There is 1 current vacancy.

Technical Parts Advisor (Customer Support Services)

The Company: Vapormatic distributes and markets one of the largest ranges of aftermarket tractor, combine, and agricultural machinery parts to over 95 countries. The business is a 100% owned subsidiary of Deere & Company Inc. (John Deere) with a strong commitment to delivering quality, availability, customer service, and value.

The Role: Technical Parts Advisor (Customer Support Services): This 39 hour full time position is an integral part of our expanding Customer Service Team who provide excellent customer service and support to our B2B UK and Irish customers. The primary focus of the role is to provide technical support for parts enquiries, troubleshoot, coordinate and resolve customer issues. This Exeter based role reports directly to the UK Sales Manager.

The Candidate: The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate previous experience of working in a fast paced customer driven environment. The ideal candidate will have existing aftermarket experience with a strong 'parts background' who is used to dealing with and identifying parts. Preference will be given to candidates with direct agricultural workshop or parts counter experience. A customer focused and flexible attitude to work is essential, whilst possessing the ability to prioritize and work to deadlines. IT skills and systems experience are also a must.

The Offer: The position commands an attractive remuneration package, participation in the company bonus scheme, contributory pension scheme, life insurance, and an enjoyable working environment.

Interested? Applications including covering letter and CV to: james.ashby@vapormatic.com

Closing date: 30th March 2018

We aim to give you some insights into what we believe makes our business special. Please take the time to review the information we have provided here to help you decide if a career at Vapormatic is your next step.

Remember, the recruitment decision is a two way street. If it’s not the right move for you, it’s not good business for us.

The Vapormatic Company was founded in Budleigh Salterton, East Devon, in 1949. For more than sixty years Vapormatic has been a market leader in the replacement agricultural parts market and for the last decade, has had the backing to grow from its illustrious parent, Deere and Company Inc.

Our Mission is "to be the leading "all-makes" parts company worldwide through providing quality solutions for our customers and rewarding opportunities for our employees". With growth comes opportunity.

If you are enthusiastic and you are looking to get out of life what you put in, and see problems as opportunities, if you are committed to achieving business and personal goals through continued learning, if you are self-motivated or a team player and have a sense of humour that realises that work can be fun and very effective, read on…

Teamwork

At Vapormatic Aligned High Performance Teamwork is a critical enabler of our business strategy. As a member of our team, you'll have the opportunity to bring your ideas to the table and make a real contribution to the success of our business. Our management team is acutely aware of your need for personal accomplishment and sense of purpose.

Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity is the mix of cultures, perspectives, styles, attitudes and thoughts that are reflected in our employees.

Inclusion is how well the mix works.

We work hard to promote and encourage diversity and equally to ensure our mix works well. Making this happen remains an area of focus and we recognize offers further opportunity for our business. We need employee input so that we can constantly improve our business and respond to our customers’ needs. This will enable us to maintain our strong position of leadership for the future.

Personal Growth - Career Development

With excellent training and development opportunities, our employees can advance their careers as fast and as far as their ambition, skills and competencies allow. We love to grow our own talent and see the positive impact this has on both our employees and the business.

Cross cultural opportunity

We mentioned earlier that to address the complex challenges of our growing business, we require a diversity of people, perspectives and ideas.

At Vapormatic, we acknowledge each individual’s unique skills, talents and contributions in a team environment that promotes respect and personal achievement. With an increasingly diverse product mix, a supply base and sales footprint which is truly worldwide, and access to John Deere’s global business we offer the opportunity for day-to-day contact and to build lasting business relationships across the globe.

World-Class Employee Engagment

"When employees are highly motivated, they’re open to learning, and they’re committed to goals – and ultimately performing at the highest level, producing quality work."

"These actions create a work environment where everyone wants to give their best, because they believe in a vision, they believe in a strategy, and they appreciate how they are treated."

"So, how do we achieve world-class employee engagement? There are two ways:

First, not only by holding people accountable for achieving great business results, but also how they achieve those results.

And second, by ensuring we strengthen and reinforce the quality of the manager/employee relationship."

"Achieving world-class employee engagement is critical to our future success. It’s also one of the biggest competitive advantages."

Resources

There are several roles that touch career development, but our primary resource is the Career Process Advisor. A Career Process Advisor can provide support and guidance to employees exploring the career development process. Advisors are Vapormatic and John Deere employees who apply and complete training to serve in this role, in addition to their normal jobs. They provide individualised, objective feedback on your internal resume, help you prepare for interviewing or career conversations with your manager and assist with self-assessments.

