HR Management Essay Sample: Meadowbrook Golf and Golf Ventures West Case Analysis

Meadowbrook Golf is a leader in golf course management, maintenance, and supply headquartered in Championsgate, Florida in the United States. It comprises four branches, namely, Meadowbrook Golf that provides the management, International Golf, which is in charge of maintenance, Golf Ventures East, and Golf Ventures West the supply arms of the business. Ron Jackson is Meadowbrooks Chief Executive Officer while Mike Eastwood heads the Golf Ventures West.

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The case study focuses on employee selection and training in Meadowbrook Golf and Golf Ventures West. Apparently, Meadowbrook Golf maintained a strong reputation built on its expertise in availing superior goods and services to golf courses. Nevertheless, Jackson saw the need to take it to a higher level, which would only take a happy and motivated workforce. Consequently, he brought a behavioral assessment tool called Predictive Index to aid the managers in determining what motivated the workers to come to work. Meadowbrook managed to keep its talent by managing its employees for their individual success. Additionally, it incorporated this vital information into its hiring process.

On the other hand, Golf Ventures West had the best staff in the industry, long-time customers, and low turnover. However, according to Mike Eastwood, the team did not sell enough. His main challenge was identifying the employees sales training needs to aid them grow their sales. Coincidentally, Wellesley, the producers of the Predictive Index, had a tool that established strengths in salespeople and areas they needed development. Additionally, the tool offered customer-focused training. Eastwood and other senior managers took the assessment to explore the effectiveness of the tool. The managers performed well. However, the employees scores were in the mid-to-low range. Clearly, the sales team did not know how to sell. Therefore, Eastwood incorporated the tool in his training program, which bore fruits by increasing sales. For example, when an underperforming employee underwent the training and was moved to a new territory, he sold more in four months than he had previously sold in a year.

Reasons why Eastwood and his general Managers took the PIs competency assessment

The training tool identified the strengths of salespeople and the areas for development. Additionally, it offered a customer-focused sales training. According to the case study, Eastwood and his general managers took the competency assessment before administering it to the other salespersons. They all scored in the mid-to-high range, a clear indication of Eastwoods selling style. The idea of administering the test to management first was to help them assess its efficiency.

It is a requirement for managers to be competent and to lead by example. According to Bruce (2011), assessing the competencies of managers and leaders is the preferred method to hire, develop and promote employees because it represents a whole-person approach. It was appropriate to use the test on the management first to find out whether they possessed the necessary skills and competencies to lead. Furthermore, their results set the required standards for the other salespeople.

How the assessment uncovered the skills gap in Golf Ventures West

According to the case study, both the senior managers and the salespeople undertook the assessment. However, their results differed extensively. The general managers scores lay in the mid-to-high range. Nevertheless, they had accumulated an experience of over 30 years in the industry. On the other hand, the salespeoples overall scores lay in the mid-to-low range. Clearly, the 80% of the sales team did not know how to sell. According to the results, a majority of the salespeople were not asking their clients enough investigative questions.

A skills gap existed in Golf Ventures West. The managers results depicted the competency levels that Golf Ventures West required to improve its sales. However, the assessment on the salespeople showed clearly that they lacked this level of competency. In other words, a skills gap existed in the company. Therefore, administering the assessment to the two groups identifies the skills gap existing among the salespeople in Golf Ventures West. The discovery was quite helpful for the management in identifying the areas that needed improvement for the team to perform. Consequently, the sales team underwent a customer-focused sales (CFS) sales training. The CSF was to enable them understand customers, think like them and discover their needs. Therefore, the sales training was to help determine the strengths of the salespeople and the areas of improvement (Snell & Bohlander).

The training readiness of the Employees

It is clear from the case study that the employees in Golf Ventures West were ready for training and development in the customer-focused sales. The good results depicted by both the employees and the organization were enough proof of their readiness. First, the most senior and successful salesperson followed the training process and recorded a sale of $40,000 from a competitors client. By the same token, an underperforming salesperson underwent the training and when Eastwood moved him to a new territory, he sold more in four months than he had done in a year in his original location. Additionally, Golf Ventures West expansion into new locations is a positive result of the training readiness of its salespeople.

Conclusion

References

Bruce, A. (2011). A briefcase book Manager's guide to motivating employees. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Snell, s., Bohlander, G. (2012). Managing Human Resources. Cengage Learning