INTRODUCTION:

As of now very little inroads have been made by retail giants in India and their presence is
literally, marginal. But Indian retail industry will witness magnanimous changes in recent future.
And as their modest entry has paved for some of the heated debates of recent times, the future
of retail business operations in India is looking very bright and will be a rewarding experience for
those who will choose to have a career in it only because, as of now, the retail sector is one of
the fastest growing business segments in India.

According to conservative estimates the retail segment in India is all likely to hit an annual
business turnover of US $600 billion by 2011. Reliance, Pantaloon, Piramal, Rahejas, Tatas
and Birlas has already begun their legwork in recruiting manpower with a view to expand their
retail operations.

Not only are these but many other big companies like DLF infra, Mahindra & Mahindra, Trent
(Star Bazaar India) also in the queue for showing their retail talent.

But despite all the heat and dust, the retail sector is being looked upon as an emerging area
where too many career openings can be created. In terms of job opportunities, the retail sector
might even surpass other lucrative new generation careers like IT, BPO and hospitality. There
is an increasing gap between the demand and supply of professionals in the retail sector.

In India, Reliance & Pantaloon have plans to recruit around a million people for its retail
business in the next some years. A successful career in retail industry can be made with proper
planning, accurate identification of needs, ability to interact with people along with problem
solving and quick decision making skills. One should also have good analytical skills and never-
ending enthusiasm as well as high-energy reserves. Pleasant manners, resourcefulness and
good memory are considered an asset in retailing.

The Indian retailers are conducting fast paced and aggressive recruitment for various key roles.
To retain the workforce big players in the industry are offering good growth opportunities with
attractive salary packages inclusive of several add-on benefits. From front-end sales personnel
to technology experts, from HR to supply chain, business development, from research to
product development and marketing, the sector is facing a deficiency of skilled and experienced
professionals, especially at the middle and the senior level management.

The high attrition rates in the retail sector are a matter of concern for most employers. The
current attrition rate in the industry ranges from 39 percent to 52 percent. And primary reason
for such is the poor image that business carries, typically seen as ‘dukandari’, the perception of
the industry is very poor & most people would be hesitant to look it as a career option.

Though there is the good demand of the human resources in the Retail Sector, but still Retail
faces many challenges with respect to this great asset to the Sector. No doubt it is a luring
sector but the working in Retail becomes too hectic for the people. And this makes people to
look at the options no matter whether with respect to salary or to the change of job.

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B) BACKGROUND - A brief background about the company/organization under study,
like
Name, Location etc. and also relevant details like organization structure, existing
systems
related to the particular subject under study and a brief write up of the problem you want
to
study in that organization.

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THE INDIAN RETAIL SCENE:
The India Retail Industry is the largest among all the industries, accounting for over 10 per cent
of the country’s GDP and around 8 per cent of the employment. The Retail Industry in India has
come forth as one of the most dynamic and fast paced industries with several players entering
the market. But all of them have not yet tasted success because of the heavy initial investments
that are required to break even with other companies and compete with them. The India Retail
Industry is gradually inching its way towards becoming the next boom industry.

The total concept and idea of shopping has undergone an attention drawing change in terms of
format and consumer buying behavior, ushering in a revolution in shopping in India. Modern
retailing has entered into the Retail market in India as is observed in the form of bustling
shopping centers, multi-storied malls and the huge complexes that offer shopping,
entertainment and food all under one roof.

A large young working population with median age of 24 years, nuclear families in urban areas,
along with increasing workingwomen population and emerging opportunities in the services
sector are going to be the key factors in the growth of the organized Retail sector in India. The
growth pattern in organized retailing and in the consumption made by the Indian population will
follow a rising graph helping the newer businessmen to enter the India Retail Industry.

In India the vast middle class and its almost untapped retail industry are the key attractive forces
for global retail giants wanting to enter into newer markets, which in turn will help the India
Retail Industry to grow faster. Indian retail is expected to grow 25 per cent annually. Modern
retail in India could be worth US$ 175-200 billion by 2016. The Food Retail Industry in India
dominates the shopping basket. The Mobile phone Retail Industry in India is already a US$ 16.7
billion business, growing at over 20 per cent per year. The future of the India Retail Industry
looks promising with the growing of the market, with the government policies becoming more
favorable and the emerging technologies facilitating operations.

India is the country having the most unorganized retail market. Traditionally it is a family’s
livelihood, with their shop in the front and house at the back, while they run the retail business.
More than 99% retailer’s function in less than 500 square feet of shopping space. The Indian
retail sector is estimated at around Rs 900,000 crore, of which the organized sector accounts for
a mere 2 per cent indicating a huge potential market opportunity that is lying in the waiting for
the consumer-savvy organized retailer.

Purchasing power of Indian urban consumer is growing and branded merchandise in categories
like Apparels, Cosmetics, Shoes, Watches, Beverages, Food and even Jewellery, are slowly
becoming lifestyle products that are widely accepted by the urban Indian consumer. Indian
retailers need to advantage of this growth and aiming to grow, diversify and introduce new
formats have to pay more attention to the brand building process. The emphasis here is on retail
as a brand rather than retailers selling brands. The focus should be on branding the retail

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business itself. In their preparation to face fierce competitive pressure, Indian retailers must
come to recognize the value of building their own stores as brands to reinforce their marketing
positioning, to communicate quality as well as value for money. Sustainable competitive
advantage will be dependent on translating core values combining products, image and
reputation into a coherent retail brand strategy.

