A Difficult Hiring Decision at Central Bank

Introduction
Central Banks Vice President Sales Martin Smith had recently been let go. In order to fill
this position Central Bank has been searching for the right candidates. To find right
replacement for the Vice President Sales position some criteria were identified and
ranked based on their importance. The criteria selection was an important part of the
recruitment process and Central Banks mission, vision and values, job description and
organizational culture established the source of the criteria. These criteria are:

Leadership

Team-Orientation

Sales Management

Recruitment and HR skills

Mentoring and Coaching Abilities

Communication Skill

Community Involvement

Front Line Experience

Business and financial planning skills

Adaptability

Corporate governance

There are three successful candidates with different set of skills, backgrounds and
experiences. Based on the criteria they were evaluated on the score card (1 to 10) to
identify the best candidate for the position. The scorecard gives weight (1 to 5) to each
criterion based on its level of importance. The score card for each candidate can be seen
in Appendices 1
Leadership: In the job posting it is clearly stated that the leadership is one of the main
selection criteria for the Vice President, Sales role in the Central Bank. One of the
required skills that are indicated in the Purpose of the Vice President Sales position is
providing the leadership skill to the design and execution of the segment wide and cross
segment activities. In the competencies part of the Job posting leadership position also
indicated as a necessary skill. In order to achieve the objectives of the retail division of
the central bank the Vice President Sales must perform highly developed leadership
skills. Also, the vice president will be responsible to identify and make necessary changes
in the organization and eventually these changes will require strong leadership skills.
Therefore on the score card this criterion has weight of 5, which is the highest weight on
the score card, to show that this skill is critical.

Team-Orientation: One of the Central Banks values is the teamwork. It is important for
Central bank to have team oriented employees who can perform collaboratively with
colleagues while respecting others opinions and listen attentively. It is also important for
Central bank to have employees with listening skills and info sharing abilities. One of the
key outcomes of the Vice President Sales position is to build a customer focused high
performing sales teams to achieve maximum profitability and customer loyalty. Team
player skill is also one of the main required attributes for this position. The team work
skill is also an important part of the Vice President Sales position because the one of the
reason for the failure of the previous VP, Martin Smith, was the lack of teamwork.
Therefore on the score card the team work skill has weight of 5 which indicates the
critical importance of this skill.
Sales Management: The position it self is the Vice President Sales and the main
objective of this position is creating a team that can achieve the intended sales objectives.
The main purpose of the Vice President Sales position is leading an effective and
profitable sales execution. In addition to that, the accountabilities of the position indicate
that the one of the key activities is developing regional sales plan that aligns with the
national strategies of Central Bank. It is also expected that the new Vice President should
be able to drive the sales, business development and sales management process while
building integrated sales plans to maximize customer coverage in the region. The new VP
Sales has to have proven ability for developing and managing sales force. Sales
prospecting and sales tracking abilities are also among the required competencies and
skills for the Vice President, Sales position. In order to achieve the central banks
objectives and to maximize shareholder value, the VP Sales should provide efficient sales

management skill. On the scorecard sales management skill has weight of 5 to highlight
its critical importance in this position.
Recruitment and HR skills: One of the main competencies indicated in the job posting
is to have an experience in recruiting and staffing of sales associates. There were some
reasons for failure of the previous vice president, Martin Smith. His former supervisor
indicated that the lack of successful recruitment and staffing skill was among the reasons
that were needed for the success of former VP. To former supervisor, hiring right people
with right values would be the one of the sources of the success of this position. In
addition, since the position is related to the retail banking and employees will interact
with the clients on a daily basis the hiring and staffing skills play an important role in this
position. The VP Sales should utilize accurate staffing activities to hire right people and
to make sure existing and new personal align with the values and culture of Central Bank.
The scorecard assigns the weight of 4 to hiring and staffing skill, which indicates that this
skill is very important for Vice President, Sales position.
Mentoring and Coaching Abilities: The mentoring and coaching skills are among the
necessary requirements for the Vice President Sales position. It expected that the Vice
President continually provides coaching and mentoring for employees to motivate them
to achieve their potential. Also, the Vice President position should enable employees to
have professional growth and personal development. Because of the high importance of
coaching skills at Central Bank, the job posting for Vice President Sales position
highlights this skill among the necessary skills and competencies. According to the job
posting the successful candidate has to have a well-honed and highly successful
coaching skill. It is crucial for companies to have an environment where all employees

