The effective functioning of any company depends on management practices used to ensure the desired outcomes and attain specific goals. It is vital to create an environment motivating workers to engage in various processes and contribute to the evolution of the company. Designing a productive and satisfying job is a complex task that presupposes consideration of different elements, such as autonomy, interaction, HR strategies, and motivation. Under these conditions, it is vital to analyze the current working environment and introduce changes that promote productivity and efficiency. The case of Friendly Financial Works can be used to analyze the functioning of territory sales managers and offer positive change that can boost their performance, decrease turnover rate, and help the company to evolve.
The first possible improvement related to the case is the redesign of the territory sales manager position. The company utilizes a cost leadership strategy presupposing that it is vital to attract multiple partners through unique offerings and low prices of services. Under these conditions, territory managers have to work hard to find new clients to survive. The need for high effectiveness preconditions the strict demands for performance (Valentine et al., 2019). At the same time, the extremely high turnover rate shows that workers are not satisfied with the current working conditions, and there is a need for change (Stewart & Brown, 2019).
First, payment on a commission basis should be replaced with a regular salary supported with rewards for attracting numerous clients. It will help to make employees more motivated and productive because of the opportunity to devote more time to a client. Second, specialists belonging to a sales district should form teams to cooperate, plan their activities and focus on working with companies that can be viewed as potential clients in the future. Moreover, as far as most visits are not successful, it is vital to shift priorities from the number of meetings to the quality (Rothaermel, 2018). It will provide specialists with an opportunity to devote more attention to every company.
The given reconsideration will affect the autonomy of workers. Currently, the territory managers do not have a high level of independence as they have to perform the same actions needed to cooperate with a significant number of companies per day. On the one hand, it helps them to acquire the skills necessary to succeed and become more experienced in offering the company’s services (Stewart & Brown, 2019). On another, they cannot be creative, which is vital in trying to make a deal. The planned change, presupposing stable salary, cooperation with other managers, and focus on quality rather than quantity will precondition the increase in autonomy levels (Stewart & Brown, 2019)).
Territory sales managers will feel more independence and the ability to alter their actions regarding the situation and desired outcome. It might have a positive influence on the company and its results because of the attraction of new clients.
The planned redesign should be supported by the appropriate HR strategy to ensure that workers demonstrate the best possible performance. The company’s focus on cost leadership presupposes using bargain laborer or loyal soldier strategies. However, the utilization of a committed expert HR strategy might bring several advantages to the company (Stewart & Brown, 2019). First, it will guarantee a reduction in turnover rates, which are about 200% now. Second, it will help to cultivate the effectiveness of cooperation with partners and increase the number of successful visions. Finally, the redesign will support the given strategy as it provides higher levels of autonomy for workers, provides them with tools for cooperation, and encourages their commitment through rewards and stable salaries.
Redesigning a job and implementing the planned change into practice, it is vital to consider several factors that affect workers. The three meaningful aspects include autonomy, responsibility, and motivation. The first one influences a person in his/her workplace and limits his/her actions, meaning that too high or too low levels of autonomy can deteriorate outcomes (Stewart & Brown, 2019). Responsibility is closely linked to autonomy as people who are independent in their strategic decision have more freedom to act and should consider this factor in their strategic decision-making (Stewart & Brown, 2019).
Finally, any job should be motivating for an employee to feel satisfied and rewarded, both intrinsically and extrinsically. Under these conditions, considering these three factors, it is possible to establish a new and appropriate job design that will contribute to the achievement of current goals.
Altogether, Friendly Financial Work can benefit from redesigning the job of the territory sales manager. The introduction of new reward practices, improved cooperation in teams, and focus on quality might change the level of autonomy, introduce additional responsibility, and help to create long-term relations with employees, meaning that they will acquire a chance to become experienced and skilled workers who can ensure the high number of new partners every month. Moreover, the use of a committed expired HR strategy can cultivate a new vision of current tasks and resolve the problem of a high turnover rate. Consideration of such aspects as autonomy, responsibility, and motivation will ensure that the planned redesign will be welcomed by workers and help them to show better results.
References
Rothaermel, F. (2018). Strategic management: Concepts (4th ed.). McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Stewart, G., & Brown, K. (2019). Human resource management (4th ed.). Wiley.
Valentine, S., Meglich, P., Mathis, R., & Jackson, J. (2019). Human resource management (16th ed.). Cengage Learning.