Sales Incentive Programs

Most so called incentive programs are really bonus payments for a job well done based on some standard of performance. A true incentive program needs to motive not just reward. Additionally, the program should not cause unintended consequences that will negatively impact the performance of the organization.

So before you consider implementing the following ideas, make sure the functions that support sales are prepared to deal with the attitude that nothing happens until you sell something.

First – Be sure you are adequately compensating the people who support the sales function. No matter how effective a sales person may be, they do not succeed entirely on their own merits. Therefore, if the results are superior, you may want to establish a bonus program for all contributors. If you do, there is a greater chance that a collaborative environment will emerge, as everyone is recognized and benefits from a team effort.

Secondly – Base the incentive program on receivables not sales. What good is it to reward someone for revenue that is not collected?

Third – Set a time limit when the incentive program will no longer be in place. Incentive programs can become stale and subject to clever employees who game the system. Prepare the staff in advance for an adjustment so that you manage expectations and don’t fall into a reactionary trap where you end up changing incentive plans for the wrong reasons.

Fourth – Communicate, communicate, and communicate some more, in advance and ongoing. If you’re going to keep score make sure everyone knows the rules, what the penalties are for breaking the rules, who is going to keep score, and who is going to referee. Sales incentives should be viewed as a game and you want the winners of the game to benefit the company

Fifth – Make it simple and keep it simple. Everyone should know at any time how they are doing, what they need to do to improve and what they have to gain if they do so.

Sixth - Coach people to be winners. It is foolish to just let people do the best they can. If your company is smart, they will invest in the sales force and do all that is reasonable to train, educate, and coach the sales team to be successful.

Seventh – Avoid compensation envy. As long as the company is making a good profit, don’t strangle the incentive program so that the more one sells the less they can make.

Eighth - Celebrate success. Focus on personal best performance not just the top performer. That way everyone is encouraged to do better without feeling that they let themselves down.

From Michael Salisbury with the Human Resource Alliance (HRA) at www.hralliance.biz

Recruiters and Staffing 1 of 2

Jeff Snyder, the author of this blog is the President of SecurityRecruiter.com; an executive search firm specialized in the recruitment of cyber security, corporate security, risk management, global compliance and global privacy professionals.  Jeff is a Certified MasterMind Executive Coach through Executive Coaching University and he holds a Stakeholder Centered Coaching certification from the Marshall Goldsmith Group.

The Weekly Staffing Meeting Begins

Okay team, we have a highly strategic Chief Information Security Officer Job to fill.  If we don’t fill this one correctly, the mistake could cost the company its brand and reputation not to mention millions of dollars and customer loyalty.  Who has ideas as to how we should go about filling this position?

The Staffing Team Contemplates

Everyone at the table brings up a name of a different local recruiter or search firm.  The group is excited because they’ve come up with the names of a dozen search firms in the local market.  These dozen firms have anywhere from 1 to 10 recruiters so the team is ecstatic when they figure out that there could be 40 or more recruiters working on this mission critical search.

With 40 or more recruiters, their search will be posted to every job board in the known universe.  They’re sure to see lots of candidates and by bringing a representative from each firm to a conference call with the hiring authority, there is no doubt in the staffing team’s mind that they’ll create healthy competition from all the hungry recruiters on the call.

Wait There’s More

The staffing team continues their discussion.  With all the coverage these recruiters will have on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. and with their accounts on Monster, Dice, CareerBuilder and all the other social media outlets they have, the team is sure that the group of recruiters they’ve compiled will surely find top of the Bell Curve candidates for the company to interview.

This plan has success written all over it!

 

Where the Staffing Team Went Wrong

The first thing to not do when attempting to fill a highly specialized security job is to call every IT recruiter in town.  Information Security Jobs or Cyber Security Jobs are not traditional IT jobs.  It takes a recruiter who specializes in Security Recruiting to fill these types of positions.

A Paradigm Shift for the Staffing Team

When the staffing team thought they would be increasing competition and thereby increasing their chances of seeing outstanding talent by bringing multiple search firms in on their CISO search, they were wrong.  They should have found a CISO Recruiter.  When filling security jobs, it most definitely is not a discussion about quantity.  This is definitely a discussion where quality rules.

How Highly Specialized Recruiters Operate

Highly specialized recruiters have invested many years of time to become experts in their skill domains.  They not only have networks of people to tap into when they’re asked to recruit highly specialized talent, they know how to ask stakeholder decision makers questions that generalized recruiters don’t know how to ask.  They know when they’ve heard the right answers or the wrong answers to their highly specialized questions and they know how to probe deeply to determine exactly what a hiring decision maker really needs in a new hire.  They understand how to probe to uncover the business problems and/or opportunities a prospective candidate needs to understand.