excel. It is also evident that there is a correlation between employee satisfaction and
client satisfaction. Therefore the Vice President sales should provide strong mentoring
and coaching skills for employees to help them to achieve their potential and perform
better at Central Bank. The new employees should develop skills to become a candidate
for future managerial positions and these necessities make the mentoring and coaching
skills very important at Central Bank. The score card assigns weight of 4 to mentoring
and coaching skill that proves that this skill is very important for the Vice President Sales
position.
Communication Skill: According to the requirements in the job posting the successful
candidate must have perfect communication skill to communicate effectively up and
down and across the specific region of the Central bank. The successful candidate should
be able to communicate his/her strategies among employees and across different divisions
in the bank. It also required that the successful candidate has to have strong
communication skills to convey the plans and objectives clearly to the all levels in the
bank. It also important for Vice President Sales position to represent the bank and its
objectives in the community therefore the strong communication is one of the most
important skills. There are many responsibilities of the Vice President Sales position
such as developing sales plans, creating strategies for the region and executing these
plans. However, in order to achieve the intended objectives of these plans and strategies,
VP Sales has to have strong communication skill so that the right message can be
conveyed to right parties. It is important to get involvement of related parties in the
execution stage. To create coherent objectives VP sales must be able to communicate
with the employees at all levels and with the different divisions in the bank. Therefore the

scorecard assigns weight of 4 to communication skills because it is very important for the
VP Sales position.
Community Involvement: One of Central Banks missions is to make a real difference
in their community. To fulfill their mission, the bank is putting heavy importance to
community relationship to enhance its brand image as well as to improve market share.
Therefore it is important for Vice President Sales to have strong ties with the community.
Therefore the scorecard gives weight of 4 to show the importance of this skill.
Front Line Experience: The front line experience is among the important criteria that
the Vice President Sales position requires. The nature of the daily activities at the retail
banking industry requires candidates to have front line experience in order to be
successful in this position. To improve the client experience and provide better service
front line experience is an important skill in the Vice President Sales position. The VP
Sales should have clear understanding of the daily transactions that front line employees
conduct. The scorecard assigns weight of 3 to highlight the importance of this skill.
Business and financial planning skills: As indicated in the job postings Competencies
part the knowledge of business and financial planning process is necessary for the vice
president sales position. In addition to knowledge of business and financial planning
process the successful candidate should have financial discipline and cost management
capabilities. At Central Bank the retail professionals perform different activities based on
the financial planning needs of consumers. Therefore business knowledge and financial
planning experience are must have skills for the Vice President Sales position. The retail
banking division of Central Bank provides a range of financial services and products such
as savings and chequing accounts, loans and mortgages and complete financial planning

services not just for individual clients but also for the small business owners. Thus,
financial planning and business knowledge is an important part of the VP Sales position.
To indicate the importance of this skill score card assigns weight of 4.
Adaptability: Adaptability is the one of the main required attributes for the Vice
President Sales position. It is important for the candidate to have adaptability skills to
have smooth transition from the current role to the new VP Sales position. It is clear to
everyone that the VP Sales position is a high rank managerial position with many
responsibilities. Also, the new team and the new organization will have different cultures
and values. In order to achieve the objectives the VP Sales should be able to adapt to the
new atmosphere quickly. Therefore the scorecard assigns weight of 3 to show the
importance of this skill.
Corporate governance: One of the crucial accountabilities (key outcomes and activities)
of the Vice President Sales position is building awareness of governance and regulatory
requirements and monitoring obedience to the rules and regulations. The banking
industry is heavily regulated industry and there are many rules and regulations, however
monitoring those regulations and evaluating the outcomes also important for the
managers. Employees in the banking industry must follow the rules and regulations
strictly. Instead of ignoring rules and regulations to achieve temporary success the bank
employees must recognize that they have to satisfy stakeholders of Central Bank.
Therefore the scorecard assigns weight of 5 to highlight its importance.
The Candidates:
Charlotte Webb:

Charlotte has demonstrated strong leadership capabilities not just in the bank during her
career but also in the community. During her position as a Senior Director Customer
Experience and Communication at Central Banks marketing division she led the
initiative to transform client experience in all delivery channels. During this position, to
position Central Bank as the premiere Canadian bank Charlotte worked across strategic
business units and engaged with the all relevant parties for operational and cultural
changes. Also, during her position as a general manager, small business sales and
operations between 2000 and 2003 Charlotte was leading the Small Business executives
through design of new go-to-market strategy for segmentation. Between 1998 and 2000
Charlotte work at the office of Chairman as a senior analyst and in this position one of
her responsibilities was leading the projects for key business decisions. Again during this
position she was leading the client preference/conjoint statistical analysis to increase
investments in profitable business units. Based on her leadership skill she scored 9 on the
score card.
Charlotte puts great emphasis on team work thats why people are eager to work for
Charlotte in the central bank. She is always respected and well liked by her team and Her
Employee Commitment Index scores among highest in the Central bank. Therefore she
scored 10 on the score card evaluation for her team work skills.
Charlotte was appointed as a general manager for small business sales and operations
in early 2002. She successfully developed strategies, objectives and sales programs for
several business segments and became a key contributor to currently used sales
measurement and tracking systems at Central Bank. Charlotte developed and executed a
sales program for small business unit and that program resulted in strong growth in the

