze the course of actions, make a decision based on the analyzed courses of actions, and implement the decision. He or she will be responsible for planning, organizing, directing, and controlling the personal selling functions. He or she is to manage the marketing resources of Kudler Fine Foods. He or she must maintain a reliable, competent, dependable, and customer oriented department through training, supervising, directing and delegation of responsibilities of four team members. The manager must provide recommendations and feedback to the Program Manager on a bi-weekly basis. A Marketing Analyst will also be needed to support the Marketing and Sales Manager. He or she will be responsible for planning and executing the marketing strategy for products, services or ideas to create and enhance sales for Kudler Fine Foods. He or she must demonstrate the ability to work effectively under pressure and within a collaborative team oriented environment using sound judgment in decision-making. A Marketing Analyst must possess a strong relationship management skill with external and internal customers; He or she must possess excellent communication skills both oral and written and have strong presentation skills with the ability to translate analytics to reports. A bachelor's degree in marketing, mathematics, statistics, a related field or equivalent education required. Two or more years of analytics experience including applying statistical tools and techniques to analyze consumer and market research required. A Marketing Communication Coordinator is another position needed to support the Sales and Marketing Manager. He or she will manage phone book, radio, newspaper, and television advertisement for Kudler Fine Foods. This position requires bachelor's degree with 2 years experience in Marketing Communications environment. A Marketing Communication Coordinator must be able to execute multiple, time-sensitive projects at once for Kudler Fine Foods. He or she must have extensive knowledge of layout, design, print, photography, and website best practices. He or she must have familiarity with budgets and understanding of the importance of budget management. He or she must be proficient with all Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Exceptional communications skills are required. The position also requires maintaining inventory of advertisement products and ensuring adequate supply of brochures and other materials are available upon request. Lastly, the department will need an Implementation Specialist. The specialist will support Kudler’s managers prioritize and launch new products by implementing new plans for upcoming/future years. The position requires excellent written and oral communication skills and presentation skills, including the ability to address a wide range of audiences. He or she must demonstrate success in product launches and history of initiative planning/organizing and implementation accomplishments. He or she must have strong problem solving skills. He or she must have a minimum of 2 years experience with new product implementations or experience in a product support role. The position requires a bachelor's degree in business or marketing. Training Program The five new hired employees all will have some level of marketing and sales experience, but will need to go through training to become familiar with Kudler Fine Foods products, prices, current operation procedure, and organization structure. The training will outline current competitors based on current and previous market analysis. The training program will enhance sales and marketing knowledge in order to facilitate quantifiable achievement. The training will assist the new hired team in their duties and responsibilities as it’s relate to Kudler Fine Foods. The objective of the training to prepare train, support, and guide the new team professionally in accordance with Kudler Fine Foods policies and procedures. Method for Evaluating Employee and Team Performance After much consideration, the method of evaluating employee and team performance will consist of performance appraisals and feedback. Timely feedback is a crucial part of a successful performance appraisal system. The feedback from the performance management program can be used in setting performance goals. The employees will receive an initial appraisal to set the goals and objectives. The employees will receive a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual feedback to measure performance based on his or her responsibilities. The team will receive a performance appraisal each quarter. Employees that do not meet his or her responsibilities will be put on a stringent re-training discipline program. The employee will be affixed with a pre-determined employee who will mentor and assist the employee in the areas he or she is failing. The employee will be re-evaluated after 30 days on his or her performance. â€Å"From an employee’s perspective, lack of regular feedback about performance detracts from his or her quality of work life. Most people want to improve their performance on the job, to receive constructive suggestions regarding areas they need to work on, to be commended for things that they do well. The cost of failure to provide feedback may result in the loss of key professional employees, the continued poor performance standards, and a loss of commitment by all employees. In sum, the myth that employees know how they are doing without adequate feedback from management can be an expensive fantasy† (Casio, 2005). Challenges of Team Performance Evaluation One type of appraisal system to be used by Kudler Fine Foods is the individual appraisal system. The system is designed to set goals, objectives, measure, and provide feedback. The individual appraisal system is to reward, and recognize the performance of an employee. The other type of appraisal is a team appraisal system. The team appraisal system is designed to allow