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MANAGING IN A DIVERSE WORLD

A Difficult Hiring Decision at Central Bank

Introduction Central Banks Vice President Sales Martin Smith had recently been let go. In order to fill this position Central Bank has been searching for the right candidates. To find right replacement for the Vice President Sales position some criteria were identified and ranked based on their importance. The criteria selection was an important part of the

recruitment process and Central Banks mission, vision and values, job description and organizational culture established the source of the criteria. These criteria are: Leadership Team-Orientation Sales Management Recruitment and HR skills Mentoring and Coaching Abilities Communication Skill Community Involvement Front Line Experience Business and financial planning skills Adaptability Corporate governance

There are three successful candidates with different set of skills, backgrounds and experiences. Based on the criteria they were evaluated on the score card (1 to 10) to identify the best candidate for the position. The scorecard gives weight (1 to 5) to each criterion based on its level of importance. The score card for each candidate can be seen in Appendices 1 Leadership: In the job posting it is clearly stated that the leadership is one of the main selection criteria for the Vice President, Sales role in the Central Bank. One of the required skills that are indicated in the Purpose of the Vice President Sales position is providing the leadership skill to the design and execution of the segment wide and cross segment activities. In the competencies part of the Job posting leadership position also

indicated as a necessary skill. In order to achieve the objectives of the retail division of the central bank the Vice President Sales must perform highly developed leadership skills. Also, the vice president will be responsible to identify and make necessary changes in the organization and eventually these changes will require strong leadership skills. Therefore on the score card this criterion has weight of 5, which is the highest weight on the score card, to show that this skill is critical. Team-Orientation: One of the Central Banks values is the teamwork. It is important for Central bank to have team oriented employees who can perform collaboratively with colleagues while respecting others opinions and listen attentively. It is also important for Central bank to have employees with listening skills and info sharing abilities. One of the key outcomes of the Vice President Sales position is to build a customer focused high performing sales teams to achieve maximum profitability and customer loyalty. Team player skill is also one of the main required attributes for this position. The team work skill is also an important part of the Vice President Sales position because the one of the reason for the failure of the previous VP, Martin Smith, was the lack of teamwork. Therefore on the score card the team work skill has weight of 5 which indicates the critical importance of this skill. Sales Management: The position it self is the Vice President Sales and the main objective of this position is creating a team that can achieve the intended sales objectives. The main purpose of the Vice President Sales position is leading an effective and profitable sales execution. In addition to that, the accountabilities of the position indicate that the one of the key activities is developing regional sales plan that aligns with the national strategies of Central Bank. It is also expected that the new Vice President should

be able to drive the sales, business development and sales management process while building integrated sales plans to maximize customer coverage in the region. The new VP Sales has to have proven ability for developing and managing sales force. Sales prospecting and sales tracking abilities are also among the required competencies and skills for the Vice President, Sales position. In order to achieve the central banks objectives and to maximize shareholder value, the VP Sales should provide efficient sales management skill. On the scorecard sales management skill has weight of 5 to highlight its critical importance in this position. Recruitment and HR skills: One of the main competencies indicated in the job posting is to have an experience in recruiting and staffing of sales associates. There were some reasons for failure of the previous vice president, Martin Smith. His former supervisor indicated that the lack of successful recruitment and staffing skill was among the reasons that were needed for the success of former VP. To former supervisor, hiring right people with right values would be the one of the sources of the success of this position. In addition, since the position is related to the retail banking and employees will interact with the clients on a daily basis the hiring and staffing skills play an important role in this position. The VP Sales should utilize accurate staffing activities to hire right people and to make sure existing and new personal align with the values and culture of Central Bank. The scorecard assigns the weight of 4 to hiring and staffing skill, which indicates that this skill is very important for Vice President, Sales position. Mentoring and Coaching Abilities: The mentoring and coaching skills are among the necessary requirements for the Vice President Sales position. It expected that the Vice President continually provides coaching and mentoring for employees to motivate them

