SIKKIM MANIPAL

UNIVERSITY

Master of Business Administration

– MBA Semester 3

Course: Marketing Management

Subject: Sale, Distribution and Supply

Chain Management

Subject code:
MK0001

Name: Bhola Ram

Saini

Roll No.:
520961417

LC Code:1822
 SET-1

Q.1 a. What is demand forecasting? Explain the basic approach to forecasting

demand.
b. Define supply chain management

A demand forecast is the prediction of what will happen to your company's existing product sales. It
would be best to determine the demand forecast using a multi-functional approach. The inputs from
sales and marketing, finance, and production should be considered. The final demand forecast is the
consensus of all participating managers. You may also want to put up a Sales and Operations
Planning group composed of representatives from the different departments that will be tasked to
prepare the demand forecast.

Determination of the demand forecasts is done through the following steps:

• Determine the use of the forecast

• Select the items to be forecast

• Determine the time horizon of the forecast

• Select the forecasting model(s)

• Gather the data

• Make the forecast

• Validate and implement results

The time horizon of the forecast is classified as follows:

Description Forecast Horizon

Short-range Medium-range Long-range

Duration Usually less than 3 3 months to 3 More than 3 years
months, maximum years
of 1 year

Applicability Job scheduling, Sales and New product

worker production development,
assignments planning, facilities planning
budgeting

How is demand forecast determined?

There are two approaches to determine demand forecast – (1) the qualitative approach, (2) the
quantitative approach. The comparison of these two approaches is shown below:

Description Qualitative Approach Quantitative Approach

Applicability Used when situation is vague Used when situation is stable

& little data exist (e.g., new & historical data exist
products and technologies)
(e.g. existing products, current
technology)

Considerations Involves intuition and Involves mathematical

experience techniques

Techniques Jury of executive opinion Time series models

Sales force composite Causal models

Delphi method

Consumer market survey

Qualitative Forecasting Methods

Your company may wish to try any of the qualitative forecasting methods below if you do not have
historical data on your products' sales.

Qualitative Method Description

Jury of executive The opinions of a small group of high-level managers

opinion are pooled and together they estimate demand. The
group uses their managerial experience, and in some
cases, combines the results of statistical models.
Sales force Each salesperson (for example for a territorial
composite coverage) is asked to project their sales. Since the
salesperson is the one closest to the marketplace, he
has the capacity to know what the customer wants.
These projections are then combined at the
municipal, provincial and regional levels.

Delphi method A panel of experts is identified where an expert could

be a decision maker, an ordinary employee, or an
industry expert. Each of them will be asked
individually for their estimate of the demand. An
iterative process is conducted until the experts have
reached a consensus.

Consumer market The customers are asked about their purchasing

survey plans and their projected buying behavior. A large
number of respondents is needed here to be able to
generalize certain results.

supply chain management

One only need consider the recent scandals surrounding tainted pet food and toys to see how
disastrous

“supply chain” mistakes can be not only for the purchaser, but also sometimes for an entire country.1
Lee

and Billington define a supply chain as “a network of facilities that procure raw materials, transform
them

into intermediate goods and then final products, and deliver the products to customers through a

distribution system.”2 The management of such a network requires mastery of optimization logistics,
or

the specific quantity of a good needed at a particular time and price. Clearly, relationships with
suppliers

that make up these networks are a central component of successful supply chain management.

Increasingly, business school faculty are beginning to recognize the environmental and social issues
that

add complexity to the supplier-buyer relationship, and hence expand its textbook definition. Buyers,

facing public relations pressures in their home countries and looking for opportunities for a
competitive
advantage, are concerning themselves with supplier employee working conditions and human rights
as well as environmental issues, like limiting emissions and packaging waste. But some argue that
price and timing pressures from buyers may have contributed to negative conditions at supplier
facilities in the first place. Given these dynamics, future business leaders entering the supply chain
arena require thorough understanding of methods and metrics of how to accurately assess these
relationships.