sales across Canada. Even though Charlotte has strong sales management experience, she
had knowing rather doing perspective of sales. Therefore scorecard assigned her 9 for the
sales management skill.
People are eager to work for Charlotte because of the emphasis she puts on personal
development. She is willing to hire on potential and coach/mentor for missing skills.
However, she hired several professional staff but never exited anyone. Thus she scored 7
for her recruitment and staffing skills.
Charlotte puts special emphasis on personal development. She hires on potential and
coach mentor for missing skills. Charlotte has very high energy level and expects a lot of
from herself and others as well. She has been providing coaching and mentoring to her
employees with potentials because she believes that the central bank does not have to
look outside of the bank for managerial positions. In fact many of her graduates
managed to get higher and better roles in the organization because of the coaching and
mentoring provided by Charlotte. Thus, for her strong coaching and mentoring skills she
scored 10 on the scorecard.
Charlotte Webb was initially hired as a senior analyst in 1998 by the Corporate Strategy
unit and since this first position she has been efficiently communicating with the
colleagues, customers and with the other divisions. One of Charlottes strength is her
strong communication skill across the organization. She successfully developed, and
implemented many plans and projects because she managed to communicate her
objectives with her colleagues at all levels. She scored 9 for strong communication skill.
The other strongest skill of Charlotte is her community involvement skill. She has been
very active in the community. She is part of the Central Banks Run for the Cure and

United Way efforts. Charlotte was nominated as Young Woman of Distinction by the
Toronto YWCA. Because of her active involvement in the community she scored 10 on
the scorecard.
The Vice President Sales role would be Charlottes first front-line role at Central Bank
but this position will fill an important development gap in her career. Even though she did
not have a chance to improve front-line interaction experience she is willing to take the
challenge. On the other hand she knows the process and procedures for the sales
department since she developed many sales programs all she needs is doing training on
the front line. Therefore she scored 8 on the score card.
Charlotte has strong educational background in mathematics and statistics and she has a
masters degree in economics. The strong educational background and analytical skills
make her the right candidate for the position. One of her strengths relative to this role is
her superior knowledge of financial needs and delivery preferences of his segments
customers. Therefore she scored 10 on the scorecard for her strong financial planning and
business knowledge.
Charlotte also gets highest score for adaptability because se has been working for the
Central bank since 1998. She started as a senior director and worked for different
departments of the bank. She is familiar with the organizational culture and values at
Central Bank. Charlotte also gets highest score for the corporate governance since she
strictly follows the rules and regulations. She is spending 45% of time on governance to
establish governance mechanism and she believes that the governance is critical and
necessary.
Scott Warren:

Even though Scott led the new national sales training program to measure and
manage more effectively he has not proved significant leadership capabilities. However,
he was leading all aspects of the Regional Banks retail business in Toronto West and
Hamilton area and exceeding profitability and cost management targets. Therefore score
card assigns him 9 for his leadership skills.
Scott values the individual achievements and put relatively lesser importance to team
work. He could be overpowering for more reticent team members. He may not give credit
to others and values the one-man show. Therefore his poor team orientations skill reflects
on the scorecard with score of 4.
Despite the fact that Scott has relatively weak team orientation his sales management
skill is very strong. He has executed turnaround of small but lucrative area moved this
unit from last to first place in a short time. He was able to increase the sales volume in his
area by 60% significantly exceeded profitability and cost management targets. Therefore
he gets 10 for his sales management skill on the score card.
Scott has been successfully performing the recruitment and staffing activities in his
area. He designed the hiring profile and recruitment process for sales staff and this
process is employed by the rest of the bank. During his recent role he exited 35% of sales
staff and redeployed 15%more. These successful hiring and staffing efforts get him score
of 9 on the scorecard.
One of the weak skills Scott has is his mentoring and coaching skill. He seems to care
about people however, he does not show it. The weak mentoring and coaching skill get
him score of 4 on the score card.

