Poor performance of business development team at outsourcing department in first alliances ltd

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business --- PHAN KIM KHANH POOR PERFORMANCE OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT TEAM AT OUTSOURCING DEPARTMENT IN FIRST ALLIANCES

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-

PHAN KIM KHANH

POOR PERFORMANCE OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT TEAM AT OUTSOURCING DEPARTMENT IN FIRST ALLIANCES LTD

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Ho Chi Minh City - Year 2021

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-

PHAN KIM KHANH

POOR PERFORMANCE OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT TEAM AT OUTSOURCING DEPARTMENT IN FIRST ALLIANCES LTD

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: PROF TRAN PHUONG THAO

Ho Chi Minh City - Year 2021

Table of Contents

LIST OF TABLES 5

LIST OF FIGURES 5

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6

1 COMPANY OVERVIEW 7

1.1 Vision: 7

1.2 Mission: 7

1.3 Company structure 7

1.4 Main business: 9

1.5 Strength 11

1.6 Weakness 11

1.7 Target customers 11

1.8 Main competitors 12

2 PROBLEM CONTEXT 12

2.1 Symptom 12

2.2 Potential problems 16

2.2.1 Potential problem 1: Client’s business planning 17

2.2.2 Potential problem 2: Poor performance of Business Development team 17

2.2.3 Potential problem 3: Ineffective cooperation between Business Development team and Marketing team 18

2.2.4 Potential problem 4: Undiversified service offers 18

2.3 Validate potential problems 19

2.3.1 Client’s business dealing planning 19

2.3.2 Poor performance of Business Development team 20

2.3.3 Ineffective cooperation between Business Development team and Marketing team 21

2.3.4 Undiversified service offers 22

2.4 Main Problem 22

3 CAUSE 24

3.1 Potential causes 24

3.1.1 Poor annual sales strategies 24

3.1.2 Weak sales force 25

3.1.3 Unsuitable training schedule 26

3.2 Real causes validation 27

3.2.1 Poor sales planning 27

3.2.2 Weak sales force 28

3.2.3 Unsuitable training schedule 29

3.3 Main cause identification 29

4 SOLUTION SUGGESTION 31

4.1 Alternative solutions: 31

4.1.1 Increasing the workforce capacity 31

4.1.2 Enhancing internal training 38

4.2 Solution selection 39

5 ACTION PLAN 40

CONCLUSION 49

6 SUPPORTING DOCUMENT 50

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2 First Alliances Revenue from 2018 to 2020 15 Table 3 The status actual allocation of human capital of the

Outsourcing Department

30

Table 6 Proposed Business Development Manager recruitment

Figure 2 Business Development Team’s standard process for

Figure 8 Proposed Business Development Manager recruitment

planning timeline

48

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Nowadays, in Vietnam, there are many companies operating in the field of Human Resources services Established in 1998, First Alliances is one of the largest Human Resource consultancies in Vietnam specializing in Executive Search & Selection, Human Resource Outsourcing, which includes payroll, staffing, and Recruitment Process Outsourcing With the increasingly fierce competition, in order to keep a firm's competitive advantage, the company needs to not only better serve the needs of customers, but also to build up its sales activities However, First Alliances Ltd has not yet built up a viable effective long-term sales strategy Conversely, the sales performance has reduced in the past year, which leads to a drop in revenue for the corporation According to the company's data, the number of clients who successfully signed service contracts after bidding with First Alliances decreased, leading to a decrease in the company's revenue The sales of Outsourcing Department's services are carried out by the Business Development team The purpose of this study is to

investigate why the sales of this team decreased recently Therefore, the topic Poor

Performance Of Business Development Team At Outsourcing Department In First Alliances Ltd is raised to evaluate the performance of the sales team, offer solutions to

contribute to maintaining sales activities, increase competitiveness and promote the development of the company

Based on the analysis as well as the company view, it is recommended that the firm should target its human capacity On this basis, an increasing in headcount of the team is proposed, as this aligns with the company’s key needs Furthermore, an enhancement in internal training is proposed to improve the necessary knowledge and skills in sales activities By adopting these recommendations, the key issue of Business Development team is expected to be resolved