How, then, are business schools addressing these complexities in their curriculum? When supply
chain discussions are integrated into the core curriculum, they typically are included in operations
management classes. Many MBA programs, however, are now choosing to offer courses dedicated to
supply chain

management that allow for in-depth conversations of the current social and environmental presence
within the field. A good number of these classes are highlighted below.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

■ Comprehensive supply chain management in today’s market requires a command of

social and environmental topics. Business schools integrating the concept into the core

curriculum typically do so in operations management classes, but some programs have

chosen to give the topic a course of its own—often as an elective.

■ The number of Beyond Grey Pinstripes-participating schools choosing to offer courses

dedicated to supply chain management issues more than doubled from the 2005-2006 to

the 2008-2009 survey.

■ The social, ethical, and environmental topics raised in supply chain management MBA

curricula are truly diverse—from an analysis of societal health and environmental impact

of trucking versus railroad transportation to an assessment of suppliers’ packaging design

and disposal.

Q.2 a. Find out the recent trends in channel management and how they have helped in
creating value in channel performance? (5 marks)

Wholesaling

Wholesaling refers to the activities involved in selling to organizational buyers who intend to
either resell or use for their own purposes. A wholesaler is an organization providing the
necessary means to: 1) allow suppliers (e.g., manufacturers) to reach organizational buyers
(e.g., retailers, business buyers), and 2) allow certain business buyers to purchase products
which they may not be able to purchase otherwise. According to the 2002 Census of
Wholesale trade, there are over 430,000 wholesale operations in the United States.
While many large retailers and even manufacturers have centralized facilities and carry out
the same tasks as wholesalers, we do not classify these as wholesalers since these
relationships only involve one other party, the buyer. Thus, a distinguishing characteristic of
wholesalers is that they offer distribution activities both for a supplying party and for a
purchasing party. For our discussion of wholesalers we will primarily focus on wholesalers
who sell to other resellers such as retailers.

Retailing

The term ‘retailing’ refers to ‘the activities involved in selling commodities directly to
consumers’.

Retailing consists of the sale of goods or merchandise for personal or household consumption
either from a fixed location such as a department store or kiosk, or from a fixed location and
related subordinated services.

Defined here as sales of goods between two distant parties where the deliverer has no direct
interest in the transaction, the earliest instances of distance retailing probably coincided with
the first regular delivery or postal services. Such services would have started in earnest once
man had learned how to ride a camel, horse, etc.

When individuals or groups left their community and settled elsewhere, some missed
foodstuffs and other goods that were only available in their birthplace. They arranged for
some of these goods to be sent to them. Others in their newly adopted community enjoyed
these goods and demand grew. Similarly, new settlers discovered goods in their new
surroundings that they dispatched back to their birthplace, and once again, demand grew.
This soon turned into a regular trade. Although such trading routes expanded mainly through
the growth of traveling salesmen and then wholesalers, there were still instances where
individuals purchased goods at long distance for their own use.

A second reason that distance selling increased was through war. As armies marched through
territories, they laid down communication lines stretching from their home base to the front.
As well as garnering goods from whichever locality they found themselves in, they would
have also taken advantage of the lines of communication to order goods from home.

In commerce, a retailer buys goods or products in large quantities from manufacturers or

importers, either directly or through wholesalers, and then sells individual items or small
quantities to the general public or end-user customers, usually in a shop, also called a store.
Retailers are at the end of the supply chain. Marketers see retailing as part of their overall
distribution strategy.

Shops may be on residential streets, or in shopping streets with few or no houses, or in

shopping centers. Shopping streets may or may not be for pedestrians only. Sometimes a
shopping street has a partial or full rooftop to protect customers from precipitation. Online
retailing, also known as e-commerce, is the latest form of non-shop retailing.

