Today I visited a trading company. The boss, Mr. Zhang, is a friend of mine. He left his corporate job in 2013 to start his own distribution business. Over six years, things went smoothly, and now he has annual sales of over 40 million yuan and a sales team of 52 people. Recently, he has been troubled by team turnover: he can't find suitable people during recruitment, and even when he does, they don't stay long, usually leaving after about 9 months. Moreover, two key sales representatives who had been with the company for five years have also resigned, plunging the company's overall operations into a vicious cycle. Without people, without capable hands, without an excellent team, you can't succeed in FMCG. What can be done? Mr. Zhang urgently asked me for advice. Team management is a common topic. Many managers can talk about incentives, benefits, team management, creating a team atmosphere, playing the personal relationship card, and so on. But when it comes to retaining and developing people, results are often unsatisfactory. Why? Today, let's share some insights based on Mr. Zhang's actual case. -01- Clarify the Basic Concepts 1. The Issue of Turnover Rate: Is a team with zero turnover an excellent team? Not necessarily. An excellent team is like the human body; it needs metabolism. Especially those full of negativity and negative energy should be eliminated in a timely manner. A reasonable turnover rate is the premise for survival of the fittest and ensuring the healthy development of the team. My suggestion is to control the turnover rate at around 20%. The tone for controlling turnover must be based on selecting people, motivating people, selecting capable people, and motivating capable people. 2. About the Post-90s Generation: Post-90s employees care more about the meaning of work, gaining a sense of achievement from it. Creating a better working atmosphere can continuously stimulate employees' enthusiasm. Enterprises need employees to move from a state of indifference and frustration to high efficiency. Building an excellent team requires both material and spiritual incentives. 3. Standards for Excellent Employees: Everyone wants to be an excellent employee or a key capable person, but what are the standards for an excellent employee? They should be described in a structured way so that employees can compare themselves against them.
a. Excellent employees must first be loyal, loyal to the company, loyal to the team, and have a sense of ownership. From big things like making company decisions their own career, collaborating with the team, and going all out, to small things like turning off lights and saving materials, excellence is a habit.
b. Good moral character (reputation). There should be no cases of splitting large orders into smaller ones or combining small orders into large ones to defraud company expenses, nor any other situations where personal interests harm the company.
c. Spread positive energy. Do not spread negative emotions (strong stress resistance), and guide and criticize those with negative emotions.
d. Performance achievement. Sales volume is certainly an important indicator of excellence, but it should not be too absolute. -02- Inventory of Employee Situations and Clarification of Job Requirements at All Levels 1. Inventory of Employee Situations: This work should not be taken for granted; you must be clear about it. The boss should personally create an inventory table: Notes: a. Pay attention to age. Different age groups have different needs. Pay attention to position and tenure. For example, how long have salespeople, supervisors, and managers been in their roles? Pay extra attention to those who have been in the same position for a long time. b. Describe employee grades. Based on the standards for excellent employees, objectively assess them, such as excellent, good, average, or poor. c. Describe family situations, including spouse's income, other family members' income, and family emotional understanding. d. Remember important rewards and punishments, such as major mistakes, major rewards, and major contributions. e. Note special events in the remarks, such as attempted resignations, internal family relationships within the team, etc. 2. Job requirements for all levels should be documented so that everyone understands their responsibilities. Probation period requirements: Recognize the company culture, strong learning ability, strong teamwork ability, positive and optimistic attitude, etc. Regular employee requirements: Complete own work with quality and quantity, be familiar with work processes and systems, have independent working ability, and proactively take responsibility, etc. Supervisor requirements: Ability to arrange subordinates' work, optimize subordinates' work, use terminal systems, etc. Manager requirements: Market insight, sensitivity, and crisis awareness, ability to formulate implementation plans, business development planning ability, team management ability, stress resistance, etc. Director requirements: Business planning and management ability, team motivation and coordination ability, observation and adaptability, teamwork, process supervision, coordination ability, enthusiasm for work, etc. In summary: Based on your business scale, clarify job requirements, list a few points, and let the team compare themselves. Which ones match? How high is the match? After meeting them, they can recommend themselves for higher positions and better treatment. -03- Employee Incentive Methods and Benefit Forms Should Change Traditional incentive methods are monotonous and ineffective. Take Mr. Zhang as an example: his employee incentives are the same old things: team dinners, achievement bonuses, seniority pay, and annual rewards like home appliances. He spends a lot of money, but incidents of giving awards today and resignations tomorrow have happened several times. My suggestions are: 1. Cash Rewards: They should be linked not only to performance but also to process management (ratio of performance to process = 7:3). Market fundamentals, population, and consumption power vary. You should recognize employees' efforts and their ability to improve the market. 