Module 1 -- Retaining Employees

Module 1 briefly covers a wide variety of topics and is an introductory type chapter.  One of the things that this module covers is the fact that it is important to retain employees in the field of sales management.  I agree with this.  In fact I will go so far as to say that retention of well qualified employees is an important issue in just about any industry today more so than ever.  The reasons for this are quit numerous but a couple of them that stick out to me are the high costs of training employees and the large number of "Baby Boomers" that are nearing retirement.

There are almost alwas costs associated with bringing a new employee on board.  The most obvious costs are the labor costs of trainer and the new employee being trained.  It is a very rare instance indeed when an employee can walk into a new job and perform their duties without training.  Today's workplaces tend to be complex and demanding; even experienced employees often require training to keep up with whats going on.

The Baby Boomer generation includes people born between 1945 and 1965.  The leading edge of the baby boomers is just about sixty five years old.  Some of the baby boomers are already retiring at an earlier age.  Its important for managers to recogonize that this will force younger generations X and Y to step up and take the place of the boomers in the workforce.  Its important to be prepared for this type of turnover.

I found a couple of web sites that deal with how to retain employees.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2183_retain-employees.html

http://www.asashop.org/autoinc/aug2005/manage.cfm

And here is an article about the costs associated with training.

http://management.about.com/cs/people/a/WhatPeopleCost.htm

Comments

[sakounta]

In the advertising class I had a few classes ago, we discussed about baby boomers retiring. It's scary that some of the baby boomers that are leaving the workforce are also leaving with the skills that they have. They are not providing their skills to the new generations or it could also be that the new generation don't want to take their advice.

[JeffLaw]

Great Post, I agree completely.
With the diversity in products and sales positions in the job arena most sales people will need to be completely retrained if they leave their current job. There are a few time when an established sales person will leave and go to the competition, but for the beginning sales person who will likely change jobs a few time before they find their niche. One in particular that I know went from selling leather, to extended car warranties and then to medical equipment. He had to learn three totally different products and how to interact with three totally different types of customers.