the team to be evaluated as a group or whole. It becomes difficult to measure the team performance based on job description that may not apply to each member of the team. When designing a team appraisal system, the evaluation must be based on a measurable standard established for the entire team. The appraisal system must also be developed in a manner that offers a specific standard of performance for the entire team that can be applied to each member of the team individually. The individual evaluation to achieve a team goal makes a team appraisal system unique in itself. The motivation and expectation is clearly defined as such; employees need to feel valued in their position; an employee will consider that he or she is treated fairly if he or she perceives the ratio of his or her input to his or her outcomes to be equivalent to those around them. Thus, all else being equal, it would be acceptable for a more senior colleague to receive higher compensation, since the value of his experience (an input) is higher. The way people base their experience with satisfaction for their job is to make comparisons with themselves to the people they work with (Wikipedia, 2010). Expectations by employees from management are an important part of a team success. The team needs to know what, when, where, and how the task or goal should be accomplished or completed. By knowing the expectations will motivate the team and the individual employees to work hard at accomplishing the task. Some key expectations that are set in place are attendance, quality of work, teamwork, priorities, and individual work performance required. The goal is to balance team equity. If team equity is balanced, it motivates the employees to compete and work harder to do quality work. If equity is not balanced, employees will not be motivated to do their best work. When employees fail to do their best work, the company suffers tremendously from this effect. If pay levels of team members are unknown to one another, then individual equity would have no impact on team performance because individuals would only assume what others make. If a team member feels he or she is not rewarded properly or acknowledge for his or her input and stress or disappointment could impact the performance of the team or group. In order for Kudler to prevent loafing in the team setting, individuals will be assessed on all levels, as a team and an individual, which will help to ensure individual contribution. According to (Cascio, 2005), the two steps to take in order to prevent â€Å"free riding†, are to conduct individual performance evaluations and to encourage individuals’ behavior and skills that contribute to team performance. For a team to succeed, team members should either have different roles and or possess different skills to support the team. Different skills must be required to achieve goals of the team, (Clark, 2010). Individual employees shall be held accountable for contributions to the team effort. Individual employees shall help other members of the team believe their effort is important to the team success. Lastly, individual employees shall make members of the team fell each of his or her job is of equal valuable and important. Incentives and Benefits Packages Kudler Fine Foods Compensation Plan is established to attract qualified employees, to retain employees, and to motivate employees to direct their efforts towards achieving the goals assigned by the company. The five new employees will be on salary plan. A pay band will be established for each position title. The salary will be based on education and experience. To maximize the effectiveness of the compensation plan, Kudler Fine food will provide employees with benefit packages that include: Retirement Savings Plan 401(k), health insurance, vision care, dental care, life insurance, one week paid vacation, paid holidays. â€Å"While money is a powerful tool used to capture the minds and hearts of workers and maximize their productivity, don’t underestimate the impact of non-financial rewards† (Casio, 2005). Strategies for Managing Employees’ Career Development At Kudler Fine Foods employees are their greatest asset. The structure of the positions allows for career growth of all employees of the sales and marketing department. Managers must annually conduct an individual career development plan for its employees. The plan will identify tools necessary to help an employee develop knowledge and skills needed for his or her current position as well as future job opportunities. Managers will support requests for flexible work schedules for its employees. Each employee will receive a development plan during its initial job orientation/counseling and periodic reviews throughout the year. Feedback will be given semi-annual and one year performance appraisal. A Fair and Appropriate Compensation Plan Employees within the sales and marketing department are diverse in gender, culture, sex, ethnicity, age and much more. Diversity within the workplace affects directly the performance and results of the organization, thus, it is important to acknowledge people’s differences and recognize these differences as valuable assets to the company; it enhances good management practices by preventing discrimination and promoting acceptance inclusiveness. Thanks. References Cascio, W. , (2005). Managing Human Resources: Productivity, Quality of Work Life, Profits, (7th ed. ). New York: McGraw-Hill, Ch 9 Cascio, W. , (2005). Managing Human Resources: Productivity, Quality of Work Life, Profits, (7th ed. ). New York: McGraw-Hill, Ch 11 Clark, R. (2010). Research-Tested Team Motivation Strategies. Retrieved March 28, 2010, from http://www. cogtech. usc. edu/publications/clark_team_motivation. pdf Wikipedia, (2010). Motivation and Expectation. Retrieved March 27, 2010, from http://en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php? title=Special%3ASearch=motivation+and+expectat ion=Search