Last but not least, a completed implementation plan for the most alternative solution is proposed, which is hiring a Business Development Manager As such, the performance of the team is expected to be improve, and of a similar time, driving the success of First Alliances in the near future

1 COMPANY OVERVIEW

Established in 1998, First Alliances is one of the largest Human Resource consultancies in Vietnam specializing in Executive Search & Selection, Human Resource Outsourcing, which includes payroll, staffing, and Recruitment Process Outsourcing

In 2016, First Alliances became a member of PERSOLKELLY – a joint venture between PERSOL Holdings (previously Temp Holdings) and Kelly Services, to provide end- to-end workforce recruitment services It has nearly 1,800 employees in 42 offices spanning across 13 markets in Asia Pacific

Combining the strengths of both PERSOL Holdings - Japan’s second largest recruitment firm, and Kelly Services - a global leader in workforce solutions with a strong track record in Asia Pacific, First Alliances bring the best of both cultures and the full spectrum of our talent recruitment services, providing clients with seamless, cross-border Human Resource solutions

- Recognizing the growing need for workforce solutions in the emerging APAC market

- Become the number 1 Human Resource Service Provider in the region

- Revolutionize Human Resource infrastructure and impact social workforce practices

- To be the industry leader

- To provide customers with "world best practice" standards

- To be recognized as a company with the highest standards of business ethics and professionalism

- To attract and retain the best available talents

- To establish a happy, professional, & performance-driven workplace

Figure 1: Company structure

Source: First Alliances Internal Data 2020 Director: is the person who is in charge of all aspects of the company operations, directs and makes decisions and carries out plans, determines and coordinates finances, assigns duties and administrative responsibilities, establishes the policies of the company, exercises discipline, and appoints or dismisses officers, and rewards employees

Associate Director: is the person who mainly directly support Director in managing the business of the company in HCMC

The firm has its head-office in Ho Chi Minh City and one branch is in Hanoi We will concentrate on resolving the issue at the headquarters in this article In Ho Chi Minh City, the organization employs over 120 consultants who specialize in three areas: search-recruitment services; human resource outsourcing services; and compensation services For the Executive Search & Selection service, the organization is presently divided into 11 distinct industry segments, including information technology, healthcare, finance, and industrial, etc with a total of approximately 90 employees Head of Recruitment and Head of Department; the team leader is the leader of each recruiting team On Outsourcing service, each department employs approximately 30 people and is led by a department manager, supervisor, human resources consultant, and

human resources workers Additionally, the administrative department consists of administrative personnel, data entry personnel, and financial accounting personnel

At First Alliances, in Headhunting Department, each head-hunter is a salesman who specifically links applicants with customers However, there is a reversal for the Outsourcing Department that this Department has no or less opportunities to approach clients Therefore, the firm set up a “Sales team” called Business Development Team, which will sell Outsourcing products/services to clients

- Accounting - Human Resources & Legal

- Banking & Financial Services - Manufacturing & Industrial

- Consumer Goods - Real Estate

- Construction - Supply Chain

- Healthcare - Japanese Speaking Jobs

- Hospitality - Korean Speaking Jobs

- Information Technology &

First Alliances is one of the leading employee leasing services in Vietnam, offering a full service, cost-effective, and efficient Human Resource Management services to organizations that may not have the necessary infrastructure or inclination to perform these labor-intensive tasks

The company provides reliable temporary staffing solutions

that offer their clients the ability to build their staff strength without absorbing them full time, assist overloaded employees during critical times, and keep projects moving They act as a 3rd party employer to assist companies who wanted to hire temporaries, part-time or full- time staffs or on a project basis They undertake in handling labour contracts and payroll processing for our clients for them to meet employment needs at peak and retain good employees during their absence or leave When the client hires them as a temporary staffing agency, they would work just like a company's own Human Resource Department, minus the hassles and tediousness that the client otherwise have to deal with

Payroll:

Payroll Services is a global trend is becoming so popular, with many reasons but usually that benefit of Payroll Services to help their client keep confidential in payroll and saves cost and time, no need to invest in payroll software, ensuring the full, smooth, and accurate, on time payroll

