As part of our regular employee surveys, we are listening to what our employees say they need. Time and again, internal advancement opportunities are at the very top of the wish list. This is why our management are conducting an in-depth career and development planning review with each employee once a year. One outcome of this review will be to draw up an agreed personal development plan with qualification opportunities. These are then incorporated into our central training plan to enhance the annual further training and development programme. This year, we are focusing on the further development of sales skills.
Have you ever been frustrated when speaking to customer support or sales staff who are poorly informed or incompetent? Not at PREIS! A high level of customer satisfaction is extremely important to us. We therefore put great emphasis on stability and competency in sales and customer support. To achieve this, we are continually investing in our leadership skills, in our corporate culture based on respect and shared values, and above all in the sales expertise of our employees.
This autumn, all our internal and external sales staff will be taking part in a modular “Sales skills” training course to be held over several days. In addition to improving sales skills, we are also aiming to further improve team spirit and job satisfaction – see above.
There is a great deal of moaning in the media about the ailing job market. There is little point paying too much attention to this, because an individual employer has no influence on the demographic development of the population and cannot change people’s attitudes and values. However, some of the things that we can influence are:
- Meaningful action
- Sufficient opportunities for social contact within the company
- Respectful conduct/attitude at work, both to each other and towards both managers and employees
- Further training and development courses and opportunities
- An attractive working environment, equipment and facilities (cleanliness, lighting, ergonomics, air conditioning, etc.)
PREIS GmbH recognised this at an early stage. Over the past 7 years, 4 comprehensive staff surveys on job satisfaction have been carried out. On a scale of 1 to 5, the overall average score in this period rose from 3.4 to 4.0. Of course, this required a considerable amount of work and also money. Due to the current situation (which will probably last for some time), we need to view the satisfaction of our employees as a strategic objective – not only for humanistic but also for hard business reasons.
Gerhard Habitzl
Human Resources Manager for PREIS GmbH
