Business Proposal

Business Proposal

BUS 340 Business Communications

Business Proposal

The average time of employment for a door to door sales person is only a few months. Our ability to retain these types of employees have proven to be extremely difficult. The longevity of these of employees drastically increases when their tenure is more than 6 months. It is an extremely difficult job, but if we can take some very specific steps to improve the new hire experience, I believe our new hire churn will decrease.

Our current new hire onboarding process is broken. New employees don’t meet their direct supervisor until their second day, and then they are placed in front of a computer for six hours a day to complete four weeks of virtual training. Beginning their second week, new hires are thrown to the fire. They barely know our product and usually have no experience in sales, but they are required to begin knocking doors and attempting to sell for two hours a day. Their only support is an iPad and their supervisor’s direct phone number.

I propose we develop a highly engaged new hire experience. All new hires should meet leadership and a mentor on day one for lunch. During this meeting, expectations, processes, and experiences can be discussed. The first two days should be shadowing their buddy or mentor. This also serves as a development opportunity for high potential frontline employees. There may not be an alternative to the virtual training, but screen time should be limited to four hours a day. Shadowing should continue for an additional four hours a day for the first two weeks. Week three through four, the mentor can shadow the new hire to ensure the new hire feels supported. Nightly checkout calls between the leader, mentor and new hire should occur for the first eight weeks. The leader will conduct weekly one on ones, and upper management will hold monthly feedback sessions.

This process will require dedicated time from leaders and mentors, which will result in having more people engaged in the development and experience of our new hires. This will decrease new hire churn and improve the new hire experience overall. This will be of little expense to the company, but the return on this investment will drastically cut the costs for hiring new employees.