SELECTION PROCESS

Running Head: NEEDS ASSESSMENT 2

NEEDS ASSESSMENT 2

Needs Assessment

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation:

Course Name and Number

Instructor Name

Assignment Due Date

 

Introduction

Our organization is a retail shop that deals largely with household and consumer goods. It operates a chain of stores in the country and has, in recent years, registered significant success with an appealing profitability index. Since its establishment, the firm has only been dealing with physical orders where the c clients have to visit our facilities to purchase the goods that they desire. However, with the recent COVID 19 outbreaks, there have been numerous controls that have been affected and have largely reduced the number of sales made each day (OECD.org, 2020). Over the last few months of 2020, the company has registered very low sales as people have largely avoided physical contact. By operating on a physical basis, our stores have been avoided by customers, translating into dropped sales. The situation has made it essential to carry out a needs assessment that will attract more customers to our products.

The need analysis has been concentrated on the sales department since it is the section that has a direct impact on the sales index. While the team in the department has, over the years, led to the development and implementation of highly successful policies, the virus outbreak has seemingly exhausted their ideas. Thus, the firm needs to look into how well the company can adjust the structure of the section to revert to past success. The primary goal of the assessment is to come up with effective measures that would aid in increasing sales volumes. An increase in the customer base will be essential, and there lies a high possibility of exceedingly previously sales that have been recorded over the past years.

Employment needs

The employment needs of the identified need are to facilitate the sales recorded by the company. As a profit-oriented organization, there is a high preference for making as many revenues as possible. Therefore, one of the employment needs is to boost the sales of the entity. The only variance from the sales from previous periods is that it will be designed and aimed towards online selling employment is a relatively new platform for the firm. Therefore, the company will be looking at how best to reach out to the buyers, emphasizing getting them to place their orders over the online platform.

The move is also expected to boost the firm by rolling out the online platform, considered a relatively more effective selling method. Despite having some firms already in the area, there are still numerous unexplored openings that the company seeks to take advantage of. The acquisition of loyal online clients will be determined by how well and effective the system is (Singh & Davidson, 2017). It will also be necessary to develop an online site that is easy to operate as this would encourage more clients to adopt our proposed venture. Besides, by going online, it means that there will be lower physical visits to our stores. We will also manage to sell to larger geographical regions, and this would eliminate the need to open further branches across the country. Therefore, there is a high possibility that the firm will decongest their stores and save costs that would be incurred in renting shop spaces. There would be more emphasis on acquiring go down relatively cheaper services. The strategy is therefore projected to raise the sales moved, and thus the profits realizable to the company.

Required Function

The company looks at the possibility of launching an online shopping platform over which shoppers can order their goods at their comfort and have them delivered to their desired locations. Such a structure will work well not only to avert the adversities caused by the pandemic outbreak but will also target the people who are too busy to get time for their basic shopping. Further, it will help increase the clientele since the company will have a platform to reach even people far from the physical stores (Lamont, 2017). Such would assist in correcting the low sales that have been recorded across the second and the third quarters of 2020.

It is a primary responsibility for firms to be socially responsible to their clients. Our company also sees the possibility of meeting their corporate social responsibility needs with the adoption of online shopping. Through the development of the platform, the retail stores will discourage unnecessary movement and congestions that have been reported to be primary risk factors in the spread of the COVID 19 pandemic. The proposition will assist the people in gaining easy access to their basic needs without having to expose themselves to the pandemic (Cable, 2013). These are perceived to be the primary functions that the needs assessment will seek to address.

Jobs or Tasks

There is a need to develop a team that will identify the specific needs of the market to achieve the desired function. Currently, a majority of retailers have created an online selling system. There is thus going to be a crucial need to try and identify the deficiencies in the existing structures and taking advantage of it (Jobber et al., 2019). The job that is to be created will involve a person who is vibrant in the marketing field and one who can easily convince people to adopt our entity’s online platform. Upon recruitment of the new clients, they will then be oriented into the system to ensure they are well acquainted with all the functionalities of the company’s site. They will also be required to aid the clients in the placing of orders.

Upon order submission, the personnel tasked with handling the system will then follow up to the selling team to get the orders processed. The order will be considered fulfilled when delivered and approved by the client, recorded as a successful sale (Syed & Kramer, 2017). Also, the task will include making a follow-up to get the feedback of the clients. The team will help develop a system that will amicably address all the issues raised by the buyers and use it to come up with worthy proposals of how to improve the process.

Current Training

To achieve the objectives of the need identified, the firm is expected to instill the right skills and knowledge to the employees. The company aims at selecting a team of five employees from the sales and marketing team that will be tasked with meeting the needs of the gap identified. The plan is to come up with a training schedule that the selected employees will be subjected to. The arrangement will include taking them through the basics of online selling and social media platforms to attract new sales (Jobber et al., 2019). They will further be taken through more detailed customer relations sessions that will be aimed at ensuring they get a competitive advantage over their peers when dealing with existing as well as prospected clients. The five employees will then be taken through continuous system orientation to ensure they understand the operations in the site. Further, the company will organize further training to match the dynamism of the sector and the industry at large. That way, the company aims to fulfill the identified needs entirely.

Online Marketers Job Description

The aim of conducting a needs assessment is to identify the gaps in the system that need to be addressed. The company seeks to deploy employees to the online selling team proposed after the conduct of the need’s assessment done on the company. The firm will be looking for marketing experts who will help in spearheading the online selling department. The persons will be expected to have high marketing skills and be very conversant with the emerging trends in the sales and marketing sector as it will play a major role in determining the best approaches to take. The initial plan is to have a team of five employees who will be placed under the marketing department as an independent section. They will work in coordination with the general sales and marketing department in ensuring that the firm meets the objectives set as per the need analysis.

The team will be led by a section head who will be categorized as a middle-level manager. The team leader will be tasked with the implementation of policies that are aimed at boosting the selling process of the firm. He will report directly to the overall marketing manager with the staff under him being delegated to carry out various functions under online selling. The team will seek to enroll clients to the platform and follow up on the orders placed for delivery. Their efficiency will be assessed based largely on the sales volumes pushed and the ability to retain clients beyond the first order. The company aims at approaching the recruitment internally, with a bias towards the personnel in the sales and marketing department. However, there will be consideration given to employees from other departments if the management feels that they fit the needs identified by the assessment done.

 

References

Cable, D. M. (2013). The Oxford handbook of recruitment. Oxford University Press.

Jobber, D., Lancaster, G., & Meunier-FitzHugh, K. L. (2019). Selling and sales management. Pearson UK.

Lamont, I. (2017). Lean Media: How to focus on creativity, streamline production, and create media that audiences love. I30 Media Corporation.

OECD.org. (2020). COVID-19 and the retail sector: Impact and policy responses. OECD. https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/covid-19-and-the-retail-sector-impact-and-policy-responses-371d7599/

Singh, D. J., & Davidson, J. (2017). How to make a profit by selling your household items online – One man’s junk is another man’s treasure. Mendon Cottage Books.

Syed, J., & Kramar, R. (2017). Human resource management: A global and critical perspective. Macmillan International Higher Education.

 

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