Human Resources

You work in a small but growing medical billing software company and had just been promoted to your first management position. You are the sales team manager. Bob and Mary are two of your sales people, and they have not been performing over the past 6-8 months. You know something must be done. Bob has been with the company for about 12 months. He started out enthusiastically with strong sales during the first six months of his employment, but his enthusiasm is not what it what it was and his Sales have steadily decreased. Mary has been with the company since it began four years ago. She is a working mother and is also working to earn her degree online. Her sales have always been average but the last eight months sales have been at an all-time low.

Provide a detailed description of the specific strategies you would use for Bob and Mary in 250 words.
Would your human resources strategies be the same? Or would they be different? Why?

First I would talk to both Bob and Mary, separately of course, and find out if there are any work-related issues that could be plaguing them. Then I would implement different plans of action that I have worked out for them.
A performance appraisal would be in order to let them both know that their performance is not where it should be. I definitely would not attack or try to make them feel uncomfortable but to try to let them know that there is room for improvement.
For Bob I would most definitely use some on-the-job training, if there were more employees I would say an apprentice program but since Mary is having problems also that wouldn’t be a good idea. Off-the-job training would help him develop more skills dealing with customers and dos and don’ts. I would also suggest an online training course. Then once corrective action has been taken we would evaluate his performance again and go from there.
Now in Mary’s case since she has been there since the company started. I would do things totally different in her matter. I have