There is no doubt that the Indian retail scene is booming. A number of large corporate houses
— Tata’s, Raheja’s, Piramals’s, Goenka’s — have already made their foray into this arena, with
beauty and health stores, supermarkets, self-service music stores, newage book stores, every-
day-low-price stores, computers and peripherals stores, office equipment stores and
home/building construction stores. Today the organized players have attacked every retail
category. The Indian retail scene has witnessed too many players in too short a time, crowding
several categories without looking at their core competencies, or having a well thought out
branding strategy.

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RETAILING FORMATS IN INDIA:

 Malls:
The largest form of organized retailing today. Located mainly in metro cities, in proximity
to urban outskirts. Ranges from 60,000 sq ft to 7,00,000 sq ft and above. They lend an
ideal shopping experience with an amalgamation of product, service and entertainment,
all under a common roof. Examples include Shoppers Stop, Piramyd, and Pantaloon.

 Kiosks:
Kiosks are located in malls, multiplexes, railway stations, and airports where space is at
a premium and mostly engage in selling consumer goods like edibles and snacks,
newspapers and magazines, fashion accessories stores and entertainment.

 Specialty Stores:

Chains such as the Bangalore based Kids Kemp, the Mumbai books retailer Crossword,
RPG's Music World and the Times Group's music chain Planet M, are focusing on
specific market segments and have established themselves strongly in their sectors.

 Discount Stores:

As the name suggests, discount stores or factory outlets, offer discounts on the MRP
through selling in bulk reaching economies of scale or excess stock left over at the
season. The product category can range from a variety of perishable/ non-perishable
goods.

 Department Stores:

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 Large stores ranging from 20000-50000 sq. ft, catering to a variety of consumer
needs. Further classified into localized departments such as clothing, toys, home,
groceries, etc.

Departmental Stores are expected to take over the apparel business from exclusive
brand showrooms. Among these, the biggest success is K Raheja's Shoppers Stop,
which started in Mumbai and now has more than seven large stores (over 30,000 sq. ft)
across India and even has its own in store brand for clothes called Stop.

 Hyper marts/Supermarkets:

Large self-service outlets, catering to varied shopper needs are termed as

Supermarkets. These are located in or near residential high streets. These stores today
contribute to 30% of all food & grocery organized retail sales. Super Markets can further
be classified in to mini supermarkets typically 1,000 sq ft to 2,000 sq ft and large
supermarkets ranging from of 3,500 sq ft to 5,000 sq ft. having a strong focus on food &
grocery and personal sales.

 Convenience Stores:

These are relatively small stores 400-2,000 sq. feet located near residential
areas. They stock a limited range of high-turnover convenience products and are usually
open for extended periods during the day, seven days a week. Prices are slightly higher
due to the convenience premium.

 Category killers:

Small specialty stores that offer a variety of categories. They are known as
category killers as they focus on specific categories, such as electronics and sporting
goods. These usually do well in busy market places and Metros.This is also known as
Multi Brand Outlets or MBO's.

 E-trailers:

They are retailers providing online buying and selling of products and services.

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35
Vending:

It is a relatively new entry, in the retail sector. Here beverages, snacks and other
small items can be bought via vending machine.

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Retail industry is a leading employer:

Today leaders in the Indian retail scene like Pantaloons retail employing over 14,000
people have simply changed the retail fabric of the country. "Coming of international
giants like Walmart (cash and carry), Nike (footwear), Louis Vuitton (shoes, travel
accessories, watches, ties, textiles ready-to-wear), Lladro (porcelain goods), Fendi
(luxury products), Gautier (high end furniture), Argenterie Greggio (silverware, cutlery,
traditional home accessories and gift items) and Toyota (retail trading of cars), into retail
trading, have brought in best practices in human resource and has made the retail sector
become an exciting place to work," says Prasad. A fresher in the field can start with
anything between `25,000 and `30,000 per month and move on to `50,000 with a few
years of experience. The Indian retail industry is the fourth most dynamic and fast paced
industries with several players entering the market and so offers lucrative career
opportunities to aspirants. Picking up a shopping bag has finally become the job of the
season.

The contemporary retail sector in India is reflected in its sprawling shopping centres,
multiplexes, malls and huge complexes offer shopping, entertainment and food all under
one roof. The concept of shopping has altered in terms of format and purchasing power
behaviour, ushering in a shopping revolution in India. This has also contributed to large-
scale investments in the real estate sector with major national and global players
investing in developing the infrastructure and construction of the retailing business. Also,
client servicing and recruitment of trained professionals for the job has become
synonymous with shopping, paving way for lucrative jobs with hefty pay scales.

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Human Resource in the Organised Retail Industry

Retail is a people centric industry, and is one industry which can simultaneously
exposes too many skills and disciplines. It offers many choices, chief among them
being:

 Buying and Merchandising

 Marketing

 Store Operations

 Sales

 Human Resources

Human Resources in Retail may range from recruiting and hiring employees to
larger areas like identifying training at various levels within the organisation and
then designing and implementing the programmes. Responsibilities may also
include overseeing compensation and benefits, and planning for and ensuring
legal compliance in hiring and employment practices. It is necessary to
remember that retail is a people focused business, but at the same time, it calls
for long working hours at both the front and back end. The human resources
need to understand these aspects of the retail business while creating and
implementing performance appraisals and promotions.