The career development process begins with employees taking ownership of their progress and charting career paths that build skills, experience, knowledge and competencies. Our online process and tools help you understand the requirements for future opportunities assess your readiness and lay the groundwork for career advancement. In addition to offering comprehensive internal resources, we also encourage and financially support job-related external learning opportunities.

Self-assessment tools help employees gain insight into their interests and goals, and then apply them to career and development planning. These include a 360 tool and a behavioural/style assessment, as well as values and interests checklists. In addition access to the John Deere intranet offers dozens of links for career development, including interviewing tips and "How-To" guides.

Tools

Tools are available which can help you understand your strengths and weaknesses, and develop focussed career goals.

Internal Resume (CV)

Provides managers with an understanding of the breadth and depth of your talents and experiences.

John Deere Learning

John Deere Learning is a virtual learning campus that promotes a company culture of continuous learning aligned with the strategic direction of the business. It includes colleges for major functions, such as engineering, supply management, finance/accounting and quality. Two additional colleges focus on the competencies and leadership skills that are important for all employees. Each college contains learning paths that help employees identify activities focused on personal and job specific development needs.

Performance Management

Our Performance Management Process is very effective in driving business and people goal alignment, holding employees accountable for business results and supporting our strategy of Aligned High Performance Teamwork. Continuing process enhancements focus on engaging our workforce, which can lead to greater productivity, improved employee retention and more emphasis on employee development. Performance Management also supports the manager/employee relationship as a key driver of employee engagement.

Team Enrichment

Team Enrichment is about attracting, developing, and retaining the best global talent from all backgrounds to build the strongest Vapormatic Team. This will help us achieve and maintain the highest level of aligned, high-performance teamwork to fuel our operational and growth goals.

Groups come in all shapes and sizes. To enhance the way teams work together, Team Enrichment has developed the John Deere Teaming Process (JDTP). In the process, you'll find 14 actions to enhance the way a team works together.

Tools are available to you and are arranged by the four focus areas of Team Enrichment - Behavior, Representation, Engagement, and Work-Life Management.

Accounting

We are a Company of integrity and adhere to the highest standards accounting. In addition, as a global business, we are required by law to:

• Keep books and records which accurately and fairly reflect our business transactions and dispositions of assets, and
• Have a system of internal accounting controls which provides reasonable assurance to management that unauthorized transactions are not taking place, and that all transactions are being accurately reported.

The integrity of our accounting records and financial reporting is based on validity, accuracy and completeness of basic supporting information.

Our Accounting team at Vapormatic embody the company's core values of integrity, quality, commitment and innovation working in the following areas,

• Purchase ledger
• Sales ledger/Credit control
• General ledger and asset management
• Monthly reporting to strict deadlines

We Comply with The Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 which sets standards for all U.S. public companies, including our parent John Deere, strengthening corporate accounting controls.

Marketing

Our Marketing team offer Vapormatic customers, distributors and stockists support through global brand management and merchandising, literature, brochures and product bulletins, exhibitions at major trade shows and events, public relations, promotions and communications together with full retail support.

Packaging, marketing materials and accessories programmes are designed in-house supporting trade and retail promotions both in the UK and overseas.

Professional Web marketing services and e-commerce solutions allow our customers full access to the product information they need and secure integrated online ordering facility. Our marketing team can also offer our customers tailored website design and maintenance solutions with full access to the market-leading Vapormatic product catalogues and cross-referencing data.

New Business Development

The New Business Development team are responsible for identifying new product opportunities, reviewing products by range and tractor brand, and to diversify the Vapormatic range of parts into areas which complement our core tractor business as in our new Lawn and Garden and Grounds Care ranges.

Comprehensive product catalogues are produced and designed in-house together with the parts technical information and illustration for our website.

Purchasing

The Purchasing Team are responsible for contract negotiations for both products and services. They are building strong relations with suppliers from many different cultures for the procurement of new and existing products including Engine, Clutch and Brake, Hydraulics and PTO (power take-off guards etc.), Accessories and Filters.

Quality Control

Inspection is a key word in the Quality Control Department. From the inspection of new product samples to ensure quality and accuracy to an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) source, to the quality inspection of purchased products received by the goods in team. Process warranty claims and returned materials from customers and respond to technical questions.

Sales

The Sales Team are split in to three main roles, UK Sales, Technical Sales Support and Export Sales.

A dedicated team is on hand to receive orders from over twelve thousand customers worldwide, including a network of eventy five UK Vapormatic stockists by means of telephone, fax, email and through our own online ordering system .

The Technical Sales team are available throughout the day to answer questions ranging from “how do I fit…" to "this part won't fit my tractor", catalogue questions, measurements and torque settings.