Shopping generally refers to the act of buying products. Sometimes, this is done to obtain
necessities such as food and clothing; sometimes, it is done as a recreational activity.
Recreational shopping often involves window shopping (just looking, not buying) and
browsing and does not always result in a purchase.

b. What do you mean by supply chain integration? What are its benefits? (5 marks)

Stevens (1989) proposed a model in which the balance within the supply chain involved
functional trade-off.

The development of an integrated supply chain requires the management of material and
information flows to be viewed from three perspectives: strategic, tactical and operational. At
each level, the use of facilities, people, finance and systems must be co-ordinated and
harmonized as a whole.

The focus at the strategic level should develop:

• Objectives and policies for the supply chain in order to achieve competitive superiority.

• The physical components of the supply chain.

• A statement of customer service intent by the product market, customer group, or

perhaps by a large customer.

• An organisation structure capable of bridging the functional barriers and thereby,

ensuring an integrated value delivery based supply chain.

The tactical perspective focusses on the means by which the strategic objectives may be
realized. Objectives for each element of the supply chain provide the directions for achieving
balance within the supply chain. The tactical perspective involves identifying the necessary
resources with which the balance may be achieved.

The third phase is supply chain development in which the supply chain strategy and plans for
implementation are evolved. The strategy should be examined to ensure that the relevant
customers (and customer service expectations) have been identified and that this is consistent
with management’s perception of market development trends. Implementation plans require a
time-phased program for resource allocation throughout the supply chain.

Stevens makes an interesting comment concerning supply chain development. While the
impetus for the development of the strategy may be a top-down approach, its success is likely
to be achieved by a bottom-up approach.

• Stage 1 is a situation in which the company approaches supply chain tasks in discrete
decisions with responsibility lodged in each of the task centers. The result is usually a
lack of control across the supply chain function because of organizational boundaries
 preventing the co-ordinated decisions from achieving an overall customer service
objective.

• Stage 2 of development is typified by the functional integration of the inward flow of

goods through materials management, manufacturing management and distribution. The
emphasis is usually on cost reduction rather than on performance achievement and is
focused on the discrete business functions with some attempts at achieving internal trade-
off between, for example, purchasing discounts and inventory investment, and perhaps,
plant operating costs and batch volumes. Customer service is reactive.

• Stage 3 accepts the necessity of managing the flow of goods to the customer by
integrating the internal activities. At this stage, integrated planning is achieved by using
systems such as distribution requirements planning (DRP), JIT, manufacturing
techniques, etc. This level of internal integration is essential before the company can
consider integrating customer demand in an overall demand management activity. IT
becomes an effective enabler in this process.

• Stage 4 extends the integration to external activities. In doing so, the company
becomes customer oriented by linking the customer’s procurement activities with its own
procurement and marketing activities.

The value chain/supply chain management approach enables a company to respond to market
changes. However, for the full potential to be realised, the connection and inter-relationships
between the component parts of the supply chain must first be identified, and an integrated
system designed to ensure that the system which evolves can be managed such that customer
product and service expectations may be met cost-effectively.

Q.3 Show how new information technologies have brought about changes in the supply
and distribution activities of a particular Organization. Do you think it has helped in
reaching out to the consumers more effectively? Give reasons for your answers. (10
marks)

The internet has vastly expanded the value of the goods and services business trade
electronically. The internet era has revolutionized commerce, making electronic commerce a
reality. The major force of electronic commerce is driven by the fact that it results in
lowering purchasing cost, a reduction of inventories, lowering cycle time, more efficient and
effective customer services, lowering sales and marketing cost and new sales opportunities.
E-commerce has three dimensions.

1. Reach is about access and connection. It means simply how many customers a
business can access or how many products it can offer. Reach is the most visible
difference between electronic and physical businesses, and it has been the primary
competitive differentiation for business thus far.

2. Richness is the depth and detail of the information that the business gives the
customer or collects about the customer. Richness holds enormous potential for building
close relationships with customers in a future dominated by e-commerce.