 Technology & E Commerce

 Visual Merchandising

 Supply Chain Management and Logistics

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Core processes in Retail:

Retailing is the vital link in any typical supply chain as it is closest to the customers. Retailing
adds value in terms of bulk breaking, providing a wide assortment of goods, and incidental
services to customers. The value chain and core processes involved in retail are given below.

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Store Operations:

Store operations play a critical role in shaping the customer perceptions towards the store/mall.
Store operations involve selling, management of goods flow, store maintenance, customer
service and transaction processing. The sales person plays an important role in technology
goods, high value high involvement goods such as jewellery, watches, etc. Customer service
includes delivery, repair, warranty work and handling of customer returns, etc.

Merchandising:

It involves selecting and displaying of the assortment of goods to be sold. The right mix/kind of
merchandise plays an important role in selection of a particular store by the customer and is a
key differentiating factor. It is a dynamic activity which has to be in resonance with customer
trends and also has implications for the top-line and bottom-line of a retail outlet.

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Logistics:

The infrastructure bottlenecks in India i.e., road conditions, lack of strong cold chains, poor
warehousing facilities, are well documented. These bottlenecks add up to the logistics cost both
in terms of time and money. Logistics plays an important role for Organised Retail as the
economies of scale are mainly on account of centralised sourcing systems. The high logistics
cost also forces the retailers to trade off between availability of goods to the customer and high
inventory costs.
Marketing:

Marketing strategies of a firm shape both the pulling the target audience to the store through
advertising and pushing merchandise to the customers through sales promotion programmes.
The challenge for Organised Retail is to ensure both high footfalls and conversion ratio.
Increasing the average transaction size is one of the main concerns for a retail outlet. Effective
CRM strategies such as loyalty programmes play an important role in achieving the
aforementioned objectives.

Purchase:

Centralised purchasing is important for the organised retailers to get advantage of their scale of
operations. Retailing often involves a number of products and SKUs which make this task even
more difficult. Purchasing function has to work in co-ordination with logistics and merchandising.
The function also takes care of Vendor selection and development

Corporate services:

Corporate services are support functions such as Finance, HR, IT, Administration. IT and HR
functions are increasing in importance. IT plays a key role in improving the efficiency as well as
CRM activities.

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Profile of human resource in Organised Retail

Major proportion of the employment in the retail sector is in front-end/retail assistant profiles in
stores. The function/activity-wise distribution of human resource in the Organised Retail sector
is shown in the following figure. Store operations account for 75%-80% of the total manpower
employed in the Organised Retail sector.
The function /activity-wise distribution will vary based on the format of the stores (Departmental
store, Hypermarket etc.) as well as other factors like Single/Chain stores, type of products etc.
Also, stand alone/small retailers may not have explicit demarcation of functions for
merchandising, or marketing.

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The distribution of human resource by educational profile is shown below. As there are very few
courses which are specific to retail, graduates/post graduates from other streams are recruited.
Persons with education up to 12th Standard and 10th Standard account for 55% of the
workforce. The education profile of the human resource will vary for retailers in small cities and
rural areas where X/XII pass people account for a higher share of the workforce.

Major regions of employment concentration

Organised Retail has been more of an urban phenomenon till recently, but this is rapidly
changing. The eight ‘Megacities’ that apart from large population also have large consumer
markets are Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Pune.
Organised Retail has spread to the seven ‘Boomtowns’ that have a large population and high
expenditure per household, namely, Surat, Kanpur, Jaipur, Lucknow, Nagpur, Bhopal and
Coimbatore. It has also spread to the five ‘Niche’ cities that are relatively smaller in population
but have above nationalaverage household spend, namely, Faridabad, Amritsar, Ludhiana,
Chandigarh and Jalandhar.
Tier 1 cities account for a major portion of the malls - a scenario that is not likely to change
drastically over the next few years at least. It is estimated that by the year 2011, the tier I cities
will continue to hold a majority share, with the tier II and III cities inching a notch up in terms of
supply.
Of the 325 malls expected by 2011 covering an area of approximately 154 million sq. ft. the
majority is accounted by the western and southern regions with 114 and 195 malls respectively
together adding about 100 million sq. ft. The highest contributors in each zone are primarily the
tier I & II cities such as NCR, Chandigarh and Ahmedabad in the north; Bangalore, Chennai and

35
Hyderabad in the south; Kolkata, Raipur and Jamshedpur in the east; and Mumbai, Pune and
Nagpur in the west.

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HRM ISSUES FACED BY RETAIL INDUSTRY:

The retail industry has been creating a lot of employment and a major chunk of the population
has been engaged in the retail industry but looking at the tough working conditions in retail i.e.
long working hours, no weekends and festival holidays, it becomes very difficult to hire people
who can create a bottleneck for the success. In the aura of optimizing the cost, the companies
are also neglecting the training needs of the newly hired people which is also a major factor for
reducing the efficiency of the human resource.

