ok, lets say your the manager of a parts department at a dealership, and one of your sales people are going to be leaving, going to another dealership for whatever reason, leaving you an open position to be filled and you have three candidates, how would you approach the situation.



Person 1: does a fairly important job for you and works very efficiently and doesnt mind working late, or coming in on their day off to cover for someone if needed. could be a hard position to replace since you would have to trust / have faith in the person since they could end up costing the company ALOT of money if the job isnt done correctly. Also has experience working the counter, and does 8-16 hours a week working on the counter for regular consumer sales, and has shown that he is very caapable of the job.(currently makes $12 an hour has worked there for about 14/15 months, and has 8 months of front counter experience)





Person 2: also does a fairly important job for you and works efficiently. It would also be a hard position to fill since there would be a good deal of computer training involved, and the work must be done to a T, or else a huge clusterfuck is created. This person also has experience with the consumer part of the counter, working 5-13 hours a week there. This person is a little slow at the counter since they havent had as much experience with it as person 1, but it would be safe to say this person would be able to work at a normal speed with a little more time at the counter. (est. pay right now of $15 an hour, has worked there for about 3 years with 3/4 months of front counter experience)



Person 3: Does a job that is semi important, and is known for being lazy, not wanting to work, and disappearing alot during the day while they are supposed to be working. This person's job is easily replaceable, as there isnt a whole lot of training/brainpower needed to take it over. This person also watches the clock and will never stay late to finish his work if necessary, and hasnt really worked on days off (which i think a big part is that their position doesnt lend itself to it). This person has no experience with sales at a dealership, but use to work at pepboys as a parts salesmen. (current pay is $12.5 an hour, has worked at the company for less than a full year)



Other details: There are currently 12 salesmen (including the one who needs to be replaced). And the position thats opening up will yeild about 80K a year or so, which is a huge improvement for all three people that are expressing intrest in the opening. And the position doesnt have to be filled ASAP, but within about 2 months or so.



How would you handle the situation as fairly as possible???

Tough call. Person 3 can go blow a goat. I'd say Person 2 would get it because of tenure, however it sounds like Person 1 has earned it. I don't think anybody should be held back because the work they do is too important, if they are, they deserve compensation for that. I'd be inclined to give it Person 1, citing nearly the double amount of experience he has over Person 2. It's something Person 2 can't deny, and gives you the person who appears to be the best fit for the new position and has the highest chance of success.



Steve

If you're worried about pulling someone out of their current position, just go out and hire some schlub from off the street. Salesmen are a dime a dozen.

the new menlo mazda way would be to bring in 2 persian guys who have never worked in parts before, make them manager, and fire you, because "you're not persian enough"



and then you dont have to fill that position, cause they dont know about it anymore

hire an experienced sales person worth the 80k...

get rid of the third person... take that salary and give the other two a raise...

I would choose 2 since he's been there longer. Just because he doesn't have the counter experience doesn't mean he can't do it. Has he had a chance, or is it that his current position just didn't lend him the experience at the counter? You could always put him on probation, to see if he doesn't handle the counter as well as person 1. Give him 90 days or whatever.



Plus promoting from within supposedly boosts morale, and potentially can increase productivity. I definitely know that hiring from outside does the complete opposite.



Fire person 3. Hire or promote someone that deserves it.

where thongs??

the thing about hiring a parts salesmen is that they have to have some experience with the product to be able to sell it.



for instance, if i sat you down in front of a car and told you to try and sell it to some customers that walked in, you wouldnt really have too much of a problem doing so. BUT, if i sat you down at a parts counter and said "i need the bump stops for a 99 M3" it would probably take you quite awhile to figure out where to find it, then how to check availability, and if you dont have it, to be able to tell them how long it would take for you to get it.

True enough. My answer was admittedly not a good one. And while it is true that salesmen are 12/$0.10, a good salesman is worth a good bit more.

Burn the place down and open a donut shop.





But seriously, 3 can go die. Optimal choice would be 1 (for $ reasons) but you're likely to lose the more experienced number 2 if they aren't considered to the less experienced #1... Tuff call...





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