Recruitment of Sales/Pharma/Field Force

In a growing economy, recruitment is one of the key challenges that Sales HR Professionals face; retention being the most crucial.

Average attrition of sales/field force is close to 33%. Sometimes higher! This essentially means industry will always be in need of sales force; sales force that will stay and be productive. Similar qualities will be look for during recruitment. Hence, recruitment becomes an activity as important as running the business itself.

So, how is sales recruitment done? Answer is not difficult. Generate a pool of candidates (sourcing), multiple levels of interview (selection) & finally joining formalities (on boarding). Or is it? Each stage i.e. sourcing, selection and on boarding has unique challenges; primarily on account of experience, education, urgency, criticality, geographic spread, demand for particular skill set among others. A broad outline of the recruitment process is given below.

Sourcing or generation of a pool of candidates can be qualified by the following:

• Internal: Employee referral schemes, candidates identified by managers, careers website, job portals, references from new hires. One of the most potent internal sources is Industry Survey Report; more details on ISR in later posts.
• External: Primarily through recruitment consultants. Recruitment consultants can provide the required quantity in a very short duration. Campuses are other potent grounds for sourcing.

Further qualifiers

• Quality: Here the internal sources will almost always outperform the external sources. Most of the recruitment happens through internal sources where the candidate is known to employees and their managers.
• Price: Salary range is dictated by approved manpower budget and the relative worth of the territory and the life of business. To source candidates who would fit into the salary range requires thorough under companies with or competing for candidates in the same salary range.
• Quantity: This aspect is not very difficult to achieve. Using recruitment consultants can be the best way to ensure required quantity. Given enough time, internal sources can generate the required quantity.

Selection

Sales force is, usually, distributed across geography. Hence, the selection process has to accommodate the same. Field interviews are the most effective way to shortlist candidates. Front line managers meet candidates in the field and interview them. Interview setting can range from a tea stall to a hotel to the line managers residence to the local stockist or distributor. The objective is to have a face to face interview with the candidate. Content of the interview will vary as per industry. An interview template guides these interviews.

Based on the feedback, the second line manager will conduct telephonic/in-person interview. Finally, the HR conducts telephonic interview to finally clear the candidate for joining.

There are many variations to this process. These may include a final interview with HR in head office. Final interview may be done with business head and HR through video conference. HR is not involved in the final interview at all and business heads may be authorised to roll out the offer letters.

Objective is to have multiple checks on the incoming candidate. The elaborate process of selection gives candidate feeling of achievement and exclusivity.

On-boarding 

Here comes the tricky part. Selection done. Offer rolled out. Candidate now has a promise of employment. Will the candidate join you? Or will the candidate say, “Hey, I got an offer from this company. Great. Lets take a shot at another company and see if any thing better comes my way!” Offer to joining ratio hovers around 80% for the sales force.

To mitigate such drop outs, most companies prefer that candidates join within couple of days. Some companies just show the offer letter and hand out the offer letter on the day of joining. There are companies that give just the salary break up on plain paper. Others prefer to give just the offer, without mentioning salary details. One interesting offer letter was written by hand on a blank paper without any signature or seal.

However, such practices may not work for good quality candidates; element of trust is absent. Hence, it is crucial that candidates are kept engaged throughout the period of uncertainty. This engagement right from the time of offer to the actual joining, for all practical purposes, is on-boarding. Personal touch, helping them deal with the anxiety of job change, probably helping them write a good resignation letter and many such activities helps in keeping the candidate engaged with the company.

In a geographically spread out work force, it is not feasible to keep offices near each area of operation. Hence, elaborate procedure needs to be set to ensure proper on-boarding.

• Structured induction program by front line managers needs to be ensured
• Collection of all documents necessary for records
• Complete joining kit reaching on time

The above is an indicative recruitment process. There may be variation as per business, geography and scale of operations.