Need your help to give some input on our Management Trainee Program.

We would like to start Management Development Program and the objective is to hire the best salespeople (area sales managers and sales sups). They will undergo 3 months training covering – credit application, sales, inventory management, financial management etc.

My question is – what commitment do we have to ask them since the training will involve some investment to mold them to be super star salespeople. Do we have to bind them into legal contract that they have to continue work for our company and are not allowed to resign before they are assigned to the branches across the country.

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Jay’s Answer: You can’t force people to work for you, no matter how much money/time you invest in them. You can require them to sign a non-compete agreement but that’s not legal in all US states and the courts don’t always enforce them.

Some other ideas:

• You could make the training unpaid.
• You could pay a lower rate during training and a much higher rate after “graduating”.
• You could pay them a salary for attending the training, and commission only after “graduating”.
• You could train them only after 90 days on the job (the first 90 days is a “test” phase where they learn the business in general, and are assigned various non-management/sales projects)
• You could also do what Zappos.com does