Payroll is not just about calculating simple payment There is annoying paperwork and undesirable cost derived from it First Alliances’ payroll administration service helps the clients to relieve the unbearable administration burden Enhanced by new model Human Resource solution Software with employee self-service function, the company guarantee to provide the most privileged practice which combines expertise, technology and outstanding service performance First Alliances helps to manage the monthly payroll calculations and other payroll administration tasks including leave recording and reporting Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO):

RPO is the act of delegating the responsibility to execute core

and non-core activities This refers to back and front office services such as: Finance, Human Resource, Customer Relationship Management and others First Alliances provide solutions for their clients to outsource a whole or part of their entire business process, enabling them to better focus on their business operations goals

Table 1: Main business of First Alliances

With a reputation as PersolKelly's representative company in Vietnam, First Alliances has received high industry recognition In particular, First Alliances is recognized as one of the leading companies in headhunting and payroll services In addition, based on the recruitment meeting with Ms Tu Bui, it is clear that the clients

of the paid service are quite satisfied and tend to refer to other units

In particular, First Alliances also receives strong support from the parent company not only with investment capital but also a large source of customers It is of course that regional firms will receive from the parent company a sizable number of corporate customers that attempt to access the Vietnamese market

One of the weaknesses that have existed for a long time, especially in Outsourcing Dept at First Alliances is the low ability to proactively find new clients This also means that First Alliances currently depends on its main client sources from the Parent company In addition, the marketing activities is focusing only on branding

in order to reach clients for Headhunt services which limited opportunities for Outsourcing Department to approach its customers In particular, First Alliances has not built a separate marketing team or department in HCM office, so most of these activities are unprofessional, lack of orientation and lack of strategy All of these are weaknesses that lead to limitation in the number of new customers in First Alliances

Identifying customer as a target customer is important to determine the demand for, and to appropriately allocate resources for services First Alliances are currently providing services to a variety of companies in need In particular, they focus on the following 2 main groups:

- Foreign direct investment (FDI) companies

- Foreign companies do not have yet an entity in Vietnam

Competitors are defined as firms offering products or services that are close substitutes, in the sense that they serve the same customer need The purpose of a competitor orientation is to provide a solid basis of intelligence pertaining to present and

potential competitors for executive actions [1] First Alliances' direct rival is Talentnet

Originating from the Human Resources Services unit of PricewaterhouseCoopers Vietnam, Talentnet is now also acknowledged as the one of leading Human Resource consulting firms in the country, with nearly 20 years of experience in the local labour market This company provides similar services with First Alliances at almost equal costs

In addition, First Alliances also have some indirect competitors such as Human Resource to Business, Adecco, Manpower, etc They offer some of the services that First Alliances currently have for a slightly lower fee

In this step, Business Development team will qualify a quality of walk-in clients to filter whether they are potential (based on payment capacity, the level of corporate risks, etc.) Walk-in client is defined as a company that has a demand for Outsourcing services and has directly approached or been contacted by First Alliances to exchange some preliminary information about their needs They have not yet been an official client of the company

Step 2: Proposal

After step 1, Business Development team will prepare and send a draft quotation which includes a standard fee for the based-on clients’ requests

Step 3: Being shortlisted

In this step, walk-in client will qualify and shortlist which HR company is qualified with their demands From that, a bidding meeting will be arranged

Step 4: Negotiating

After having the successful bidding and First Alliances is decided to be their business partner, Business Development team will review the final contract and negotiate for balancing risks of both sides In this step, final Initial set-up fee is defined and agreed

Step 5: Contracting

Service contract is prepared with 2 copies, 1 for the client and 1 kept in First Alliances After signing the contract, the walk-in client will be officially be a client of the company

In this step, the client is required to settle the payment for set-up fee, which is determined

as a revenue which is gained by Business Development team for the successfully signed client

Step 6: Closing

Based on the agreed service from Service contract, Business Development team will assign and transfer successfully signed client to Payroll consultant for their next step and track all bidding process into the internal system

In a standard process, after completing step 5 – Contract which means the client

accepted to use the Outsourcing’s services, there is an “Initial set-up fee” that the client

is required to pay This amount is mentioned in the quotation (Step 2) that the client is requested to paid after signing contract with First Alliances This fee is charged as a

