Micro$-$Net Electronics$-$ Deployment of On$-$Line Learning System and Training Program for Sales Force$-$

Micro$-$Net Electronics has historically been the leader in supplying electronics components for the aviation, space and defense industries. They have continued to expand organically and through acquisition of smaller competitors. Within the last $4$ years the company made the critical decision to support the auto and solar industries with new components to optimize the energy output of battery power storage systems. This critical strategic move required the recruitment and mobilization of a direct field sales force to engage key decision makers in the automotive and solar verticals. Today, Micro$-$Net employs $128$ field sales personnel representing the company across North & South America, Japan and the UK$.$ Human Resources played a critical role in the attraction of the sales force and creation of a pay$-$for$-$performance compensation model in conjunction with the business leaders and the CFO.

Recently the HR team has been addressing concerns coming from the Chief Business Development Officer $($CBDO$),$ Kevin Calvert, regarding turnover and overall performance within the sales force. Within the last $6$ months turnover has accelerated to $19\mathrm{.}8\%$ and the HR Sales Recruiter has been under pressure to rapidly replace vacancies in key sales territories. Upon further investigation through exit interviews and town hall style meetings with sales staff, HR has learned that the key factors driving turnover are $1.)$ slow deployment of training related to new product launches, $2.)$ lack of collaboration with other sales team members to share best demonstrated practices, and $3.)$ declining variable compensation related to missing key performance goals.

Training and Development within HR has been very active in the education of the sales force and has made every effort to partner with the CBDO to address these concerns through on$-$going training including the re$-$design of new hire on$-$boarding. Despite these efforts, the CBDO has lately been critical of the return on training dollars invested in the sales force as results have begun to decline. Recently Kevin made comments during a partnership meeting with HR that got everyone$$s attention. $$Investing more money in training at this point is like setting fire to money and watching it burn. I really think that where we have gone wrong is in the overall new hire candidate profile. I$$d have to see something really compelling to support an investment in more training.$$

From past experiences at other organizations the HR team intuitively knows that it has to show a return on training programs. Perhaps the biggest hurdle for the team has been collaborating with sales leadership and then rapidly deploying training programs. The delay in instructional design, challenges scheduling live on$-$site education sessions and expenses associated with travel and materials costs have been huge barriers to their success. The HR training team has worked with some of the best instructional designers in the industry and have validated that the content is leading edge. Determined to make an impact, the Director of Training and Development begins a search for answers and discovers that implementation of an on$-$line Learning Management System $($LMS$)$ could be the answer to many of their issues.

Working with an HR colleague from her chamber of commerce networking group that has experience with LMS deployment, the Director of Training and Development assembles the following information about an implementation at Micro$-$Net$-$