Although, Scott does not have strong mentoring and coaching skills he definitely has
strong communication skill. He worked closely with customer relationship management
area and risk management to hone prospecting skills and reduce losses. He is a key
contributor to bank initiatives within his division and across the bank. Scott also
negotiated successful referral program with Regional Bank colleagues to grow customer
base. Therefore, the scorecard assigns him the score of 9 for his strong communication
skill.
Even though he has not able to create close relationship with the community he
recently moved to west end of city to better participate in community activities. He has
been actively campaigning to be the next and youngest president of the National Club.
Therefore, he scores 7 for his community involvement skill on the scorecard.
Frontline experience gets him the highest score of 10 on the scorecard. During his
Regional Vice President role at the regional bank Scott provided a help to design and
pilot training program for front line staff. This program included advanced use of CRM
tools, prospecting techniques and selling the Regional Bank way. Thus, he scores 9 on
the scorecard for his front line experience.
Scott does not have finance background and originally planned to pursue a career in the
Foreign Service or international law, however, a position at Nesbit Burns sharpened his
interest in financial services. With his strong analytical skills he secured a position in
Australia and after his return he attended a fast track management training program. He
was able to make significant turnaround for an unprofitable division in a short time and
increased the sales volumes by 60%. However, he still has relatively weaker financial
planning experience. Thus he gets score of 7 on the scorecard.

Scott Warren has strong educational background and he is an extremely bright versatile
player. However, he gave an impression that he has intellectual arrogance. He is reluctant
to give credit to others and he has no clear track record about his accomplishments in
terms of team work and adaptability. Since his tenure in any position did not last more
than two years it is hard to evaluate his adaptability skills. Therefore on the score card he
gets score of 5 for his adaptability skill.
Scott Warren is result oriented person and he is a voracious learner. However, based on
his answers during to interview one might think that he would not be a suitable candidate
for the VP Sales position at Central Bank. During the interview, he mentioned that
everyone in the banking industry involved in the recent scandals. Also he thinks that
people always find a way around laws and regulations. On the other hand Scott indicated
that he had gone over his supervisors head to get approval for his extra expenses. Even
though he got approval and brought new business to the bank it might not be assessed as
an ethical behaviour. Therefore, because the low emphasis he puts on the governance and
ethics he gets score of 2 on the score card.
James Skinner:
James co-led an initiative to re-engineer credit approving and adjudication and
compliance reporting process for Small Business and Agriculture portfolios while he was
working as a general manager credit, at the Bank of First Northern. Also during his Small
Business Banking General Manager position, he led the change management effort to
reposition the small business offer, adding new financial products to traditional credit
focus. These successful initiatives get him score of 8 on the scorecard for his leadership
skill.

One of the strengths James has relative the Vice President Sales position is his
teamwork orientation. He achieves his objectives through people and teamwork. During
the interview he also indicated that organizational culture where people can work as a
team is critical to him. Thus he achieved score of 9 for his teamwork skill on the
scorecard.
The other strength Skinner has is his ability to cutting time and money where possible
and during his position as General Manager at the Small Business division he exceeded
sales targets by 31%. Also, he exceeded sales targets by $120 million when he worked for
the Service Effectiveness division between 1995 and 1996. These strong sales
management skills get him score of 9 on the score card.
During his District Vice President role Skinner assessed staff for sales versus servicing
skills finding jobs for all employees displaced in the process. He also introduced base line
accreditation requirements for Risk Managers and credit training for all front line
originators. Between 1990 and 1992 Skinner was part of the human Resources
department as an officer. During this role he helped to implement a major restructuring of
retail banking division of the bank. Because of his strong background in human resources
he got score of 8 on the scorecard.
Skinner also has strong coaching and mentoring skills. Since he values the team work
he also values the coaching and mentoring in the bank. He travels to all branches in his
region and provides personal coaching to branch managers. Therefore he got score of 8
on the scorecard for his coaching and mentoring skills.
The other critical skill Skinner has is his strong communication skill. He is a mature
person with strong communication skill. He formed employee association to ensure