“commitment amount”, to ensure that walk-in client will use the services offered in the contract, and will not withdraw during the contract period, except for any violation from First Alliances or any other reasons arisen but it is required to be accepted by both sides after discussion This cost is calculated based on the annual estimated fixed cost of the offered service in the contract, which is considered the revenue of the company brought

by team Business Development team The exact percentage of fee is determined during Step 4 - Negotiating and is usually based on the size of the clients

Based on the data from Business Development team, it is easy to witness that the number of walk-in clients that the company successfully signed contract after bidding were decreased dramatically from 42 to 23 in 2020 As a result, the company's revenue

forecasted based on two main factors: the revenue from selling activities of Business Development team and the revenue from ad-hoc services offered to clients of consultants when they are occurred According to data provided by Finance team regarding revenue of Outsourcing Department in the period from 2018 - 2020, it is shown a dramatical drop from 31,674 mil VND to 26,701 mil VND Despite sales revenues from the selling activities of Business Development team still being the primary sources of total revenue, there has been a significant decrease in this statistic, around 40% drop

Actual Revenue Achieved

In which

From Ad-hoc services (offered by Payroll Consultant) 5,187 11,872 8,265

Table 2: First Alliances Revenue from 2018 to 2020

Source: First Alliances Finance data

Figure 3: Outsourcing Department’ revenue summary from 2018 to 2020

An examination of the drop in the number of walk-in clients who are successfully signed contract with First Alliances after bidding is extremely important to the company

as it is directly related to the gained revenue which supports both benefit and avoids the survival of the company If the sale decrease, there is a direct consequence of a drop in revenue which leads to the decline of profit or even loss In the next part, several theories are applied, and the involvement of interviews will support to discover the primary issue behind the declining sales

An Initial cause-and-effect map is a diagram which can be used to gain an overall image of the company's problems, that can be used to represent, analyze, evaluate and then to choose sensible actions for further steps Relying on the symptom discovered with several intake meetings provides an overview picture of the problems that the company is facing, a problem mess has been established as follows:

Figure 4: Problem mess

Human Resources service companies have been used by several organizations to briefly fix shortages, to easily deal with new and/or backlog positions while workers take short-term leave and holidays, etc Moreover, The Human Resource Service is designed to respond to the business' acute need with financial and time advantages The human resources suppliers will have procedures and manners to ensure that all workers'

amount and efficiency are properly provided according to particular enterprises or organizations, their attributes and specifications Outsourcing has become increasingly attractive for many organizations In such relationships, a company contracts with a vendor that rents its skills, knowledge, technology, service and manpower for an agreed-upon price and period to perform functions the client no longer wants to do [2]

2.2.1 Potential problem 1: Client’s business planning

As suggested by most sources, a first and relatively obvious criterion to look for when contemplating termination is symptom decrease [3] As figure 3, in 2020, First Alliances witnessed the drop in number of successfully signed contract after bidding

The globalization of COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts is set to run across all economies in the world, it has seriously affected the financial health of every company The consequences of COVID-19 placed financial situations at high risk From minute to minute, companies strive to find solutions to their financial problems Recovery from such pandemic-driven recession may be difficult and may continue for

an even longer period, particularly because there is a lack of experience among policymakers, institutions, and researchers on how to fight a pandemic-driven recession [6] From minute to minute, companies strive to find solutions to their financial problems

Each industry and market have its own characteristics, and no company has the authority to decide on another's business As a result, First Alliances has no control over whether a client continues to want to expand their business in Vietnam Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Human Resource service consumers will steadily cease usage to minimize costs From there, both parties cannot end up with the signed contract as several walk-in clients decides to save their capital for priority business activities

2.2.2 Potential problem 2: Poor performance of Business Development team

The interview reveals many challenges in attracting new clients in 2020 The first mentioned thing that the Business Development manager position is empty which led to the lack of lead personnel and strategies of whole team Furthermore, although the company has specified the ideal headcount numbers for Business Development team is

5 people, the current official headcount is only one junior staff who used to be an assistant for the former Business Development manager According to Ms Ha Anh,

“I usually face several challenge questions regarding the Vietnamese regulations, and no one has supports me on this Although there still exists the help from

Ms Tu Bui but I mostly have to do some research by myself and this takes me a lot of time”