to achieve their potential. Also, the Vice President position should enable employees to have professional growth and personal development. Because of the high importance of coaching skills at Central Bank, the job posting for Vice President Sales position highlights this skill among the necessary skills and competencies. According to the job posting the successful candidate has to have a well-honed and highly successful coaching skill. It is crucial for companies to have an environment where all employees excel. It is also evident that there is a correlation between employee satisfaction and client satisfaction. Therefore the Vice President sales should provide strong mentoring and coaching skills for employees to help them to achieve their potential and perform better at Central Bank. The new employees should develop skills to become a candidate for future managerial positions and these necessities make the mentoring and coaching skills very important at Central Bank. The score card assigns weight of 4 to mentoring and coaching skill that proves that this skill is very important for the Vice President Sales position. Communication Skill: According to the requirements in the job posting the successful candidate must have perfect communication skill to communicate effectively up and down and across the specific region of the Central bank. The successful candidate should be able to communicate his/her strategies among employees and across different divisions in the bank. It also required that the successful candidate has to have strong communication skills to convey the plans and objectives clearly to the all levels in the bank. It also important for Vice President Sales position to represent the bank and its objectives in the community therefore the strong communication is one of the most important skills. There are many responsibilities of the Vice President Sales position

such as developing sales plans, creating strategies for the region and executing these plans. However, in order to achieve the intended objectives of these plans and strategies, VP Sales has to have strong communication skill so that the right message can be conveyed to right parties. It is important to get involvement of related parties in the execution stage. To create coherent objectives VP sales must be able to communicate with the employees at all levels and with the different divisions in the bank. Therefore the scorecard assigns weight of 4 to communication skills because it is very important for the VP Sales position. Community Involvement: One of Central Banks missions is to make a real difference in their community. To fulfill their mission, the bank is putting heavy importance to community relationship to enhance its brand image as well as to improve market share. Therefore it is important for Vice President Sales to have strong ties with the community. Therefore the scorecard gives weight of 4 to show the importance of this skill. Front Line Experience: The front line experience is among the important criteria that the Vice President Sales position requires. The nature of the daily activities at the retail banking industry requires candidates to have front line experience in order to be successful in this position. To improve the client experience and provide better service front line experience is an important skill in the Vice President Sales position. The VP Sales should have clear understanding of the daily transactions that front line employees conduct. The scorecard assigns weight of 3 to highlight the importance of this skill. Business and financial planning skills: As indicated in the job postings Competencies part the knowledge of business and financial planning process is necessary for the vice president sales position. In addition to knowledge of business and financial planning

process the successful candidate should have financial discipline and cost management capabilities. At Central Bank the retail professionals perform different activities based on the financial planning needs of consumers. Therefore business knowledge and financial planning experience are must have skills for the Vice President Sales position. The retail banking division of Central Bank provides a range of financial services and products such as savings and chequing accounts, loans and mortgages and complete financial planning services not just for individual clients but also for the small business owners. Thus, financial planning and business knowledge is an important part of the VP Sales position. To indicate the importance of this skill score card assigns weight of 4. Adaptability: Adaptability is the one of the main required attributes for the Vice President Sales position. It is important for the candidate to have adaptability skills to have smooth transition from the current role to the new VP Sales position. It is clear to everyone that the VP Sales position is a high rank managerial position with many responsibilities. Also, the new team and the new organization will have different cultures and values. In order to achieve the objectives the VP Sales should be able to adapt to the new atmosphere quickly. Therefore the scorecard assigns weight of 3 to show the importance of this skill. Corporate governance: One of the crucial accountabilities (key outcomes and activities) of the Vice President Sales position is building awareness of governance and regulatory requirements and monitoring obedience to the rules and regulations. The banking industry is heavily regulated industry and there are many rules and regulations, however monitoring those regulations and evaluating the outcomes also important for the managers. Employees in the banking industry must follow the rules and regulations

strictly. Instead of ignoring rules and regulations to achieve temporary success the bank employees must recognize that they have to satisfy stakeholders of Central Bank. Therefore the scorecard assigns weight of 5 to highlight its importance. The Candidates: Charlotte Webb: Charlotte has demonstrated strong leadership capabilities not just in the bank during her career but also in the community. During her position as a Senior Director Customer Experience and Communication at Central Banks marketing division she led the initiative to transform client experience in all delivery channels. During this position, to position Central Bank as the premiere Canadian bank Charlotte worked across strategic business units and engaged with the all relevant parties for operational and cultural changes. Also, during her position as a general manager, small business sales and operations between 2000 and 2003 Charlotte was leading the Small Business executives through design of new go-to-market strategy for segmentation. Between 1998 and 2000 Charlotte work at the office of Chairman as a senior analyst and in this position one of her responsibilities was leading the projects for key business decisions. Again during this position she was leading the client preference/conjoint statistical analysis to increase investments in profitable business units. Based on her leadership skill she scored 9 on the score card. Charlotte puts great emphasis on team work thats why people are eager to work for Charlotte in the central bank. She is always respected and well liked by her team and Her Employee Commitment Index scores among highest in the Central bank. Therefore she scored 10 on the score card evaluation for her team work skills.

