5y
I am very sorry that you have been affected by the recent restructure in our Sales organisation and I appreciate you taking the time to leave a review. I must start by politely correcting your assertion – due to the impact of Covid-19 and associated operational changes we underwent a limited redundancy process within the Sales function. As always, this included a lengthy consultation process, with all affected staff given the opportunity to discuss ways to avoid the redundancy and encouraged to apply for other roles within the organisation, as well as receiving fully paid time off for training or other interviews should they wish and extensive mental health support and guidance throughout. None of this was entered into lightly, and where redundancy was unavoidable, the company funded outplacement support and an ex-gratia payment to help them into their next chapter. It is our upmost commitment to treat affected employees with the dignity and respect they rightly deserve.
The recent day-early quarter close was designed to support accurate forecasting and customer delivery experience (rather than to reduce payments!) and certainly didn’t impact the overall commission employees receive – all closed deals are always eligible for commission.
There have been many changes within Sales to give everyone the best opportunities for success and we have done our upmost to share the benefits and been transparent about the impact of the changes on a regular basis. The wider transformation is exciting as it enables us to share expertise and provide greater opportunities for employees across the IRIS family, it increases the potential for cross selling to support our growth, and it helps us provide the best possible service to our customers. We have also increased the training and development resources on offer for all our salespeople to support them in meeting targets. Sales enablement training sessions are now also available in a variety formats, focusing on our products and solutions with the addition of a dedicated platform for sharing content, guides and demos. It is important to me that we empower our salespeople with everything they need and to ensure that, have also created a specialised team of product and presales experts to support them. Unquestionably, we must have the right tools to recognise those who deliver high and exceptional performance, and we have launched a new Sales club (Elite Club) which offers an end of year trip for our highest performing salespeople and a number of encouraging awards along the way.
Throughout these changes, as the Chief Sales Officer, I have held weekly ‘All Sales’ calls in addition to specific announcement calls to make sure that the changes were discussed and opportunities afforded to ask and receive answers to questions and concerns from everyone. I have further encouraged employees to ask me any questions directly, I have listened to feedback and provided more information whenever necessary and so I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t feel confident to come forward at the time. I would encourage you to reach out to me, or another of the Sales leadership team with your feedback so that we can help in any way we can.
Kind regards, Chris Smith – Chief Sales Officer