Affiliation is about whose interests in business it represents. Until now, affiliation hasn’t been
a serious competitive factor in physical commerce because, in general, no company ever
devised a way to make money by taking the customer’s side. E-retailers with navigational
functions are shifting their affiliation towards customers. Traditionally, manufacturers and
retailers must find ways to fight, co-opt, or imitate their e-commerce competitors’ affiliation
strategies.

Improved productivity, faster financial flows, improved quality, improved customer service,
reduced costs, shortened supply chain, faster product development, reaching new markets,
improvement in cash flows etc. are the advantages of IT.

IT has helped in making the supply chain faster, flexible and responsive. An organisation
needs to invest in IT carefully to make its supply chain more responsive. Various flows in
supply chain such as material, information and money can be effectively managed through
IT. Specifically:

• Strategic decisions on the supply chain design can increase customer satisfaction and
save money at the same time – the classic win-win situation through IT.

• By sharing information, supply chain partners are able to respond more rapidly to
known demand and to do so with less inventory in the system as a whole and, hence, at
lower cost.

• Reduction of operating costs by proper coordination of the planning of various stages

of the supply chain is enabled through IT.

• By minimising the need for excess parts and simplifying the overall design, it will be
easier for companies to customise or vary the product according to each customer’s needs
and requirements.

• Rapid introduction of a new or modified product is possible through IT.

• Greater product customisation, or manufacturing to order, would come at relatively

low unit cost through IT.

• There is sharing of planning and scheduling information due to collaboration and

integration among departments within the company and outside departments. This is
something that is highly correlated to the supply chain performance.

• Effective inventory management, having just the right amount of the right
merchandise on the shelves for just the right amount of time minimises overstocking and
markdowns, and so boosts profitability. This is possible through IT.

• Detailed analysis of item performance, what-if scenario evaluation, and exception

reporting and handling is facilitated through IT.

IT and supply chain

The application of IT to the logistics function has had a major impact on added value in the
value chain. One particular application, Electronic Data
Interchange (EDI), has added to the value input with:

• More accurate and rapid information flows,

• Improved logistics system productivity,

• Closed trading relationships,

• Improved cash flows, and

• A reduction in forecasting errors.

Equally, it may be said that EDI would not function adequately, if at all, without the benefits
of electronic point of sale (EPOS) data capture. EPOS enables real and live transactional data
to be used (through the facility of EDI) to manage production operations and inventory
allocations and levels. Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL) is an excellent example of a value
delivery system. By using an integrated combination of information systems and EDI
systems, it has managed to delay the finishing of the product until the very last moment. With
the advent of the internet, the supply chain is becoming more and more customer centric.

The value chain concept is an ideal vehicle from which this notion can be developed. The
benefits of using this concept are:

• It identifies the roles and tasks to be undertaken in the total process of customer
satisfaction.

• Having identified roles and tasks, they may be evaluated in cost terms, and decisions
made concerning trade-off potential and the extent to which intermediaries may be
involved.

• The analysis may be used to determine more accurate costs for providing the service
requirements of customers using an activity-based costing methodology.

The key to the development of the supply chain concept has been the rapid progress made by
information and the fact that the cost of making information available to more decision
makers has steadily decreased, while concurrently, the physical costs of business such as
facilities and inventory have steadily risen.

Another major influence accompanied these phenomena—the developments made in just-in-

time (JIT). The change in manufacturing philosophy brought about by the Japanese Kanban
(just-in-time) concept, which was specifically devised to eliminate waste (any activity or
process which does not directly add value to the product service), has clear implications for
logistics. For example, holding excess inventory was seen as wasteful and, therefore,
companies should minimize, even eliminate inventories. JIT introduced the commitment to
short (but consistent) lead times, minimum levels of inventory but, at the same time, optimal
levels of customer service.