Charlotte was appointed as a general manager for small business sales and operations in early 2002. She successfully developed strategies, objectives and sales programs for several business segments and became a key contributor to currently used sales measurement and tracking systems at Central Bank. Charlotte developed and executed a sales program for small business unit and that program resulted in strong growth in the sales across Canada. Even though Charlotte has strong sales management experience, she had knowing rather doing perspective of sales. Therefore scorecard assigned her 9 for the sales management skill. People are eager to work for Charlotte because of the emphasis she puts on personal development. She is willing to hire on potential and coach/mentor for missing skills. However, she hired several professional staff but never exited anyone. Thus she scored 7 for her recruitment and staffing skills. Charlotte puts special emphasis on personal development. She hires on potential and coach mentor for missing skills. Charlotte has very high energy level and expects a lot of from herself and others as well. She has been providing coaching and mentoring to her employees with potentials because she believes that the central bank does not have to look outside of the bank for managerial positions. In fact many of her graduates managed to get higher and better roles in the organization because of the coaching and mentoring provided by Charlotte. Thus, for her strong coaching and mentoring skills she scored 10 on the scorecard. Charlotte Webb was initially hired as a senior analyst in 1998 by the Corporate Strategy unit and since this first position she has been efficiently communicating with the colleagues, customers and with the other divisions. One of Charlottes strength is her

strong communication skill across the organization. She successfully developed, and implemented many plans and projects because she managed to communicate her objectives with her colleagues at all levels. She scored 9 for strong communication skill. The other strongest skill of Charlotte is her community involvement skill. She has been very active in the community. She is part of the Central Banks Run for the Cure and United Way efforts. Charlotte was nominated as Young Woman of Distinction by the Toronto YWCA. Because of her active involvement in the community she scored 10 on the scorecard. The Vice President Sales role would be Charlottes first front-line role at Central Bank but this position will fill an important development gap in her career. Even though she did not have a chance to improve front-line interaction experience she is willing to take the challenge. On the other hand she knows the process and procedures for the sales department since she developed many sales programs all she needs is doing training on the front line. Therefore she scored 8 on the score card. Charlotte has strong educational background in mathematics and statistics and she has a masters degree in economics. The strong educational background and analytical skills make her the right candidate for the position. One of her strengths relative to this role is her superior knowledge of financial needs and delivery preferences of his segments customers. Therefore she scored 10 on the scorecard for her strong financial planning and business knowledge. Charlotte also gets highest score for adaptability because se has been working for the Central bank since 1998. She started as a senior director and worked for different departments of the bank. She is familiar with the organizational culture and values at

Central Bank. Charlotte also gets highest score for the corporate governance since she strictly follows the rules and regulations. She is spending 45% of time on governance to establish governance mechanism and she believes that the governance is critical and necessary. Scott Warren: Even though Scott led the new national sales training program to measure and manage more effectively he has not proved significant leadership capabilities. However, he was leading all aspects of the Regional Banks retail business in Toronto West and Hamilton area and exceeding profitability and cost management targets. Therefore score card assigns him 9 for his leadership skills. Scott values the individual achievements and put relatively lesser importance to team work. He could be overpowering for more reticent team members. He may not give credit to others and values the one-man show. Therefore his poor team orientations skill reflects on the scorecard with score of 4. Despite the fact that Scott has relatively weak team orientation his sales management skill is very strong. He has executed turnaround of small but lucrative area moved this unit from last to first place in a short time. He was able to increase the sales volume in his area by 60% significantly exceeded profitability and cost management targets. Therefore he gets 10 for his sales management skill on the score card. Scott has been successfully performing the recruitment and staffing activities in his area. He designed the hiring profile and recruitment process for sales staff and this process is employed by the rest of the bank. During his recent role he exited 35% of sales