Moreover, the serving capacity of this team is low as not only due to the shortage

of members but also the low knowledge level regarding Outsourcing market

2.2.3 Potential problem 3: Ineffective cooperation between Business Development team and Marketing team

First Alliances has been working hard for the past two years until now, not just depending on their Head Office to find its own client sources In order to find potential clients, it is necessary to advertise the Outsourcing services so that the customers can identify the provided services In this phase, a clear relation must be formed between the Business Development team and marketing activities Of all marketing weapons, advertising is renowned for its long-lasting impact on viewer’s mind, as its exposure is much broader [5] Advertising represents a most potent source of brand identity It has two major functions, namely, to present and thereby position the brand attributes against consumer expectations and to imbue the brand with values symbolically attractive to the target market [5] Brands with greater industry awareness will be more likely to be existing and prospective customers as opposed to unknown brands They will eventually

be chosen and respected Only a few selected companies will be "top-of-mind" as prospective successful options if the service provider is needed

However, First Alliances HCMC does not currently have a Marketing team All marketing activities on the website and related fields are done by Hanoi Marketing team The problem is that the Hanoi Marketing team does not cooperate closely with the Business Development team and therefore does not understand the nature of work of each other Since then the Outsourcing team has not had a proper marketing plan

2.2.4 Potential problem 4: Undiversified service offers

Currently, Outsourcing Department is providing two main services which are Payroll Services and Temporary/Contract Staffing Regarding Payroll service, there is irritating reporting and unnecessary expenses from this process The payroll services are

to alleviate the intolerable pressure of administration Improved with the latest Human Resource solution platform, First Alliances ensures the most advantaged activity, integrating experience, technologies and excellent quality efficiency, with employee self-service applications It assists the monitoring of monthly wage calculations and other salary management activities, including the documentation of leave and reporting About the Temporary/Contract Staffing, First Alliances is a leading leasing firm in Vietnam, delivering complete, cost-effective and reliable Human Resource services for businesses that do not have the infrastructure or inclination to carry out these work-intensive activities The company offers reliable temporary personnel solutions, which enable workers to gain power without fully absorbing them, help overcharged employees in difficult moments, and keep projects on track First Alliances operate as

an employer with third parties for helping businesses who wish to hire contractual, time or full-time jobs or on a project basis The company manages terms and wages to satisfy the employee requirements on a high level and retains excellent staff during the absence or leave of its customers

part-However, the company currently lacks several ad-hoc services, which is the main reason for the failure of biddings

2.3 Validate potential problems

2.3.1 Client’s business dealing planning

As the world are in the middle of a pandemic outbreak, it is very difficult to estimate its long-term effects Although society has been hit by several pandemics in the past, it is difficult to estimate the long-term economic, behavioral, or societal consequences as these aspects have not been studied to a great extent in the past The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has forced many businesses to close, leading to an unprecedented disruption of commerce in most industry sectors [7] According to the Bidding result record from Business Development team data, 23% of unsuccessfully signed contracts is due to the client’s financial decision which is in response to the

COVID-19 pandemic that has negatively affected their business After having a short talk with Ms Van Le – HRBP of company A about the reason why at the end the company A did not choose First Alliances for their HR service needs:

“…the Covid-19 hit us so bad Our business in UK did not run well and we had

to withdraw financial capacity from other activities for our main business in UK Therefore, we had to stop the HR service demands for Vietnam office … Our priority now is to invest our capital for critical financial activities…”

It is clear to see that the biggest explanation in previous years for the decline in number of successful signed contract after bidding was that clients stop running the business in Vietnam due to their business nature and especially by Covid-19 According

to a recent survey, 41.3% of businesses reported that they were temporarily closed because of COVID-19 [4] To save cost, they switch to internal capital or select lower price enterprises if necessary Should they lose profits to cut costs, they transfer their internal resources, or else choose a lower-priced rival if necessary It is understandable that some walk-in clients cannot sign contract with First Alliances for HR services after bidding From that, there is no Initial set-up fee generated The dilemma is clearly taken

as a consequence of a downturn in revenue of previous years

2.3.2 Poor performance of Business Development team

Better market and target customers understand their needs and take action to limit the gap between what a brand promises consumer and what the brand continuously receives [9] Under the standard business plan, Outsourcing Department should concentrate on FDI clients, or foreign firms with no entities in Vietnam However, the customer's existing source remains high, Business Development does not screen but welcomes all customer types Since the Business Development team capacity is not strong enough to serve all clients in one time, it will put the pressure on Business Development and occur several risks of being concentrated on improper customers and leaving potential customers