Highly specialized recruiters generally don’t use their client’s job descriptions to attract talent.  They rewrite their client’s job descriptions in order to appeal to talent that sits at the top of the Bell Curve. 

Highly specialized recruiters shy away from crowds.  If other recruiters are working on their searches, they will give these searches very low priority on their desks.  These recruiters typically don’t care about being on vendor lists.  They are relationship builders and problem solvers and they are thought provoking professionals who frequently lead their clients to a different paradigm of thought that the client has never before considered. 

If specialized recruiters can’t get to key stakeholder decision makers when asked to work on a search, they tend to walk away.

Highly Specialized Recruiters are Sales Professionals

Highly specialized recruiters who have recruited for 10, 15, 20+ years understand they are sales professionals.  They understand that regardless of the industry specialization they possess, they are working with people and people come with psychological puzzles to solve.  These successful recruiters live to close deals and they seldom miss a close when they’re sure that the candidate they’ve recruited for their client is making the right decision by going to work for their client. 

Highly Specialized Recruiters Don’t Live on Job Boards

Highly specialized recruiters have many strategies for reaching the most talented candidates in their domain of specialization.  Generally, these recruiting experts don’t rely exclusively on job boards.  In order to get to the most talented security professionals who are generally gainfully employed, they engage in direct recruiting.  Because of their level of domain recruiting expertise, highly specialized recruiters are generally very talented at generating referrals.  These referrals are often directed to talented individuals who are not actively looking for a job.

Highly Specialized Recruiters Don’t Work for Free

Most highly specialized recruiters don’t work for free.  In other words, because they’re bringing a unique level of expertise to the table, they’ll end up doing a significant amount of consulting with their clients.  Therefore, their time is worthy of an engagement fee.   An engagement fee causes the employer to put skin into the recruiter’s game.  

It is a method of sharing risk.  These highly specialized and highly talented recruiters shy away from contingency searches where they’ll be taking on 100% of the risk available in the business transaction.   Not only do they shy away because they’re being asked to take on too much of the risk, specialized recruiters need to know that they’re working on searches that are mission critical to their clients and therefore, their clients are serious about acquiring the industry’s top talent.

From Michael Salisbury with the Human Resource Alliance (HRA) at www.hralliance.biz

Rethinking Human Resources

Today, gentle reader I have the pleasure of introducing Emily Manke as a guest contributor to the HRAlliance blog. Emily is an Outreach Coordinator and contributor for Online Human Resources. You can read her regular blog here. I think you will find the some of the conclusions that she publicizes are consistent with this blog.

KPMG recently released an informative, must-read report on HR titled, Rethinking Human Resources in a Changing World. You can download the full report for free at KPMG’s site, here. The report has some pretty telling data regarding what the executive-level thinks about HR. Over 400 C-suite executives participated in this global survey, and their thoughts on HR, are surprising, not to mention disappointing.

A shockingly low 17% of participants thought their HR department was successful at “Measurably proving the value of HR to the business,” and only 15% percent saw HR “Providing insightful and predictive workforce analytics that provide understanding of the people agenda in businesses.” With all the research and white papers out there regarding HR functions, one would think HR departments would be able to demonstrate their worth. Interestingly enough, 39% thought HR was effective at keeping costs manageable. It seems to me that if the department is saving money, it’s inherently proving it’s worth, but obviously there’s a disconnect. So maybe it’s time HR developed a standard for measurement for it’s work.

"Data analytics is quickly evolving and can provide the next quantum leap for HR," said global lead and managing director for KPMG 's HR Transformation Center of Excellence for the Americas, Paulette Welsing. "Applying data analytics will allow HR to deliver empirical evidence to reinforce their recommendations and gain much-needed credibility at the highest levels of the business."

SHRM recently released a working draft for their standard workforce metrics they are in the process of creating with ANSI (American National Standards Institute.) There’s been some debate over the creation of these standards. Some HR groups, such as HR Policy Association (HRPA), a group of powerful HR managers that serve as lobbyists for the HR community, are opposed to these standards. HRPA are worried that transparencies in employee compensation would end up being more valuable for competitors than potential investors.

From what I can see of the draft, it’s usefulness will hopefully end up outweighing any risk of exposing confidential information to competition. If complete transparency is what it takes to convince senior executives that HR is a useful industry, then perhaps standard metrics need to be implemented. HR pros, it’s time to embrace these standards instead of fear them. 

From Michael L, Salisbury Principal, Human Resource Alliance (HRA)    
www.hralliance.biz