Retention of sales and service staff has been a bigger challenge for retailers. The organised
form of the industry being at a relatively nascent stage, the trained talent pool available is
limited, many retail players look at hiring from competition. Many a times, organisations do not
invest time and effort to develop proposition of an employer brand. Thus, strengthening that for
recruitment becomes a challenge. Organisations should not only determine the value
propositions, they should define competencies for various roles and train their managers to
assess applicants against those competencies. In 2009, attrition was over 25 per cent while this
year it has gone up further. It’s higher at the front line and junior levels. Some of the reasons are

• Performance pressure vis-à-vis a slow market.

• Cross industry movement not successful in a few cases due to absence of role mapping
and competency based hiring.
• Talent scarcity for certain critical skills such as planning, merchandising, retail operations
giving way to compensation spirals.
• Lack of clarity on the government regulations’ front leading to confusions of role growth,
especially at the senior levels.

Talent is available from related industries (FMCG / Apparel / Durables) ready to migrate; right
level of experience to clearly discern the “do’s” from “don’ts” is relatively scarce. In a market
aspiring for quick successes – in a business which is returning profits only after right scale and
time, adequate experience is of critical importance.

Employer brand proposition, competency based hiring, flexible and regulated staffing and
increasing employability are the concerns.

The key factors that needs to be considered are, ensure that the candidate has customer
orientation, service-centricity, sales focus and integrity. Other qualities include presentation
ability, language skills and adaptability.

The Indian organised retail players shell out more than 7% of sales towards personnel costs.
The high HR costs are essentially the costs incurred on training employees as there is a
severe scarcity for skilled labour in India. The retail industry faces attrition rates as high as
50%, which is high when compared to other sectors also. Changes in career path, employee

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benefits offered by competitors of similar industries, flexible and better working hours and
conditions contribute to the high attrition.

 Unskilled manpower:

The organised retailing is a massive man power oriented industry that recruits a large
pool of employees. However, there is a huge scarcity of skilled retail professionals. This
can be attributed to the fact that retail has never been considered as a prominent
profession in India as there were very few retail professional courses till few years back.
Retail has always been considered to be a family business which one generation passes
on to another. However, retail has achieved the status of a profession and some courses
are now available for retail profession aspirants.

 Stressful working culture:

Retail being a very stressful

profession very few people aspires
to make a career out of it. Khurana
shares, “Retail industry has a
stressful working environment;
employees work on weekends
without any breaks, so employees
must be given a weekly or monthly
off to help the employees
rejuvenate.” Providing some
facilities and benefits might attract
some more people towards this
profession.

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 Providing basic facilities:

It is strange that most of the retailers do not get the basic needs right. Like the job of a
sales man is physically exhaustive and draining. The HR practices must take care of the
basic needs of such employees who are up on their feet from nine to six or more.
Providing restrooms, proper canteen service, recreation rooms to the staffs is a
must. However, when a retailer ensures proper hygienic sanitary facility for employees,
help efficient employees commit to the organisation for long period of time. For example,
leading global retailer, Marks & Spencer when appoints a new supplier, it’s managers
first check the staff toilets and dining facilities.

 Down top communication:

Retail job involves 80 per cent of communication and 20 per cent of business. Effective
communication involves top-down, down top and lateral interaction among employees.
However, when an open communication is encouraged from lower level employees to
the upper level, it motivates the employees to share their insights too which at times can
be quite helpful for organisational success. Since in retail, floor managers who are in
direct contact with the consumers can convey the experience and demands of the
consumers directly to the top level management without any dilution of the actual
message.

 Training and orientation:

Training is one aspect of HR that differentiates a successful organisation from others.

Training in areas like problem solving, key skills development, and presentation,
effective communication are of prime importance to gain optimum performance from the
employees in retail industry. Giving proper training to the staff is the best investment in
the retail business.

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  Grooming the staff:

Appearance matters a lot. Well groomed professionals are always confident and
appealing to the consumers. Retailers are found to employ visual merchandise and store
outlook but they also must make sure that their sales staffs are presented well to the
consumers. Properly ironed crease free uniforms, clean shaves, right kind and right
amount of deodorant, cheerful smiles are the few things about which employees must be
efficiently trained with.

 Motivating and counseling:

Employees when motivated and stimulated are bound to work beyond their capacity. For
example, Reliance Retail Ltd, believed that when employees are given a suitable
environment to work and are motivated in sync with, are found to deliver their best.

 Customer oriented service:

Another HR practice of retail industry is to have a customer oriented service. Sharing his
view on this Khurana says, “In retail industry when a customer walks in, he walks on part
of the brands, but once the customer walks into the outlet, then it’s the customer’s
experience that matters. Therefore, other than having a sales kind of an attitude, the
employees should be motivated to have a customer service attitude to help the
customers have better experience.”

 Shrinkage

Retail shrinkage is the difference between the

book value of stock and the actual stock or the
unaccounted loss of retail goods. These losses include
theft by employees, administrative errors, shoplifting by
customers or vendor fraud. According to industry
estimates, nearly 3-4% of the Indian chain’s turnover is
lost on account of shrinkage. The organised industry
players have invested IT, CCTV and antennas to
overcome the problem of shrinkage.

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To conclude, these HR challenges when taken care of by the organisation are bound to make a
difference to the organisational success. Every retail organisation must have a HR manual that
would include everything from clarifying timings, personal care & grooming, appraisal system,
and training and practices. Effective HR practices when in place give that competitive edge
required. Apart from these practices, retailers are required to incorporate innovative HR
approaches to help them stay ahead and stay functional.