There is much concern about the success of organizations in the public and private sectors around the world about their performance measuring methods They're

having a hard time coming up with cost-effective, meaningful measures that drive performance improvement without having unintended negative consequences [14]

It is clear to see that the serving capability is limited, given the ideal number of Business Development headcount, it is evident that the actual number of staff is smaller than it would be needed

2.3.3 Ineffective cooperation between Business Development team and Marketing team

Except for the client source from the Head Office - PersolKelly, following the

vision of Become the number 1 Human Resource Service Provider in the region, in

recent years, the company is trying to actively approach and search for new customers

in Vietnam However, this is not done effectively as the company does not have the right approach method Marketing is one of the effective ways to let the market know what products and services First Alliances are offering As new and improved means of promotion make it possible for authors to build brand awareness, contributors can benefit For starters, anyone like that, a single customers' feedback may have several different results because their response rate is likely to be very low but is an individualized look into the minds of many consumers, which affects others as well Confirmed by Ms Tu Bui that:

“The company is not promoting much of the Outsourcing service There are still ads on the company's website and currently by the Marketing team in Hanoi in charge However, they do not often work with our team often, so they still do not fully understand their services to have reasonable promotion plans.”

Marketers therefore necessitate an enhanced brand image defined by social media; it is critical to know who the target audience is before building a social media campaign [9] Currently, marketing activities are handled by Hanoi team Online meetings, conference calls are held sporadically every month between HCMC Outsourcing team and Hanoi Marketing team As there is no Outsourcing service offered

in Hanoi so in general, Hanoi Marketing team understands not very clear regarding the

services and activities that HCMC Outsourcing team is doing so they do not have appropriate marketing strategies, which assists in the popularization of the outsourcing service

2.3.4 Undiversified service offers

Brand equity is valuable in commodities markets in particular as the effective brand not only creates a solid identity for the products of the business, but also affects preferences that favor marking differentiation as a result of which it has a competitive advantage First Alliances realized the strong increasing in demands in Ad-hoc services from clients during the last two years According to Ms Tu Bui:

“We used to have great prospects clients with very high percentage of bidding winning However, they are large corporations, though, they request to stabilize the daily business activities, which always need the back-office team always be available First Alliances has not yet provided this ad-hoc service as we have no troops for these staffs”

Clearly identify the lack of ad-hoc services will limit the potential resources of the company However, according to the company's growth plan, First Alliances is still focusing on building existing services more firmly From June 2020, the company aimed

to revolutionize digital technology, apply home-made Human Resource software to replace all current excel manual operations Deploying new service packages takes a lot

of time to discuss, plan and analyze whether the existing system can meet the new needs when they arise This is perceived as a potential problem, but First Alliances are still decided to let it pend and will resolve in the near future

After analyzing and validating based on several interviews as well as theories reference, inefficiency in approaching to new clients due to the poor performance of Business Development team is identified as the main problem that the company is facing

Employee performance reflects the efficiency of the service sales to clients The

term "performance" comes from the words "job performance" or "actual performance," which refers to someone's work or accomplishments The quality and quantity of work accomplished by an employee in carrying out his function in accordance with the responsibilities assigned to him is defined as performance (work performance) [1] Regarding the performance evaluation for Business Development team, despite the Head-office and its subsidiaries in other countries already had the performance metric for Sales team, First Alliances has yet to implement any method Ms Tu stated that:

"Right now, there is no performance or measures for the team… However, compared with previous data in the past years, in 2020, we clearly see that we do not serve much walk-in clients"

Firstly, the human capacity cannot this team's size has shrunk from five to one employee This results in a shortage of consultants to be able to consult and serve when walk-in clients need Consequently, the company has lost some potential clients since they were satisfied with the service provided by another competitor and hence chose that company instead of First Alliances Furthermore, this team also lacks a leader, someone who can provide a clear development direction for the entire team as well as evaluate and measure the performance of each individual member of the team, allowing for the arrangement of the most appropriate training programs that are most closely aligned with the team's orientation At the moment, the members of the team work independently and naturally without any professional knowledge and background As a result, the team did not perform well in recent years and potential clients are missed or lost

