MEMO TO: Sales Managers
FROM: MaryEllen Gibson
DATE: January 26, 2008
RE: Management Behavior
With all of the recent changes occurring with our developing merger with Envirotech I felt it was important to get back to the basics of management. Our sales staff will be joined with 50 Envirotech sales people and we need to review the basics of our sales management team regarding; management’s behavior and the impact it can have on the productivity of Intercleans workers, types of management actions that are in line with employment laws and those that are not, and some best practices for working within a diverse work environment.
Management’s behavior has demonstrable effects on the productivity of our Interclean’s sales force. We will be expecting managers to make a case forcefully for greater investments in their sales teams. We need to be able to prove that this investment in training will outweigh the cost and prove to be a worthy investment of time for employees. Since our sales team will now be highly trained we will be observing behavior costing of employees. This means we will be assigning dollar estimates to areas such as absenteeism, turnover, and job performance. This will give us the ability to track the Return of Investment in all of the additional training. Managements’ reports will also be different; all of management’s reviews will be based on the Sears’ model. One third of the report will be based on employee measures, one third on customer’s measures and the final one third will be based on the traditional investor measures we have used in the past. Remember if you are still not sure how this report will be calculated please speak with Janet Durham in Human Resources she has had many questions and will be happy to answer any additional ones. If you still feel like you are not 100% clear on this method feel free to schedule a half an hour meeting with me and I will review the report form we are using.
Please review the employment laws and updates listed on the company intranet and be sure to take the accompanying test. Your test will be due to Human Resources no later than ten calendar days from this memo. Remember that Interclean abides by all local, state, and federal regulations not to discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, sex, and physical disability. I know that a few members of the sales team have added new members to their families and a few are taking care of elderly parents remember to fully read The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) this will help you to answer any questions they may have regarding this leave and help them make plans before filling the paper work with Human Resources. We are having Risk Management and our Attorneys review all “seniority” laws for the sales team. Human Resources will then create the Interclean policy on seniority since the new sales staff will be merging with our current staff. I will keep you updated on any policy changes that may occur during this altering time.
Finally, our sales team will be more diverse than ever before. This gives us all an opportunity to grow with this diversity. We mirror our diverse community and this will help our sales team reach even more markets. Remember the Janet Durham diversity training she said there were five factors that accounted for Intercleans increasing attention to diversity:
1. Our shift from manufacturing to service focus
2. The globalization of our markets
3. Our new business strategies that will require more teamwork
4. Mergers and alliances that require different corporate cultures to work together
5. Our changing labor market
If you would like more information on the diversity of our workforce please visit our intranet in the Human Resources section “Intercleans growth and diversity”. I was also informed that our new sales training will be focusing a section to selling in our diverse world market. This will be an outstanding opportunity to grow your sales and that of your teams in our diverse culture.
In conclusion, let’s take this time before our sales force nearly doubles to review basic management skills. Our teams will be stronger if we keep in mind and review the basics of our sales management team regarding; management’s behavior and the impact it can have on the productivity of Intercleans workers, types of management actions that are in line with employment laws and those that are not, and some best practices for working within a diverse work environment.