 Attrition rates and retention of personnel:

There seems to be a high level of attrition in the retail sector which is almost 40%
according to a recent study. Front end jobs are facing an attrition rate as high as even 80%.

Under the present circumstances, retention and motivation of personnel has become the major
concern of HR. A congenial working atmosphere, support learning and training facilities, a highly
competitive pay structure are some of the effective retention practices followed by the retail
sector.

While money is the main attraction for freshers and starters, career satisfaction is the main
reason with experienced personals. Assigning the "right project to the right person" is the
organizational motto these days with companies setting up Manpower Allocation Cells (MAC) to
carry out this agenda.

Looking at the current scenario, it could be said that there is an acute shortage of middle level
management professionals in the Indian Retail Industry. The current trend is to hire from a
smaller organization tempting the incumbent with a better pay package. It is imperative that
suitable talent be hired in various areas such as technology, supply chain, logistics, product
development and marketing in order to stay abreast of the hectic race for success among
MNCs.

The call is for HR practitioners to play a more proactive and prominent role in order to retain the
high tech skilled employees who are constantly looking for greater gains and prospects in their
work. This is the real HR challenge to retain the "knowledge workers" and "knowledgeable
workers" by introducing new processes and procedures and still ride high in implementing
organizational effectiveness.

Jog, shares, “It’s primarily about LSD – Laxmi, Saraswati and Durga. It’s about having good
relations at work place, material benefits and recognition which in turn create happiness at the
workplace.” It is understood that at Future Group, numbers are of no importance when it comes
to HR concerns, it is the ‘thought’ that holds far more importance. The thought process must be
right at all times. Happiness is not something that can be measured.

There is absolutely no dearth of talent in the industry but as said by Jog, there is a dearth of
‘attitude.’ Today we see retail institutions unlike before which are creating human resources. Jog

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confirms that people having a retail management background definitely have an edge over
those who are not having one. This trend especially matters when the concerned job area is
‘retail operations.’ “Out of 150 people, 120 are hired for the retail operations,” adds Jog.

There are mainly two key drivers in retail. Apart from technology it’s people. There is definitely
tremendous amount of energy, time and money that needs to be invested to maintain and
enhance these two drivers.

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Some unique ways to solve the HR problems of the Retail Industry:

ATTRACTING FAIRER SEX:

Some of the biggest players in the organised retail turf are looking up to the fairer sex,
especially when it comes to dealing with killer attrition blues. Reliance Retail, Future Group,
Shoppers' Stop and RPG Retail are experimenting with a host of hiring models to improve the
ratio of fairer sex in their workforce.

The reason is simple. Most of these retailers have now cottoned on to the fact that women
professionals are much more suited for retail job profiles, which ultimately improves retention
levels. No wonder, these chains are launching a slew of new initiatives, including hiring
housewives, making job offers to employees' spouses and even running all-women stores.

"With attrition levels shooting up to 70% for profiles like counter sales, retailers are trying out
new strategies to bring in stability. It is here that they've hit the magic formula with women
professionals who are found better suited for retail jobs across functions," said TeamLease
Services vice-president Rituparna Chakravarty.

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance has launched an initiative to encourage the spouses of employees
to work in its retail venture. Accordingly, the employees' wives are being trained to take up jobs
-- full time, part time or on call -- at Reliance Retail outlets.

"The pilot phase in Gujarat has been successful with nearly 400 housewives participating in it.
This initiative is being undertaken at other sites as well with a particular focus on cities that have
a lot of employees who've migrated from across the country," a Reliance Retail official said.

The Future Group plans to start stores, which will be manned entirely by women. For this, it has
tied up with a Chennai-based HR firm, Avtar, to offer flexi-career opportunities where women
will be required to work for a maximum four hours a day. This project will debut in Kolkata and
will be subsequently taken across the nation.

Shoppers' Stop CEO Govind Shrikhande said women employees were far superior in terms of
service standards and interpreting consumer mood. "No wonder, retail is among the few sectors
where the ratio of women employees is the highest in India," he said.

Women employees account for nearly 25-30% in the organised retail sector. "The ratio of
women staff is lot higher in the southern markets, at around 40%. Modern retail has a much
higher social acceptability in south since it has taken root there much earlier and matured by
now," said RPG Retail's senior V-P (HR) Nihar Ranjan Ghosh.

Barista Coffee CEO Partha Dattagupta said women employees help maintain a balanced work
environment. The coffee chain too hires women across profiles such as a brew master and
corporate functions.

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VALUE RETAILERS RECRUITING TAILORS:

Stand-alone tailors are feeling the heat. And many are changing with times. Rizwan Shariff, a
small-time tailor in Andhra Pradesh's Chintamani town, moved to Bangaluru two years ago and
joined Reliance Trends. "With customers preferring readymade garments and preferring
organised retailers over us, I came to Bangaluru," says Shariff who now heads a team of six
tailors at the Richmond Road outlet of the retailer.

Jitendra Chauhan, an Ahmedabad-based tailor-turned promoter of apparel multi-branded outlet

Jade Blue, says, "With organised retailing offering similar services at far lesser prices,
(standalone) tailors have no chance to survive the onslaught."