Figure 5: Initial Map

3.1 Potential causes

Poor performance of sales team, in this case is Business Development team is a common problem that any firm may face with In this part, the potential causes are listed Then, by referring the theories and the data presented in First Alliances will support to conclude the main cause which directly leads to the inefficiency in sale activities of Business Development team

3.1.1 Poor annual sales strategies

Companies now recognize the importance of having a long-term, profitable relationship instead of simply focused on acquisition Understanding the performance structures within a sales department is thus critical, because if used for forecasting is a means of obtaining better-quality sales forecasts [11] Salesperson performance is determined by measuring how effective the salesperson is in doing duties such as those which require effort [16] From the interview, Ms Tu Bui said that “The company actually did not prepare any proper sales strategy and almost all sales activities of Business Development team are entirely arranged by Business Development Manager

As you can see that in 2020, we do not have Business Development Manager, so I have

to take charge and it seems our company has to start from scratch in building up process for Business Development operation”

Moreover, compared with other teams such as Consultants from Outsourcing team or Headhunter from Team Headhunt, each employee is assigned a KPI level for everyone to strive to be incentive Despite the fact that, however, there were no sales targets for Business Development team that the team is only told to serve as many as clients that they can Not only is there no longer a single target to strive for, but also there is no clear purpose for the sales team, therefore their effectiveness has diminished

3.1.2 Weak sales force

The sales force is a key source of sales, not only regarding return on sales, but also regarding future market intelligence, apparent market trends, and business forecasts [12] The potential value of using salespersons is to supply information useful to management decision making as they are familiar with their territories, their customers' needs and sources of information inside customer organizations, their competitors' marketing activities, and trends in product acceptance [11]

For the time being, Business Development consists of only of one employee, with the assistance of the Associate Director Generally, both is likely to have less experience

in Business Development activities, which sales Human Resource services, there is likely to have a bit of confusion about how to go about things The role ambiguity that's ascribed to it includes anxiety The ambiguity arises from the demand for more complexity and growth coming from without an individual's understanding Those menial tasks are better tackled if you have good guidance to begin with Wherever they are called upon to make an action or to accomplish something, individuals find themselves in an uncertain or ambiguous situation [13] It is assumed that the reason for high stress on employees is if they are made to work at the speed and pressured to finish their assignments quickly is because of their employers' or superiors' expectations For

an organization, which receives many tasks or project assignments and expects the worker to finish everything in a certain amount of time, it seemed that the level of turnover would spike [13]

Both sales force and the company's services knowledge are insufficient to meet expectations, which means that First Alliances has failed to earn the revenues they would have obtained had their business not been strong Even though the company

allows Business Development team to have 5 headcounts, but no one raise the demand

to the management level as well as take no action in recruitment activities

3.1.3 Unsuitable training schedule

First Alliances has realized the criticality of training and keeping employee’s abreactance from this by advancing their learning abilities and enhancing their know-how in relation to such as updated them regarding the laws and decrees related to human resource issues in Vietnam Moreover, the company also arranges several training sessions on soft skills such as communication, time management, etc The career feature

of Outsourcing Department is the client consultation in order to meet requirements at the twofold, with respect to legality; it also gives employees the best benefits

However, only consultants from Outsourcing department get benefit from the current training activities Payroll consultants are normally present in the workplace, which enables them to take advantage of on- and stay up to date with any training opportunities, as well as, making them an excellent fit for both online and offline However, training can be an extremely powerful and cost-effective investment by an organization, but only if it is implemented to match and complement the business’s needs and objectives [10] In comparison, Business Development staffs do meet with clients, as well as attend several bidding events in a day to bring potential customers back to First Alliances Hence, it is difficult for Business Development staffs to take training courses to improve their skills

From the review of theories and through interviews, the final cause-and-effect tree is updated as below:

Figure 6: Final cause-and-effect map

3.2.1 Poor sales planning

Not having any sales measurement implemented in the Business Development team has led to a situation where the current sales personnel just works on autopilot There is little or no initiative and imagination in the work The biggest reason for the sluggish functioning speed is that it has an impact on the customer care procedure So

as a result, the whole performance of the team is affected

The calculation to attract and retain the amount of people in the Business Development team is rendered ineffectual without a sales strategy Perhaps the most evident is the fact that there is no Business Development manager A sales manager, in this case also known as the Business Development manager has a vital impact on the organization's success and failure They are in charge of helping the company reach its sales goals and, consequently, generating income for the company Managers that show more inconsistency and support are more likely to result in increased employee satisfaction and a commitment to the organization [19].A manager's ability to motivate the sales force with encouragement, prizes, and recognition translates into a willingness

on the part of the sales representative to work harder One way to rise in the ranks is to

show an eagerness to work more, which, in turn, produces better sales representative performance [20]

3.2.2 Weak sales force

Human capital is important because it is perceived to increase productivity and thus profitability Since the sales representatives of the company do not have extensive knowledge about the market and the competition's product, it will be difficult for them

to sell successfully With this statement, it is therefore likely that the current sales force

is not aiding the company in acquiring information about the industry and about the types of items provided by other competitors Even more, customers have complained that salespeople’s efforts to help with customers' better offer choices are insufficient There are a large number of employees who are not sales or marketing experts and have less experience and finesse when it comes to selling Not only that, but the company's training programs are underdeveloped for its sales staff

Moreover, the skill gap is also lead to the weakness of the team Skill gaps occur where existing employees do not have the required qualifications, experience and/or specialized skills to meet the firm’s skill needs for an occupation Workers may not be appropriately trained or qualified to execute jobs, or they may not have upgraded their skills to match requirements [21]

Figure 7: Outsourcing Department Career Road Map

Source: First Alliances - Code Of Conduct 2020

Based on Career Road Map of First Alliances, the current existing Business Development member is keeping the position of Assistant to Business Development manager It is also mean that she only has around one-year experience From the Figure

3, the total walk-in clients in 2020 are 64 Meaning that Ms Ha Anh has to serve and response 64 clients by her own Though, there still exists the supports from Ms Tu Bui

on sales activities and Ms Ngan Nguyen on law advices, it is easy to see her overload This leads to a decrease in the quality of serving customers of Business Development team

3.2.3 Unsuitable training schedule

Understand this cause affects directly to the improvement of the weak sales force However, the company does not consider this is the main cause After all, since the company does not have the proper annual sales strategies, it also led to the unsuitable training plan to develop the Sales team Mentioning this issue with Ms Ngan Nguyen, the main person in charge of organizing training activities, she also confirmed that:

“The company also knows that the current training plan will not be suitable for Business Development team However, as you can see that the current Business Development team has only 1 member, too small compared to the other 30 consultants

so we need to give priority to our payroll consultants"

Therefore, even though this cause indirectly lead to the poor performance of Business Development team due to the weak requirement skills for sales activities, the company still decides to leave to pending for the long-term improvement

3.3 Main cause identification

After analyzing through several theories as well as the supporting information from the company through in-deep meeting, the weak sales force is considered as the main cause that leads to the poor performance of Business Development team Confirmed by Ms Tu Bui:

“Currently, the Business Development team is lacking human capital Even though I am support to in charge the team, both me and Ha Anh still have less experience

in this field as well as the upper-level Law knowledge”

It is clear to see that the workforce of this team is not fulfilling the requirements set by the organization, thus failing to satisfy the job needs and scope of jobs that the organization establishes Therefore, it leads to the poor performance of the Business Development team

The below table is shown the status of actual allocation of human capital of the Outsourcing Department, compared with the ideal plan

% Achieve The Ideal Human Capital

Outsourcing

Department

Payroll Team 1

1 Team Leader

3 Managing Consultant/Senior Consultant

3 Consultant

1 Assistant

TOTAL: 8 Headcount

1 Team Leader

3 Managing Consultant/Senior Consultant

1 Team Leader

2 Managing Consultant/Senior Consultant

1 Team Leader

3 Managing Consultant/Senior Consultant

2 Consultant

0 Assistant

TOTAL: 6 Headcount

75%