Our multi-lingual export sales team travel the world in support of our customers and our overseas operations in France, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand and Spain provide an in-country solution.

Our pricing team ensures that our customers receive the best quality product at the best possible price.

Logistics

Next day deliveries to all our customers anywhere in the UK, exports to customers in over ninety countries worldwide and imports from around thirty different countries explain why the Shipping department is a very busy office indeed. We are registered under the Known Consignor Scheme for aviation security and are accredited to ISO 9001:2008.

Warehousing Operations

The Vapormatic warehouse team are on hand from 6:00am to 10:00pm Monday to Friday, in three shift patterns, working hard to satisfy the requirements of our customers, with the last deliveries to customers leaving at 6:45pm for next day delivery in the UK.

• Goods receipting
• Light assembly/packing
• Picking
• Packing/Despatching
• Inventory control
• Data processing

We use the latest types of lift/pallet trucks to store and pick from our extensive range of tractor parts and accessories. Recently installed intelligent lighting help reduce our carbon footprint by automatically reducing lighting levels using daylight and motion sensors.

Employee Profiles

With these employee profiles we wish to give you the possibility of gaining an insight into the diverse personal and occupational opportunities offered by Vapormatic. You can become acquainted with the various departments and find out at first hand from your potential colleagues what they appreciate about the Vapormatic and how they came to work here.

Perhaps we will be able to include your profile here too at some time in the future.

Zoe Nicholson
Purchasing: Senior Buyer (New Products)

When did you first come into contact with Vapormatic?

When I came for an interview in 2005.

What made you apply to Vapormatic?

The possibility of international trade/language and travel.

Which development opportunities have you been able to use for yourself?

Before I started, I had little or no professional purchasing experience, so I have taken all the opportunities offered to me: internal and external courses (in both purchasing & other areas of personal development), in-house systems and product training, Bicton college training, supplier visits in the UK & overseas, as well as applying for alternative roles/promotions when they became available.

What is your occupational history?

I worked in export customer services for two different companies, as well as a year working in France, prior to joining the purchasing team at Vapormatic Exeter.

What do you like about your job and what do you find less appealing?

Contact with different people & companies all over the world, I have a wide variety of tasks so my days are always varied, I am always busy & challenged, there is the possibility for international travel.

Which products are you responsible for?

Previously I was responsible for Accessories (Paint, glass, mirrors, bearings, nuts & bolts, oil, hand tools etc) and now I am responsible for Engine products (pistons, liners, crankshafts, gaskets, pumps, short motors etc) as well as supervising the Accessories buyer. Shortly I will be responsible for new products, which will cover the complete range of products which Vapormatic offer.

How much personal responsibility do you have?

I am personally responsible for achieving targets on first fill and cost savings, among others. It is my responsibility to manage my portfolio and all associated tasks, including releasing purchase orders, finding new sources, working with QC department to ensure quality.

Please describe your development within Vapormatic?

Started as buyer on Accessories portfolio, where I learned the basics of buying & gained an understanding of Vapormatic requirements. I studies for my CIPS professional qualifications to underpin my purchasing experience & further my understanding of supply management (fully supported by Vapormatic). In 2007 I was promoted to Senior Buyer and became responsible for the engine portfolio of products. Later on this year, my next step will be Senior Buyer for New Products, which will bring with it different challenges & test a new skill set.

Nathan Palmer
New Business: Product Development Technician

Why did you choose to work with Vapormatic?

I was impressed by the business model and the possibility for expansion for the business. As a result I felt Vapormatic offered me a good career opportunity and stability for my family and me.

Could you describe one of your current projects?

I have just delivered the new 2010 John Deere catalogue update which resulted in an approximate 50% increase from the old range. I am now helping deliver the next series of tractor catalogue and helping with some internal projects.

What is your occupational history?

Before joining Vapormatic I had two short careers. I spent 5 years in the outdoor leisure industry and then after finishing a degree in countryside conservation I ran my own business for 4 years concentrating on conservation and landscape gardening.

Which product are you responsible for?

When I joined Vapormatic I was given our accessories portfolio. Recently I passed these on to a colleague and took responsibility for the John Deere Tractor portfolio and catalogue production.

Of which possibilities of development have you personally taken advantage?

John Deere provides access to a diverse online learning opportunity. I have accessed and completed some of these courses which are helping me in my day to day job and my career development. I will be starting my studies with the CIPS which will give me a nationally recognised qualification.

How long have you been working for Vapormatic?

I have been with Vapormatic since June 2007.