The picture is completely different from five years ago, when branded and readymade garments
would stand no competition to the tailor who would stitch a garment for as low as Rs 200.

The gap was bridged with the entry of a slew of value retailers such as Koutons, Cotton County,
Cantabil, Priknit, Westside, Big Bazaar, and Reliance Trends that started selling branded
readymade clothes at low rates.

Today, there are about 5,000 exclusive brand outlets of organized value retailers and the
number is expected to touch 7,000 by 2012 as existing players expand and new ones enter,
says Wazir's Agarwal.

Amit Kumar, head of Fashion@BigBazaar , the apparel and accessory arm of the country's
largest retailer Future Group, says the company is working towards dispelling the myth that
fashion is luxury. For example, Fashion@BigBazaar retails T-shirts and shirts at . 149 and Rs
199, respectively, jeans at . 299, salwaar-kameez-dupatta sets for . 399-. 429 and ready-to-
wear ethnic wear at . 329.

"We bring tailors to one organised platform, enhance their skills through our retail know-how
and encourage their creativity. We even let customers design their own dresses with our in-
house tailors," says Agarwal.

The retailer is keen to take his tally of Big Bazaars, which house Fashion@BigBazaar , from the
current 137 to near 200 over 12-16 months. In addition, there are six standalone Fashion@Big
Bazaar outlets across five cities.

Value retailers are also expanding their product portfolio with popular local outfits to reach out to
more people.

"While we have been retailing everything from fabric, ready-tostitch , infant wear, children's ,
teenager's , women's and men's garments , Indian wear, corporate wear, speciality clothing
including active sportswear and yogawear, we have also been catering to local populace by

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offering bandhni sarees (in Gujarat ), mundu (in Kerala) and burqa (in Hyderabad)," says
Reliance Trends' Sirdeshmukh.

Interestingly, the tailor-retailer axis is not limited to value players though. "Even premium men's
wear brands like Raymond, Reid and Taylor and Vimal have brought in tailors to customise
garments for their customers," says Jade Blue's Chauhan. "At my stores, the category is
growing at 30% year-on-year ," he says.

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RELIANCE RETAIL HIRING VEGETABLE VENDORS AS SALESPEOPLE:

Uneducated but street-smart, India’s vegetable vendors are a necessary evil. Looked down
upon by housewives who mostly shop from their roadside kiosks or carts, these vendors are
about to begin a new life- as salespeople at Reliance Retail, India’s fastest growing retail chain.

Faced with a staff shortage of qualified retail staff on the one hand and a protest by
vegetable vendors on the other, who are complaining that Reliance Retail is taking their jobs
away, the company has found a smart way of killing two birds with one stone. It has started a
pilot scheme in Mumbai to hire vegetable vendors, give them clean uniforms and station them in
its huge retail supermarkets. So far 10 such vendors have found jobs with Reliance Retail.

If successful, Reliance plans to hire hundreds of them if their age, appearance and speaking
skills match its requirements. A report in a Sunday newspaper quoted two such former street
vendors now sporting smart Reliance Retail uniforms in Mumbai’s upscale Bandra locality. They
said they were happy with the switch and felt proud to work in a clean and air conditioned
atmosphere. Their job was to “assist” buyers with product information.

A company executive was quoted as stating that the former vegetable vendors were not
only good at selling in supermarkets but also in procurement of vegetables and fruit.

“They have spent years in harsh conditions to identify the good from the bad, their
knowledge in this department is exemplary”, he said.

Reliance Retail is planning to open 500+ stores all over the country over the next 2 years
and will require over 10,000 sales and procurement staff.

"We would like more women employed in modern retail. They will be the best assets
considering they are naturally endowed with abilities to assist the service sector," says Kumar
Rajagopalan ,CEO, Retailers Association of India. Bhatnagar concurs: "The laws should be
aimed at providing a level playing field for men and women." Archaic labour laws need to be
modified even for part-time working women, especially in a country where women's education is
still lagging.

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CONCLUSION:-

HR factor in retail: Largely ignored

The HR factor in retail management is still largely ignored.

The mood in India these days is "Goodbye, Socialism. Welcome, Sonyism". But the sudden
explosion of retailing accentuates the principal challenge confronting Indian retailers in the
coming decade: staffing operations and motivating teams.

The lack of formal retailing education further exacerbates the problem of recruiting. How should
retailers build human relations in retail management?

The first ingredient is infusing a passion for success in employees. If the staff are the employees
of the company, rather than outsourced from agencies, there will be greater commitment.

Further, retailers should make every employee a partner through a stock options scheme. A
watchman who knows that he has a stake in the final profits, in the form of a bonus or a stock
option, will ensure zero levels of shrinkage. Remember, businessmen must share their wealth
with those who generate it.

Get the basics right

Retailing is a hard business. It is rigorous. The floor staff stands on its feet for up to nine hours
every day. The job of the salesperson on the floor is physically exacting and emotionally
draining.

Which is why changing existing mindsets and motivating personnel will also require ensuring
basic hygiene factors. It is crucial to provide toilets, restrooms, canteens and dining areas, as
well as recreation rooms to the staff.

The astute retailer will provide meals to the staff, so that they eat wholesome, nutritious food.
He will provide not merely restrooms, but also resting rooms, for women, with a few beds.