The rationale behind the concept is that stocks of components (or finished items for resale)
should be planned to arrive only at the time they are actually needed. In effect, it saves
money on downstream inventories by placing greater reliance on improved responsiveness
and flexibility. Hence, quick response (QR) systems (the distribution equivalent) are
attractive. The implications for distribution management are not difficult to identify. Clearly,
there is an information requirement here, and the development of EPOS and EDI has made
the concept of minimal stocks/optimal service much more feasible.

SET-2

Q.1 a. What is personal selling? Discuss its benefits and

limitation.

b. Explain the term “sales quotas” with example.

Ans. Personal Selling:

Personal selling is a promotional method in which one party (e.g., salesperson) uses skills and
techniques for building personal relationships with another party (e.g., those involved in a
purchase decision) that results in both parties obtaining value. In most cases the “value” for
the salesperson is realized through the financial rewards of the sale while the customer’s
“value” is realized from the benefits obtained by consuming the product. However, getting a
customer to purchase a product is not always the objective of personal selling. For instance,
selling may be used for the purpose of simply delivering information.

Because selling involves personal contact, this promotional method often occurs through
face-to-face meetings or via a telephone conversation, though newer technologies allow
contact to take place over the Internet including using video conferencing or text messaging
(e.g., online chat).

Personal selling is one part of a company’s promotion mix, along with advertising, sales
promotion, and public relations. Advertising is any form of paid sales presentation that is not
done face-to-face. Television and radio commercials, newspaper and magazine
advertisements, and direct mail inserts are well-known forms of advertising. Sales promotion
is the use of incentives – such as coupons, discounts, rebates, contests, or special displays – to
entice a customer to buy a product or service. Public relations are the act of building up a
company’s image in the eyes of the community in the hopes of translating the feelings of
goodwill into sales. An example of public relations might include a company sponsoring a
charity event.
Benefits of Personal Selling

One key advantage personal selling has over other promotional methods is that it is a two-
way form of communication. In selling situations the message sender (e.g., salesperson) can
adjust the message as they gain feedback from message receivers (e.g., customer). So if a
customer does not understand the initial message (e.g., doesn’t fully understand how the
product works) the salesperson can make adjustments to address questions or concerns. Many
non-personal forms of promotion, such as a TV or radio advertisement, are inflexible, at least
in the short-term, and cannot be easily adjusted to address audience questions.

The interactive nature of personal selling also makes it the most effective promotional
method for building relationships with customers, particularly in the business-to-business
market. This is especially important for companies that either sell expensive products or sell
lower cost but high volume products (i.e., buyer must purchase in large quantities) that rely
heavily on customers making repeat purchases. Because such purchases may take a
considerable amount of time to complete and may involve the input of many people at the
purchasing company (i.e., buying center), sales success often requires the marketer develop
and maintain strong relationships with members of the purchasing company.

Finally, personal selling is the most practical promotional option for reaching customers who
are not easily reached through other methods. The best example is in selling to the business
market where, compared to the consumer market, advertising, public relations and sales
promotions are often not well received.

Ans. (b) Sales quotas

Sales quotas are a way of life for the sales force. All activities of the sales force revolve
around the fulfillment of sales quotas. Sales quotas are targets assigned to sales personnel.
They signify the performance expected from them by the organisation. Sales quotas help in
directing, evaluating and controlling the sales force. They form an indispensable tool for sales
managers to carry out sales management activities. Sales quotas are prepared on the basis of
sales forecasts and budgets. Sales quotas serve various purposes in organizations.

They provide targets for sales personnel to achieve & also act as standards to measure sales
force performance and help motivate the sales force. Compensation plans are invariably
linked to quotas. The commission and bonuses given to sales persons are based on their
meeting quotas set for them. The four categories of sales quotas widely used are:

– Sales volume quotas,

– Expense quotas,

– Activity quotas and

– Profit quotas.