staff and redeployed 15%more. These successful hiring and staffing efforts get him score of 9 on the scorecard. One of the weak skills Scott has is his mentoring and coaching skill. He seems to care about people however, he does not show it. The weak mentoring and coaching skill get him score of 4 on the score card. Although, Scott does not have strong mentoring and coaching skills he definitely has strong communication skill. He worked closely with customer relationship management area and risk management to hone prospecting skills and reduce losses. He is a key contributor to bank initiatives within his division and across the bank. Scott also negotiated successful referral program with Regional Bank colleagues to grow customer base. Therefore, the scorecard assigns him the score of 9 for his strong communication skill. Even though he has not able to create close relationship with the community he recently moved to west end of city to better participate in community activities. He has been actively campaigning to be the next and youngest president of the National Club. Therefore, he scores 7 for his community involvement skill on the scorecard. Frontline experience gets him the highest score of 10 on the scorecard. During his Regional Vice President role at the regional bank Scott provided a help to design and pilot training program for front line staff. This program included advanced use of CRM tools, prospecting techniques and selling the Regional Bank way. Thus, he scores 9 on the scorecard for his front line experience. Scott does not have finance background and originally planned to pursue a career in the Foreign Service or international law, however, a position at Nesbit Burns sharpened his

interest in financial services. With his strong analytical skills he secured a position in Australia and after his return he attended a fast track management training program. He was able to make significant turnaround for an unprofitable division in a short time and increased the sales volumes by 60%. However, he still has relatively weaker financial planning experience. Thus he gets score of 7 on the scorecard. Scott Warren has strong educational background and he is an extremely bright versatile player. However, he gave an impression that he has intellectual arrogance. He is reluctant to give credit to others and he has no clear track record about his accomplishments in terms of team work and adaptability. Since his tenure in any position did not last more than two years it is hard to evaluate his adaptability skills. Therefore on the score card he gets score of 5 for his adaptability skill. Scott Warren is result oriented person and he is a voracious learner. However, based on his answers during to interview one might think that he would not be a suitable candidate for the VP Sales position at Central Bank. During the interview, he mentioned that everyone in the banking industry involved in the recent scandals. Also he thinks that people always find a way around laws and regulations. On the other hand Scott indicated that he had gone over his supervisors head to get approval for his extra expenses. Even though he got approval and brought new business to the bank it might not be assessed as an ethical behaviour. Therefore, because the low emphasis he puts on the governance and ethics he gets score of 2 on the score card. James Skinner: James co-led an initiative to re-engineer credit approving and adjudication and compliance reporting process for Small Business and Agriculture portfolios while he was

working as a general manager credit, at the Bank of First Northern. Also during his Small Business Banking General Manager position, he led the change management effort to reposition the small business offer, adding new financial products to traditional credit focus. These successful initiatives get him score of 8 on the scorecard for his leadership skill. One of the strengths James has relative the Vice President Sales position is his teamwork orientation. He achieves his objectives through people and teamwork. During the interview he also indicated that organizational culture where people can work as a team is critical to him. Thus he achieved score of 9 for his teamwork skill on the scorecard. The other strength Skinner has is his ability to cutting time and money where possible and during his position as General Manager at the Small Business division he exceeded sales targets by 31%. Also, he exceeded sales targets by $120 million when he worked for the Service Effectiveness division between 1995 and 1996. These strong sales management skills get him score of 9 on the score card. During his District Vice President role Skinner assessed staff for sales versus servicing skills finding jobs for all employees displaced in the process. He also introduced base line accreditation requirements for Risk Managers and credit training for all front line originators. Between 1990 and 1992 Skinner was part of the human Resources department as an officer. During this role he helped to implement a major restructuring of retail banking division of the bank. Because of his strong background in human resources he got score of 8 on the scorecard.

Skinner also has strong coaching and mentoring skills. Since he values the team work he also values the coaching and mentoring in the bank. He travels to all branches in his region and provides personal coaching to branch managers. Therefore he got score of 8 on the scorecard for his coaching and mentoring skills. The other critical skill Skinner has is his strong communication skill. He is a mature person with strong communication skill. He formed employee association to ensure employee voice heard and to enhance communication strategy in the bank. He has strong communications with the employees and with other departments as well. Thus, on the score card he got score of 8 for his strong communication skill. He has been very active in the community. He currently holds a director position at the Canadian Parkinson Society, he is a treasurer at Pickering Lions Club and a trustee at Durham Region School board, and he also coaches the boys soccer team. Although, he is very busy with his managerial position at the bank and he struggles with family health problems he still gets involved with the community activities and tries to be an active citizen in the society. His efforts got him a score of 10 on the scorecard. Skinner started with an entry level job in the bank and he moved up successfully during his career. He worked almost at the all levels of the bank and has built great experience. He progressed through a number of line roles to Branch Manager. He has great amount of front line experience and therefore he scored 9 on the scorecard. Despite the fact that Skinner has significant front-line experience, his analytical and strategic skills are relatively weaker. However, he implemented some critical financial products such as wealth management services to traditional credit products in the past. He got score of 7 for his financial planning and business knowledge.