2. Learning Rewards: Cancel or reduce seniority pay and convert it into installment learning rewards. For example, some employees want to improve and learn management skills. They can enroll in courses at consulting institutions. If the tuition is 3,600 yuan, the company can advance the payment. If they stay for two years, it's a gift; if not, they must repay the tuition. Of course, you should also set learning standards, qualifications, and the value of the content. 3. Annual Rewards: They should focus on realizing employees' dreams. For example, some want to take their parents, wives, and children abroad for a trip; some want their own car. These wish lists should be designed with different reward standards and plans based on different levels, with individual agreements to fulfill them. For those who want a car, the agreement could be: they pay the down payment, serve the company for N years, the company covers the installment payments, if they leave midway, they must repay 120% of the installments advanced by the company, and if they complete the required years, the down payment is refunded. For those who want to travel, they can go first, and based on the reward standard, the company reimburses them monthly over several years. If they leave midway, the same rule applies. In summary, annual rewards should meet employees' personalized needs (realize New Year wishes), not just give cash, and should also consider the sustainability of the reward for employees. -04- Salary and Performance System Should Be Improved Mr. Zhang's salary system is simple: base salary + commission + allowance + special rewards (special rewards mainly refer to stage rewards, such as June assessment for putting products in freezers, July assessment for making cut cases, etc.). My view is: the simpler the salary system, the better, but it should ensure that hardworking people and those with truly good sales can be rewarded. 1. Link base salary to process work, and pay attention to turnover in poor markets. For example, use a terminal mobile system to break down daily work into points: points for visiting outlets, points for hands-on work in stores, points for development, points for merchandising, points for display execution, etc. Set scoring standards. Base salary = monthly score * point value (e.g., 1 point = 0.5 yuan). This way, as long as employees are willing to work, they can earn money. Especially for some poor markets where people can't earn money and are unstable, new employees can stay as long as they are willing to work, and the market will gradually improve. 2. Link commission to process work to prevent robbing Peter to pay Paul. As above, set scoring standards, calculate the monthly process work score, set a benchmark score for employees, and set a commission coefficient. For example: benchmark score is 100 points, if an employee scores 112, the commission coefficient is 112/100 = 112%, so commission reward = actual commission * 112%. Conversely, if they score 80, commission reward = actual commission * 80%. This can effectively prevent salespeople from engaging in unhealthy practices like overstocking to gain improper profits, while also focusing on market fundamentals. Note: set a fluctuation range for commission, generally within 20%. 3. Special rewards should be set in tiers, considering market and personnel realities. For example, for freezer display rewards, there is a big difference in the number of freezers between urban and rural areas, and a big difference in relationships between new and old employees. Consider all factors and strive to be realistic and fair. 4. All incentives must be genuine. Fake incentives are more terrifying than no incentives. When employees see fake awards, most choose to follow suit or silently leave, and few report it. This is also an important reason for the departure of excellent key employees. -05- Increase the Cohesion and Centripetal Force of Excellent Employees, Set Up Referral Awards and Mentorship Awards Birds of a feather flock together. People recommended by excellent employees are generally also excellent. I suggest setting up an excellent employee referral award: 1. The referrer must be an employee rated as excellent in the quarter or year. 2. Referral Award: When an excellent employee recommends a new person who joins and meets the probation requirements after one month, the referrer receives a 300 yuan referral award. The new person becomes the referrer's apprentice. 3. Mentorship Award: In the first three months after joining, in the first month, the mentor receives an additional 25% of the new person's total commission; in the second month, 15%; in the third month, 10%. The purpose is to bind interests and increase attention to the new person. 4. Annual Comprehensive Evaluation Award: If the new person is selected as an excellent employee, in addition to the excellence award, both the mentor and the apprentice each receive a home appliance (TV, refrigerator, washing machine, etc.). This method is very good. It solves the recruitment problem, strengthens the cohesion of excellent employees, enhances the team atmosphere, and will inevitably reduce turnover. Let excellence dominate, and the enterprise will develop healthily. -06- Set Up a Team Fund to Increase Partnership Awareness There will be many problems in operations, such as an employee's family emergency requiring donations, market delivery vehicles being fined by traffic police for mixing people and goods, team dinner activities, etc. The boss can contribute part, but may not solve all problems. So you can set up a team fund. For example, a market building fund, employee care fund, team building fund, etc. The boss contributes 1,000 yuan per month, and employees contribute 1% of their total income to the fund. The team decides how to use it. The purpose of setting up the fund is to reflect unity and mutual help, show employee care, and increase everyone's sense of team involvement. If you wish to communicate with the author