A sales quota should be fair, challenging yet attainable, rewarding, easy to understand,
flexible and must satisfy management objectives.
Q.2 a. Distinguish between Data mining and Data
warehousing.

b. Briefly explain the procedure involved in selection of sales

personnel.

Ans. Data Mining

Data are any facts, numbers, or text that can be processed by a computer. Today,
organizations are accumulating vast and growing amounts of data in different formats and
different databases.

This includes:

· Operational or transactional data such as, sales, cost, inventory, payroll, and accounting

· onoperational data, such as industry sales, forecast data, and macro economic data

· meta data – data about the data itself, such as logical database design or data dictionary
definitions

Data mining (sometimes called data or knowledge discovery) is the process of analyzing data
from different perspectives and summarizing it into useful information – information that can
be used to increase revenue, cuts costs, or both.

Data mining software is one of a number of analytical tools for analyzing data. It allows users
to analyze data from many different dimensions or angles, categorize it, and summarize the
relationships identified. Technically, data mining is the process of finding correlations or
patterns among dozens of fields in large relational databases.

Companies have used powerful computers to sift through volumes of supermarket scanner
data and analyze market research reports for years. However, continuous innovations in
computer processing power, disk storage, and statistical software are dramatically increasing
the accuracy of analysis while driving down the cost.

Data mining is primarily used today by companies with a strong consumer focus – retail,
financial, communication, and marketing organizations. It enables these companies to
determine relationships among "internal" factors such as price, product positioning, or staff
skills, and "external" factors such as economic indicators, competition, and customer
demographics. And, it enables them to determine the impact on sales, customer satisfaction,
and corporate profits. Finally, it enables them to "drill down" into summary information to
view detail transactional data.

For example, American Express can suggest products to its cardholders based on analysis of
their monthly expenditures.
Wal-Mart is pioneering massive data mining to transform its supplier relationships. Wal-Mart
captures point-of-sale transactions from over 2,900 stores in 6 countries and continuously
transmits this data to its massive 7.5 terabyte Teradata data warehouse. Wal-Mart allows
more than 3,500 suppliers, to access data on their products and perform data analyses. These
suppliers use this data to identify customer buying patterns at the store display level. They
use this information to manage local store inventory and identify new merchandising
opportunities. In 1995, Wal-Mart computers processed over 1 million complex data queries.

Data Warehousing

Data warehousing is defined as a process of centralized data management and retrieval. Data
warehousing, like data mining, is a relatively new term although the concept itself has been
around for years. Data warehousing represents an ideal vision of maintaining a central
repository of all organizational data.

Data warehouse is a repository of an organization’s electronically stored data. Data

warehouses are designed to facilitate reporting and analysis.

This definition of the data warehouse focuses on data storage. However, the means to retrieve
and analyze data, to extract, transform and load data, and to manage the data dictionary are
also considered essential components of a data warehousing system. Many references to data
warehousing use this broader context. Thus, an expanded definition for data warehousing
includes business intelligence tools, tools to extract, transform, and load data into the
repository, and tools to manage and retrieve metadata.

Some of the benefits that a data warehouse provides are as follows:

· A data warehouse provides a common data model for all data of interest regardless of the
data’s source.

· Information in the data warehouse is under the control of data warehouse users so that, the
source system data is purged over time.

· The information in the warehouse can be stored safely for extended periods

Ans. (b) Procedure involved in Selection of Sales Personnel

Selection of the right sales people involves the following steps:

· Researching Candidates:

This covers the early stages of the selection process – often called pre-selection. The
recruitment campaign would have attracted a pool of applicants from which selectors can
make their choice. If a job analysis has been conducted, the criteria or competences which are
deemed necessary have been identified. These may be well defined and focused on
experience and skills, as in the ‘right person’ approach; or general and related to education,
intellect and personality for the ‘cultural fit’ and ‘flexible person’ models.
· Application letters/CVs/resumes:

These are typically used for initial or speculative applications. The first stage in the
application will require a resume or a CV.

