KPI as an indicator of the success of the company's work with merchandisers

Despite the fact that the concepts of KPI and motivation have long been part of every employer's lexicon, sometimes it is difficult to imagine how exactly they should work for the benefit of the company - and whether they should work together.

KPI is not just a method for assessing the effectiveness of personnel - it is an indicator of the success of our work with people. Well-trained employee ensures continuous improvement of the quality of services they provide, opens up opportunities for professional and career growth of employees, and also increases the attractiveness of the company's brand as an employer and a business partner. An effective, professional, well-trained field staff structure is what should differentiate a company from its competitors.

Corporate University

KPI and personnel motivation are important as a package, so it would be wrong to consider one in isolation from the other. First of all, this is due to the understanding that one of the main challenges for the HR department today is the problem of balancing the goals of the company and the goals of the person working in this company. In order to achieve maximum efficiency it is necessary to link them together into a single algorithm of training and career development.

Work with motivation begins first of all with the identification of employee's goals. For this very purpose, companies create a Corporate University, a convenient mobile online platform for personnel development. The Corporate University is not just a set of courses, but a system of adaptation and development of employees, the basis of which are career tracks - programs which visualize the movement of an employee in his career (grades), and also adds gamification to the training and development of employees

Career track combines in itself a training program and practical tasks from the manager, which allows to work off the theoretical materials in practice.

The career track itself motivates an employee not only to learn, but also to achieve a high business result, which is decisive when moving from one level to another.

Motivational programs (business programs) are also launched by means of the corporate university:

- Corporate University tools allow not only training, but also encourage employees to meet business objectives, which will be confirmed by the supervisor

- Only a checklist completed by the supervisor will be considered a completed stage of the business program, for which additional points can be assigned

- Periodic activities can be assigned on certain dates and it will be recorded in the calendar of the employee

Any activity in the Corporate University (both business and training) brings points to employees, which affect their ratings (intangible motivation), and can also be converted into gifts that can be purchased with points (financial motivation)

Each of the students of the corporate university has a personal account with current statistics and assigned courses, so you can independently monitor your progress of training, see the results and feedback. The employee has access not only to compulsory, but also to optional courses for his development. Gamification elements make the learning process dynamic and exciting: rating systems, awards and achievements motivate employees to get better grades and show additional activity in their work.

Through training at the Corporate University it is possible to get real ROI and identify real goals and needs of employees and thus understand what motivation will best affect their performance.

Such different motivation

As a company with a huge number of field personnel, we understand the importance of the human factor and the need to develop new forms and methods of personnel management. In order to work effectively, it is necessary for an employee to express his or her own professional qualities. Motivated employee, as a rule, does more than required from him by the job description, he participates in the life of the team more often, shows proactivity, takes on additional tasks for self-development and development of the team. The right motivation in this case can be a driving factor.

Let's start with the material aspect. We understand that material motivation is important for everyone, so we have various motivational programs that allow employees to exceed business targets and get extra cash motivation for it. Since motivational programs are tied to employees' KPIs, we increase employees' loyalty to the company and improve business performance. For our merchandisers and sales representatives, such material motivational programs could be an increase in the DPM at points of sale or an expansion of the layouts.

An important part of financial motivation is also the timely payment of wages and clear formation of the final amount: when an employee understands what he gets his salary for, he begins to have a clearer idea of his tasks. Instead of blindly following the prescribed KPI, the employee begins to clearly see the relationship between his work and the salary paid to him - and his motivation to improve his own efficiency increases.

Intangible motivation can include factors that make an employee's life easier and allow him to think about continuing his career within the company. This category includes recognition of the employee's merits, praise from management, comfortable working conditions (for example, lining a route close to the employee's home) and, of course, a clear understanding of the possibility of career growth - and here we return to the career tracks already mentioned earlier.

A career track is a sequence of stages of an employee's professional development. In the course of his work he has the opportunity to learn and develop from an intern to a personnel reserve in any of the positions. By going through this program an employee understands that he can grow professionally and in his position, which is often an important and powerful motivation.

The first block of the track, On-Boarding, is available from the start and contains basic courses and tests. Successful completion is required. This block is regularly monitored by the training and development manager and supervisor. The employee needs to successfully complete all elements of the block within a certain time frame - for example, in the first month or two.

The following blocks can be opened at certain career stages, for example, after three months of employment (with the necessary condition of successful completion of the first block), or after the completion of certain tasks set by the manager, thereby ensuring a close relationship of development and training of the employee with the actual practice, that is, the implementation of specific business tasks. In this scenario, it is the practical result that becomes decisive for the transition to the next level.

The final stage of the career track is a personnel reserve. Reaching it, the employee confirms that from the educational point of view he is ready for further growth and can apply for a new position. Also, as part of training and career tracks, regular employee evaluations can be carried out to ensure that employees are fit for their position.

Return to KPIs

A motivated employee is much more interested in meeting KPI targets. For our company, KPIs are end-to-end tasks, based on the contract with the client. As a rule, we work with coverage (number of visits, time worked at the sales point, frequency of visits), and also take on project-specific tasks in accordance with the wishes of our clients. To track project metrics, we use project reporting, which gives performance metrics broken down by plan, fact, and projected performance. The metrics for evaluation are compared to the financial components of the company, i.e. when a certain percentage of KPI's are met, what impact does that have on client estimates.

Generating and tracking KPIs is a fairly universal process for companies. But how exactly can we see the relationship between performance improvement and employee motivation? To do this, we use performance appraisal tools - a set of measures in relation to the company's employees, which include an assessment of employee performance and competencies, both commercial and HR metrics

This tool allows us to:

- Achieve an understanding of the level of development of all employees
- To work out the development of managers' skills
- Generate a talent pool process

Performance reviews are conducted regularly every six months and have a clear structure. Thus, the department responsible for the implementation of this process needs a full understanding of the results of each employee, so the first step is to summarize the results of the reporting period. Then there is a stage of planning of tasks for the next reporting period (half a year), taking into account the analysis of successes and failures of the employees for the past period. That is the planning of training and development of employees for the next period takes place.

For the selection of an effective training program the actual qualification of company supervisors - employees responsible for merchandisers and sales representatives - is determined. This is important to understand at what level of development is each employee, as well as to manage their development and efficiency in the business

The next stage is to identify employees at the level of "Outsider", who do not match the position and shows poor performance, as well as identifying employees at the level of TOP, with high potential for development, which then will go to the next step in the personnel pool program.

As the result of the work of each employee affects the work of the team and the company as a whole, we allocate four blocks:

- KPIs
- Assessment of professional knowledge
- Assessment for participation in various HR-events
- Participation of the employee in trainings

At the same time a significant part of the evaluation are KPI-indicators.

When evaluating the efficiency of each block an employee receives points, and depending on the number of points is assigned a professional level: "Top", "Master", "Specialist", and "Outsider". For each level, a threshold value is set, which is reviewed every six months based on the previous reporting period.

Based on the results of the efficiency assessment, further development of the employee is determined depending on the assigned level - thus, it is possible to assess the results, knowledge and skills of employees in a transparent, objective and uniform way.

Thus, we see that Training, Motivation and KPIs work most effectively together as an integrated system. Through training an employee's motivation is revealed, a motivated employee is aimed at meeting KPIs, and through performance evaluation an employee with good KPIs gets the opportunity to move forward on the career track. Thus, by linking all three elements together, it is possible to create an effective well-trained structure of the field staff, aimed not just at results, but also at the development of each employee.