HIGHLANDS Utah. – Last year, Ardent Pest Control launched the Personal Development Program to encourage employees to set and achieve goals in four categories: professional, physical, spiritual and social.
Each sales representative meets with a team leader to set and review individual goals in the four categories. A mentoring program has been added this year, where new salespeople are trained and given feedback by more experienced employees.
Ardent conducts weekly “shout outs” for employees who are actively working to achieve their goals. When an employee does a great job, Ardent donates to a homeless shelter on behalf of the employee. A ceremony will be held in September to honor the company’s outstanding achievements.
Jake Loveland, VP of Sales at Ardent, designed the program to help employees feel fulfilled and become more diverse individuals. He worked with Ardent CEO Preston Peterson to determine the target categories based on their shared sales experience.
Ardent found that recognizing individual achievements made employees happier and more motivated. Her goal is to give employees the tools to grow and develop leadership skills wherever they are in life.
Brenton Clark, Equity Partner at Ardent in Virginia, is a mentor and uses the program with his team. He gives feedback by teaching his team members what to prioritize and in which areas they can improve. Clark said, “After years of selling, you start to appreciate the job in different ways. The greatest joy in this job is seeing the young people progress by becoming a better person overall. ”
Jake Creason, an Ardent sales representative in Missouri, has set himself professional and personal goals with the program. His main professional goal is the number of sales he wants to achieve. On the other hand, his personal goal is to spend more time with his wife in the summer and to wake up at the same time every day to go to the gym. Creason said, “Setting these goals made me a more rounded person.”
Ardent wants to expand the program in the future so that it is available to technicians, office staff and customer service employees.
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