· Application forms (blanks):

Both letters and CV/resumes present a problem for a large recruitment programme: applicants
may not provide all the relevant information and what there is will be presented in different
ways. Comparison of applicants is easier if data is presented in a standard application form
(blank).

· Interviewing:

The interview is a social ritual which is expected by all participants, including applicants. It is
such a ‘normal’ feature of filling vacancies that candidates for a job would be extremely
surprised not to be interviewed at least once. Despite the existence of alternative methods of
selection most employers regard the formal selection interview as the most important source
of evidence in making the final decision. A selection interview can be neatly defined as a
conversation with a purpose.

· Preparation for interviews:

Training for interviewers stresses the need to put the candidate at ease, have a comfortable
environment, etc. The interviewer should ensure that relevant information (e.g. application
forms) is read beforehand – it is surprising how many interviewers are found reading such
material for the first time during the interview. It is necessary to improve the interpersonal
skills of the interviewer and the interviewer’s ability to make decisions without influence
from non-job related information. Interviewers should be trained to:

- Avoid asking questions unrelated to the job

- Avoid making quick decisions about an applicant

- Avoid stereotyping applicants

- Avoid giving too much weight to a few characteristics

- Try to put the applicant at ease during the interview

- Communicate clearly with the applicant

- Maintain consistency in the questions asked

Q.3 As a Sales Manager in a retail business firm, how will you

categorize your task and manage your sales organization?
Assume that you have 4 sales team with 12 members in
each team, out of which 5 are new sales recruits.

Tasks of a Sales Manager

Sales Management involves the Planning, direction and control of personal selling including
recruiting, selection equipping, assigning, routing, supervising, paying and motivating as
these tasks apply to the personal sales force.

Following are the important tasks involved in the success of sales management in any
organisation:

1. Setting personal selling objectives.

2. Formulating sales policies.

3. Structuring the sales force.

4. Deciding the size of the sales force.

5. Designing sales territories.

6. Developing the sales territories.

7. Developing the sales forecasts and sales budgets.

8. Fixing sales targets for individual sales territories/salesman.

9. Creating the sales force

10. Managing the sales force

11. Managing the marketing channels.

12. Ensuring growth and developing new accounts.

13. Sales communication and reporting

14. Sales coordination and sales controlling including sales expense control.

15. Building the sales organisation

16. Co-ordination with marketing management in the areas like, product mix, pricing,
distribution, advertising and sales promotion.
17. Creating and maintaining the right image for the company and its products in the market.

The Functions of a Personnel Manager

The function of a personnel manager usually begins with the staffing process. Someone has
to be focused on screening and interviewing persons, with an eye to placing individuals with
the right skill sets in the right position within the company. Along with placement, the HR
manager may also oversee or at least be involved in the creation of entry level training
programs, as well as continuing education opportunities for existing employees.

Determining company policies and procedures as they relate to personnel is another

important aspect of the personnel management process. HR functions often include drafting
vacation, sick leave, and bereavement policies that apply to all employees of the company.
The personnel management team often is also responsible for managing the health care
program provided to the employees as well.

One aspect of company organisation that definitely requires the input of effective personnel
management is the drafting of a company handbook. Establishing operation policies and
procedures, requirements for employment, commendation and disciplinary procedures,
guidelines for dismissals and promotions, and even something as simple as a dress code is
also a part of this function.

Sometimes overlooked in the course of personnel management is the emotional welfare of the
employees. Fortunately, this is changing, as more personnel managers understand that a well-
adjusted employee is an asset to the company. To this end, many in charge of personnel
management will provide opportunities for employees who are in need of counseling to
receive support from the company. This support often involves scheduling time during
working hours for the counseling sessions, and perhaps picking up the cost if insurance does
not cover counseling. As with continuing educational programs, counseling is seen as another
way that the company invests in the future relationship between the employee and the
employer. A good HR manager understands this and will strive to make sure this sort of
support is available.