Although skinner stated that the he is willing to take challenge, during the interview he confessed that he was very nervous about starting again and adjusting to a new culture would be problem for him since he worked for the same company more than 20 years. Therefore he got score of 2 on the scorecard. He is a person who admires the rules and regulations and works based on the ethical principles. He built a trust and he was a trusted advisor to senior management. He got score of 9 on the score card.

Conclusion: On the score card Charlotte scored 428, Scott scored 317 and Skinner scored 365. Based on the results of the score card Charlotte is the ideal candidate for this position. Even though she still has to improve her front line experience this would not be a critical issue because she is wiling to take the challenge and she is already familiar with the sales process. She has been working for Central Bank since 1998 and built great relationship across the bank and gained great amount of knowledge about the products and services Central Banks offers. She is already familiar with the organisational culture and values of the company. The Vice President Sales position would be a smooth transition for her career. Also, Central Bank wants to keep her. She can provide valuable mentoring and coaching skills to grow talents in the organization and implement succession planning for the future so the Bank will have ready talent pool for the future openings. Jim Skinner got the second highest score. He would be the ideal candidate for the Vice President Sales position however, since he spent more than 30 years in the same organizations it might be challenging for him to adapt to a new culture. He has grate

skills and knowledge about the retail banking and he is a great team worker. He is very active participant of the community activities. The adaptability problem as he confessed during the interview might be a critical concern for him Scott Warren got the lowest score on the scorecard. It is critical to note that he has a great experience and educational background. However, since his post were not longer than two years it is hard to track his achievements. On the other hand his arrogant personality would be a problem in the organizations where the team work atmosphere is important. He interrupted the interviewer during the interview and showed that he wanted to speak rather than listen. He may not give credit to others and seemed to like one-man show. He is definitely a good sales manager but he might not be the right candidate for this position.

Appendix I: Candidate Selection Scorecard CHARLOTTE WEBB Leadership: Team-Oriented: Sales Management: Recruitment and HR skills: Mentoring and Coaching Abilities: SCORE WEIGHT TOTAL 9 5 45 10 5 50 9 5 45 7 4 28 10 4 40

Relation Building and Communication Skills: Community Involvement: Front Line Experience: Business and financial planning skills: Adaptability Corporate Governance TOTAL Scott Warren Leadership: Team-Oriented: Sales Management: Recruitment and HR skills: Mentoring and Coaching Abilities: Relation Building and Communication Skills: Community Involvement: Front Line Experience: Business and financial planning skills: Adaptability Corporate Governance TOTAL

9 10 8 10 10 10

4 4 3 4 4 4

36 40 24 40 40 40 428

SCORE WEIGHT TOTAL 9 5 45 4 5 20 10 5 50 9 4 9 7 10 7 5 2 4 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 36 16 36 28 30 28 20 8 317

James Skinner Leadership Team-Oriented Sales Management Recruitment and HR skills

SCORE WEIGHT TOTAL 8 5 40 9 5 45 9 5 45 8 4 32

Mentoring and Coaching Abilities Relation Building and Communication Skills Community Involvement: Front Line Experience: Business and financial planning skills: Adaptability Corporate Governance TOTAL Appendix 2 Scorecard Weights

8 8 10 9 7 2 9

4 4 4 3 4 4 4

32 32 40 27 28 8 36 365

The skills listed on the Scorecard were assigned a weight between 1 to 5 based on the level of importance of the skill. The weights and their description: Weight 1 2 3 4 5 Description Not Important Somewhat Important Important Very Important Critical

Appendix 3: Scorecard Scale The skills of each candidate are scored on a scale of 1 to 10: Poor Display of Attribute Moderate Display of Attribute Strong Display of Attribute

10

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