MANAGING IN A DIVERSE WORLD

A Difficult Hiring Decision at Central Bank

Introduction

Central Bank’s 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 Bank’s 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 Bank’s 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 bank’s

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 Bank’s 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 posting’s 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 Bank’s 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 that’s 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 Charlotte’s 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 Bank’s 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 Charlotte’s 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

master’s 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 segment’s

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 Bank’s 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 SCORE WEIGHT TOTALLeadership: 9 5 45Team-Oriented: 10 5 50Sales Management: 9 5 45Recruitment and HR skills: 7 4 28Mentoring and Coaching Abilities: 10 4 40

Relation Building and Communication Skills: 9 4 36Community Involvement: 10 4 40Front Line Experience: 8 3 24Business and financial planning skills: 10 4 40Adaptability 10 4 40Corporate Governance 10 4 40TOTAL 428

Scott Warren SCORE WEIGHT TOTALLeadership: 9 5 45Team-Oriented: 4 5 20Sales Management: 10 5 50Recruitment and HR skills: 9 4 36Mentoring and Coaching Abilities: 4 4 16Relation Building and Communication Skills: 9 4 36Community Involvement: 7 4 28Front Line Experience: 10 3 30Business and financial planning skills: 7 4 28Adaptability 5 4 20Corporate Governance 2 4 8TOTAL 317

James Skinner SCORE WEIGHT TOTALLeadership 8 5 40Team-Oriented 9 5 45Sales Management 9 5 45Recruitment and HR skills 8 4 32

Mentoring and Coaching Abilities 8 4 32Relation Building and Communication Skills 8 4 32Community Involvement: 10 4 40Front Line Experience: 9 3 27Business and financial planning skills: 7 4 28Adaptability 2 4 8Corporate Governance 9 4 36TOTAL 365

Appendix 2 –Scorecard Weights

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 Description1 Not Important2 Somewhat Important3 Important4 Very Important5 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

                      

1 5 10