Home
Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
Latest activity
Members
Current visitors
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Home
Forums
Brown Cafe UPS Forum
UPS Discussions
Scoundrels in management?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Iconoclast" data-source="post: 174022" data-attributes="member: 8906"><p>Excellent discussion. I think one of the things that gets overlooked when we talk about management at UPS is training, or lack thereof. Let me give you an example. Most companies who hire management candidates from the outside, the single biggest determining criteria in qualifying a candidate to fulfill a job opportunity is their prior experience. If a company is hiring for an experienced human resources manager, it will not consider many candidates who are experienced accountants. Now, not many accountants would typically apply for a job as a human resources manager, especially when the job posting would certainly list the minimum requirements, not the least of which is a specific and mandatory number of years as a human resources manager. </p><p> </p><p>UPS is different. The criteria for fulfilling management positions is not the core competencies and skills in that specific specialized area of work, but rather knowledge of the company as a whole and experience and tenure in UPS culture. When you are transferred at UPS and given new job responsibilities there are not job specific training programs for managers in that respective area. </p><p> </p><p>If you have spent 20 years in package and you are assigned to business development, you may go through a business development class or training session for a few weeks, but that's it. you may soon be responsible for developing and leading sales people, retaining business and representing the brand, having never made a sales call in your entire life!! - Mind boggling. Whereas another company, let's use FedEx as an example, when hiring someone in a very similar business development capacity, will only be relying on a qualified candidate who has spent years in sales, developing people, negotiating contracts and representing a specific brand.</p><p> </p><p>In the UPS scenario, you know the company inside and out, but you have no idea how to sell. In the other scenario, you don't know the product or the company, but you know the job you have been hired to do, sales, and you have spent years in that field of endeavor-in fact, that is the only reason that FedEx will consider you for the position. You can hit the ground running. </p><p> </p><p>Formalized sales training programs at top companies are designed to take experienced sales people and teach them a specific product line, not how to sell, they would never have considered you unless you were experienced, after all, you cannot teach someone to sell in a training class, that takes years of experience. UPS has sales training programs, but they are almost always teaching product features and benefits to people who have no experience in sales! They learn the products but what do you do with that knowledge. If you are responsible for other people and one of your charges, who is also inexperienced, has a question about sales strategies, where do you draw from? </p><p> </p><p>I use sales as an example here, but this scenario is replicated in almost all of our business segments. What we end up doing is relying on management people who have learned their job - trial by fire - and finally have the experience to shepard others along the way to provide on the job training. How much more effective would on the job training be if the person you are training has spent the bulk of their professional career in the exact discipline you are training them for, or a very similar one. So what if that experience was received outside of UPS.</p><p> </p><p>Training is an enormous expense for all companies. Training is also something that cannot be overlooked, skimped on, or cut back. One of the ways to get the most bang out of your buck in training, is to hire people who have professional experience and core competency skills in the position you are hiring for.</p><p> </p><p>Remember, whenever you have management turnover, the people that leave are usually the ones that have the ability to get another job quickly, they are often your higher potential employees.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Iconoclast, post: 174022, member: 8906"] Excellent discussion. I think one of the things that gets overlooked when we talk about management at UPS is training, or lack thereof. Let me give you an example. Most companies who hire management candidates from the outside, the single biggest determining criteria in qualifying a candidate to fulfill a job opportunity is their prior experience. If a company is hiring for an experienced human resources manager, it will not consider many candidates who are experienced accountants. Now, not many accountants would typically apply for a job as a human resources manager, especially when the job posting would certainly list the minimum requirements, not the least of which is a specific and mandatory number of years as a human resources manager. UPS is different. The criteria for fulfilling management positions is not the core competencies and skills in that specific specialized area of work, but rather knowledge of the company as a whole and experience and tenure in UPS culture. When you are transferred at UPS and given new job responsibilities there are not job specific training programs for managers in that respective area. If you have spent 20 years in package and you are assigned to business development, you may go through a business development class or training session for a few weeks, but that's it. you may soon be responsible for developing and leading sales people, retaining business and representing the brand, having never made a sales call in your entire life!! - Mind boggling. Whereas another company, let's use FedEx as an example, when hiring someone in a very similar business development capacity, will only be relying on a qualified candidate who has spent years in sales, developing people, negotiating contracts and representing a specific brand. In the UPS scenario, you know the company inside and out, but you have no idea how to sell. In the other scenario, you don't know the product or the company, but you know the job you have been hired to do, sales, and you have spent years in that field of endeavor-in fact, that is the only reason that FedEx will consider you for the position. You can hit the ground running. Formalized sales training programs at top companies are designed to take experienced sales people and teach them a specific product line, not how to sell, they would never have considered you unless you were experienced, after all, you cannot teach someone to sell in a training class, that takes years of experience. UPS has sales training programs, but they are almost always teaching product features and benefits to people who have no experience in sales! They learn the products but what do you do with that knowledge. If you are responsible for other people and one of your charges, who is also inexperienced, has a question about sales strategies, where do you draw from? I use sales as an example here, but this scenario is replicated in almost all of our business segments. What we end up doing is relying on management people who have learned their job - trial by fire - and finally have the experience to shepard others along the way to provide on the job training. How much more effective would on the job training be if the person you are training has spent the bulk of their professional career in the exact discipline you are training them for, or a very similar one. So what if that experience was received outside of UPS. Training is an enormous expense for all companies. Training is also something that cannot be overlooked, skimped on, or cut back. One of the ways to get the most bang out of your buck in training, is to hire people who have professional experience and core competency skills in the position you are hiring for. Remember, whenever you have management turnover, the people that leave are usually the ones that have the ability to get another job quickly, they are often your higher potential employees. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Home
Forums
Brown Cafe UPS Forum
UPS Discussions
Scoundrels in management?
Top