employee voice heard and to enhance communication strategy in the bank. He has strong
communications with the employees and with other departments as well. Thus, on the
score card he got score of 8 for his strong communication skill.
He has been very active in the community. He currently holds a director position at the
Canadian Parkinson Society, he is a treasurer at Pickering Lions Club and a trustee at
Durham Region School board, and he also coaches the boys soccer team. Although, he is
very busy with his managerial position at the bank and he struggles with family health
problems he still gets involved with the community activities and tries to be an active
citizen in the society. His efforts got him a score of 10 on the scorecard.
Skinner started with an entry level job in the bank and he moved up successfully during
his career. He worked almost at the all levels of the bank and has built great experience.
He progressed through a number of line roles to Branch Manager. He has great amount of
front line experience and therefore he scored 9 on the scorecard. Despite the fact that
Skinner has significant front-line experience, his analytical and strategic skills are
relatively weaker. However, he implemented some critical financial products such as
wealth management services to traditional credit products in the past. He got score of 7
for his financial planning and business knowledge.
Although skinner stated that the he is willing to take challenge, during the interview he
confessed that he was very nervous about starting again and adjusting to a new culture
would be problem for him since he worked for the same company more than 20 years.
Therefore he got score of 2 on the scorecard.

He is a person who admires the rules and regulations and works based on the ethical
principles. He built a trust and he was a trusted advisor to senior management. He got
score of 9 on the score card.

Conclusion:
On the score card Charlotte scored 428, Scott scored 317 and Skinner scored 365.
Based on the results of the score card Charlotte is the ideal candidate for this position.
Even though she still has to improve her front line experience this would not be a critical
issue because she is wiling to take the challenge and she is already familiar with the sales
process. She has been working for Central Bank since 1998 and built great relationship
across the bank and gained great amount of knowledge about the products and services
Central Banks offers. She is already familiar with the organisational culture and values of
the company. The Vice President Sales position would be a smooth transition for her
career. Also, Central Bank wants to keep her. She can provide valuable mentoring and
coaching skills to grow talents in the organization and implement succession planning for
the future so the Bank will have ready talent pool for the future openings.
Jim Skinner got the second highest score. He would be the ideal candidate for the Vice
President Sales position however, since he spent more than 30 years in the same
organizations it might be challenging for him to adapt to a new culture. He has grate
skills and knowledge about the retail banking and he is a great team worker. He is very
active participant of the community activities. The adaptability problem as he confessed
during the interview might be a critical concern for him

Scott Warren got the lowest score on the scorecard. It is critical to note that he has a
great experience and educational background. However, since his post were not longer
than two years it is hard to track his achievements. On the other hand his arrogant
personality would be a problem in the organizations where the team work atmosphere is
important. He interrupted the interviewer during the interview and showed that he wanted
to speak rather than listen. He may not give credit to others and seemed to like one-man
show. He is definitely a good sales manager but he might not be the right candidate for
this position.

Appendix I: Candidate Selection Scorecard

CHARLOTTE WEBB
Leadership:
Team-Oriented:
Sales Management:
Recruitment and HR
skills:
Mentoring and Coaching Abilities:
Relation Building and Communication
Skills:
Community Involvement:
Front Line Experience:

SCOR WEIGH TOTA

E
T
L
9
5
45
10
5
50
9
5
45
7
10

4
4

28
40

9
10
8

4
4
3

36
40
24

Business and financial planning skills:

Adaptability
Corporate Governance
TOTAL

Scott Warren
Leadership:
Team-Oriented:
Sales Management:
Recruitment and HR
skills:
Mentoring and Coaching
Abilities:
Relation Building and Communication
Skills:
Community
Involvement:
Front Line Experience:
Business and financial planning
skills:
Adaptability
Corporate Governance
TOTAL

James Skinner
Leadership
Team-Oriented
Sales Management
Recruitment and HR skills

10
10
10

4
4
4

40
40
40
428

SCOR WEIGH TOTA

E
T
L
9
5
45
4
5
20
10
5
50
9

36

16

36

7
10

4
3

28
30

7
5
2

4
4
4

28
20
8
317

SCOR WEIGH TOTA

E
T
L
8
5
40
9
5
45
9
5
45
8
4
32

Mentoring and Coaching Abilities

Relation Building and Communication
Skills
Community Involvement:
Front Line Experience:
Business and financial planning skills:
Adaptability
Corporate Governance
TOTAL

32

8
10
9
7
2
9

4
4
3
4
4
4

32
40
27
28
8
36
365

Appendix 2 Scorecard Weights

The skills listed on the Scorecard were assigned a weight between 1 to 5 based on the
level of importance of the skill. The weights and their description:
Weight
1
2
3
4
5

Description
Not Important
Somewhat Important
Important
Very Important
Critical

Appendix 3: Scorecard Scale

The skills of each candidate are scored on a scale of 1 to 10:
Poor Display of
Attribute

Moderate Display
of Attribute

Strong Display of
Attribute

10