This provision is law in many countries. Leading global retailer Marks & Spencer outsources
manufacture of its merchandise. However, when it appoints a new supplier, its managers first
check the staff toilets and dining facilities.

Also, in a competent retail organisation, each employee should spend at least 10 working days
a year in the classroom. Training of the staff is the best investment in the retail business.

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Training has to be constant, in the classroom and on the floors, on a daily basis. Business
schools should come together to pioneer a new curriculum for master's degree in retail
management.

Next to training is the vital policy of building careers and promoting people from within the
company. Internal progression systems augment loyalty and boosts morale.

The staff are strongly motivated by the belief that they will grow when they deliver results. There
should be a well-defined succession plan in the company and potential candidates should be
groomed with adequate training and exposures.

Respect the floors

Astute retailers will walk the floors every day. In a customer service-oriented retail outlet, the
supervisory staff, managers, directors or the chairman of the company will walk the floors.

They will also seek advice and customer responses from the staff. As Sam Walton, the best
retailer of our times, once said, "Our best ideas come from the shop floors.

Most CEOs are obsessed with the stock prices of their companies, their net worth and how
many million retail sq ft they own. They do not focus on organisation-building or talking to the
floor staff.

Looks do matter

Retailing is about the staff wearing clean, ironed uniforms. It is about shaving daily, using the
right type and the right amount of deodorant; it is about bright eyes and warm smiles, about
polished shoes, no straps showing through the uniform and no hairy armpits.

These are fundamental hygiene factors, but they can make or break a sale. It is a smart move to
recruit the grooming and communications staff from top five-star hotels to train retail staff.

There are also organisational implications. How many sets of uniform should be given to a staff
member? One of the largest retailers in West Asia gives only two blouses to the female staff.
Should the girl be washing her blouse every night when she reaches home at 11 pm, after
having been on her feet for nine hours? If one blouse is torn, should she wear the used one
again, and perhaps smell stale?

Which is why manuals that define every operation of a store are vital: retailers like Woolworths
and Marks & Spencer, for instance, have comprehensive operating manuals. The manual would
clarify timings, responsibilities, operating conditions, policy on uniforms, leave, breaks, pilferage,
shrinkages and so on.

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Loyalty works both ways

Accept it: talent and skill are scarce. It is sensible to hold quality staff, always. Arrogance
proclaims, 'There are a billion Indians; we can always find another salesman'. Sense states:
'You may find another candidate, but not a good salesman'.

Andrew Carnegie, the American steel billionaire, asserted, "Take away my factories, but leave
my people, and soon we will have a new and better factory."

The people who work in the store are the family jewels. It is common to read in the newspapers
of many corporations and retail houses boasting of the termination of 5,000 to 15,000 jobs, if the
business is going downhill.

Such mass separations do not resolve underlying business issues and, in fact, pulverise morale
on wholesale scales.

When a business performs appallingly, the issues really stem from dim-witted decisions and
strategies conceived by the Board/CEO. The top guns survive. But 15,000 employees lose their
jobs in loudly-trumpeted announcements across the media, in bizarre attempts to restore share
market confidence. Such phony remedies have unforgiving impacts on employee morale and
commitment.

Family ties

Working in any company should be fun and rejuvenating. The staff should look forward to
coming to work daily. This is possible when the team spends informal times together.

Winning is great fun, becoming rich is glorious, and it is vital to celebrate success together. If
the employees of a retail company dance, sing, eat, rejoice together, the company stays
together.

Remember, the family that eats together, stays together. Retail is no different.

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Career in retail- what students think
The Indian retail market is said to grow to Rs 25,480 billion (approx.) by 2015. With the
augmentation so enormous there is a budding requirement to hire more skilled
people. Young graduates are a perfect option. But what is in their minds? Lets see

Retail-Operations

The retail Industry in India has come forth as one of the most dynamic and rapid paced
industries with abundant players entering the market. Cashing on the growth prospects, many
retail schools are coming up to equalise the demand for professionals with the adequate supply.
Also more and more students' are taking on retail as a career option.

Student's perspective
For students, campus recruitments are a very important aspect, which they consider while
choosing a retail institute. It is with the knowledge of these that a student can know where he
would finally land up. Now all institutes have tied up with various retailers for holding campus
recruitments. This initiative has come as an advantage for the students who don't have to apply
at various places with the convenience of retailers too that come to institutes for recruitments.

Expectations from a job profile

When students understand completely what is being taught to them, then there are a certain
level of expectations from a job that he/she would want to do. Sanjeeb Kumar, Manager-Retail,
with a leading retail brand says, "A job which can give me learning to the fullest, where I can
strategise or formulate the overall business, where every day is a new challenge which is
common in retail, at the end of the day I should feel that today I have done something
remarkable with creativeness and innovation, where one should face problems and immediately
give solutions with decision involve in it for that and where one feels satisfied." Neha Anil
Mirashi, PGDBM Batch – Retail 2007-09, Welingkar Institute of Management Development and

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Research in agreement says, "The job profile should be challenging, the timings and location is
not a constraint." Rajeev Damani, PGDRMM, BA - Retail ISU, Birla says, "My expectation is that
as an initial job it should be a great learning ground but at the same time it must have enough
scope for me to grow and shape my career." So fulfilling the requirements of learning,
challenging and satisfaction is what students are on the lookout for.

