As part of Solutions Review’s premium content series, a collection of contributed articles written by industry experts in the enterprise software category, Ted Grossman, president and technology leader at Alexander Group, talks about how companies can improve the way they align hiring. We explain how this can reduce engineer turnover.
The U.S. job market continues to evolve, despite estimates. 253,000 jobs created April has had a lot so far 200,000 people laid off By 2023, that will only be the case in the technology industry. This disruption highlights the need for companies to retain top talent. As the job market continues to react to broader economic conditions, business leaders must also ensure that HR operations align with current realities.
When jobs are misaligned with the current market, there can be significant consequences at both the organizational and individual levels, including increased turnover, decreased job satisfaction, and decreased revenue and profits. These issues are especially prevalent in the technology industry. have historically worked on Employee turnover is high and satisfaction is low. executives. Technology company leadership teams must take proactive action to ensure their teams are intellectually satisfied with their jobs, welcomed into the company culture, and fairly compensated.
Technology companies can create happier, more productive employees by leveraging two critical processes to realign role responsibilities and paths: evaluating job structure and evaluating sales compensation.
Job architecture evaluation
Assessing job architecture requires a complete and comprehensive audit of the roles an organization provides. These audits should be performed by a team comprised of both human resources and departmental/functional leaders. By digging deeper into key responsibilities, required core competencies, role hierarchy, and career progression paths, leaders can better understand employee perspectives and potential sources of frustration and dissatisfaction.
Special attention should be paid to the sales team’s job structure, as there are additional nuances related to how the sales team’s role is defined (specific product assignments, customer base, sales deployment methods, etc.). This complexity creates an almost infinite variety of sales roles and responsibilities, increasing the potential for unintended consequences and management issues. For many reasons, including the fact that sales teams have a direct connection to customers, business leaders must ensure they have a clear understanding of the salesperson’s role and career path.
These assessments should be performed through one-way audits, organizational chart reviews, role analysis, and joint interviews with the employees themselves. What is presented as policy on paper may not be the actual experience of employees, and those discrepancies must be identified and addressed. If business leaders are invested in understanding and improving the employee experience within their organization, it’s time to perform a job architecture assessment, identify opportunities for redesign, and take corrective action where necessary. need to focus on.
Sales compensation assessment
In addition to examining the overall job structure within the organization, business leaders must make a concerted effort to understand the compensation of their sales teams. According to a recent study by LinkedIn, turnover among sales professionals is estimated to be increasing. 39 percent—Probably the cause is high demand For salespeople. With transferable technologically advanced skill sets and attractive offers from competitors, salespeople are more likely to make a career change worth the short-term effort, especially if they don’t feel adequately satisfied or compensated in their current role. You might feel it’s worth it.
To retain reliable sales professionals, organizations must conduct sales compensation evaluations to assess the relative competitiveness of their products in the market. Compensation plans for sales positions tend to be more complex than those for non-sales positions (due to factors such as commissions), so special attention is essential.
At a basic level, organizations should conduct an audit of their sales team’s base salary and salary mix (i.e., the mix of base and commission pay) and compare the results to their key competitors. Next, focus on pay based on profits. This may include SPIFF, which is a collective term for stock-based compensation, overtime pay, and incentive pay.
Technology company leaders may consider assessing the necessary balance of communication and technical skills. At the same time, sales development personnel only need a basic level of technical understanding, while engineers delivering product demos need to be experts at communicating with customers and demonstrating product value. By conducting this audit, team leaders can not only objectively understand how their organization stacks up against competitors, but also gain inspiration for new suggestions and practices. Masu.
Conducting sales compensation reviews is essential for any industry, especially the technology industry, where losing top performers can significantly reduce productivity. Onboarding new sales talent, especially if the product is a high-tech software product, often requires an on-ramp that can last anywhere from six months to a year. Technology organizations and leaders must pay close attention to ensuring their sales compensation strategies are competitive and aligned with the broader market. Otherwise, you risk losing your sales team to a competitor who offers a better service.
Retention does not occur in a vacuum
By taking the time to evaluate work structure and sales compensation, technology leaders can dramatically improve their organization’s employee experience. Concrete efforts are required to achieve tangible results, such as improved clarity in role expectations, increased productivity, longer tenure, and reduced technician turnover, and leaders need to evaluate these. must be ensured with careful consideration and care. Organizations can keep their teams happy and productive by engaging them.
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