Inhibitions
There is a notion where students when asked if they would work in a store say that they did not
spend four years at a retail school to work in a store. 'Retailing according to Wikipedia consists
of the sale of goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store or kiosk,
or by post, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser.' When asked the
same Kumar commented, "I strongly disagree with this. When I was in college I used to think on
similar lines but I want to ask following things to those who say this: Do they know what retailing
is? In retailing how can you know your customers well if you don’t meet them? Do they know
what all a retailer does to run the store? A retail showroom is like a classroom, surrounded by
three walls. Classroom has one teacher with so many different students from the various states
similarly a retail store has a store manager and much merchandise with various categories."
Having the same view Neha says, "I would not agree with the notion as working at the store
level only could give you all the valuable insights, information and facts required to reach the
top. I worked at the store level for my summer internship with a well-known retailer in Mumbai
and the knowledge I acquired there could not have been learnt in the classroom or the office."
On the other hand Abhishek Kumar, PGDM (RM) - 2nd year (07-09 batch), Birla Institute Of
Management Technology says, "To some extent I agree because being in the same store with
the same people from 10 am to 11 pm is not comfortable. There should be rotation in job by
location and depending upon store formats, it is true an MBA would not like to work in a super
market as store manager." Giving a mid path solution Rajeev says, "It is very correct that they
don't deserve to work at a store level but as a learning we need to have clear knowledge of front
end as moment of truth occurs there. So, I will suggest a training of a quarter is enough and
then the favoured profile must be offered." So all new entrants should choose the center
pathway and learn the best of both the worlds.

What retailers are seeking?

Retailers need to appoint the best people, as it is these people who interact with the customers
and enhance the shopping experience. Balvinder Singh Ahluwalia, President, Koutons Retail
India Ltd tells, “We look for basic management degree and the basic qualities that are expected
from any human being.” On job training is gaining a lot of significance. Here graduates are hired
and trained and then are given positions in the company. The talent pool is not large enough for
retailers to wait for candidates to get trained with other retailers and then hire them. Every
retailer has their own training methods on and off the job to train their new recruits. A standard
training pattern is essential to ensure basic levels of competence across all levels of employees.
Any value addition or additional training programs will only enhance the competence of
employees if they meet the basic standards within the industry. Ahluwalia says, “We hire

35
graduates as trainees and then train them for a period of six months to one year and then induct
them into main stream with an executive position.” So now days all retailers have set up a
standard training pattern and train and recruit new employees according to the company’s
requirements. This is beneficial for both the retailers and the students.

To conclude we can say that the opportunities are immense in the retail sector. Students who
wish to be a part of this sector should gear up and work hard to tap all these prospects for their
benefit according to their predilections and preferences.

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RECENT TRENDS
Retailing in India is witnessing a huge revamping exercise as can be seen in the graph
India is rated the fifth most attractive emerging retail market: a potential goldmine.
Estimated to be US$ 200 billion, of which organized retailing (i.e. modern trade) makes
up 3 percent or US$ 6.4 billion
As per a report by KPMG the annual growth of department stores is estimated at 24%
Ranked second in a Global Retail Development Index of 30 developing countries drawn
up by AT Kearney.
Multiple drivers leading to a consumption boom:
o Favorable demographics
o Growth in income
o Increasing population of women
o Raising aspirations: Value added goods sales
Food and apparel retailing key drivers of growth
Organized retailing in India has been largely an urban phenomenon with affluent classes
and growing number of double-income households.
More successful in cities in the south and west of India. Reasons range from differences
in consumer buying behavior to cost of real estate and taxation laws.
Rural markets emerging as a huge opportunity for retailers reflected in the share of the
rural market across most categories of consumption
o ITC is experimenting with retailing through its e-Choupal and Choupal Sagar –
rural hypermarkets.
o HLL is using its Project Shakti initiative – leveraging women self-help groups – to
explore the rural market.
o Mahamaza is leveraging technology and network marketing concepts to act as
an aggregator and serve the rural markets.
• IT is a tool that has been used by retailers ranging from Amazon.com to eBay to radically
change buying behavior across the globe.
• ‘E-tailing’ slowly making its presence felt.
repeat.

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A) INTRODUCTION - to the topic under study, e.g. if it is a study on Marketing
Research practices, an introduction as to what is Marketing Research and its practices,
and other information should be given.
C) METHODOLOGY - forms the crux of the report. It should cover the main objectives
of
the study. Following are the major steps in Research:
1) Review of Literature indicating the research done so far with regard to the
particular subject.
2) The relevant data gathered should be presented in the form of tables, graphs,
flow charts etc.
3) Detailed discussion about the present practices related to the subject. If new
practices/augments have been introduced, a discussion of the same may be
done.
4) Analysis of the data collected or the effect of the new practices on the existing
one.
E) LIMITATIONS of the study if any should be highlighted.

Bibliography and List of tables

The following should be included in the Project Report in the same sequence as given
below:
1) Acknowledgment - to all those who have helped the student complete the project.
2) Certificate from the guide (if help from a guide has been taken).(See appendix I)
3) Table of contents, chapter wise with the appropriate page numbers.
4) Actual project content following the given format.
5) Bibliography - It is important for students to list the Books

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