HUMAN RESOURCE IN RETAIL: CHALLENGES, ISSUES & OPPORTUNITIES

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TRANS Asian Research Journals

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P u b l i s h e d b y : T R A N S A s i a n R e s e a r c h J o u r n a l s

AJMR:

A s i a n J o u r n a l o f

M u l t i d i m e n s i o n a l

R e s e a r c h

( A D o u b l e B l i n d R e f e r r e d & R e v i e we d I n t e r n a t i o n a l J o u r n a l )

HUMAN RESOURCE IN RETAIL: CHALLENGES, ISSUES &

OPPORTUNITIES

Vikram Gahlawat*; Pankaj Kumar**

*Assistant Professor,

Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, University of Delhi,

New Delhi, India. **Assistant Professor,

Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, University of Delhi,

New Delhi, India.

ABSTRACT

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world of retailing, there will be an increasing need to adopt and change toward a more formative and proactive style of Human resource management (HRM).

KEYWORDS: Human resource management (HRM), Customers, Retail industry, Challenges.

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INTRODUCTION

“Focusing on customer needs should be at the forefront of retail HR people’s minds as that is at the heart of what they are trying to achieve,”

- Rebecca Clake

(CIPD Adviser on Organization and Resourcing)

The evolution of the retail industry in India over the past few years has been propelled by rising consumerism, demographic dividend, increasing disposable incomes and the large middle class population. The retail formats in India have evolved vastly over a relatively short period of six to seven years, without any past blueprint or precedent to refer back to. Today, 21 million peoples are employed in the retail sector in India, which is 7% of the total national workforce. The HRM policy enhances the performance of the organization. Retail enterprises want to structure and assign task, policies and resources in order to meet their goals. Today retail organizations have required a skilled work force for providing effective services to the customers. There has been an increasing realization that people are one of a company’s key assets. Therefore, the retail industry in India has been defined by experimentation, risk-taking and trial-and-error methods. Its manpower intensive nature and unique requirements have resulted in human resource considerations taking on paramount importance for the sustainable growth of the sector.

In the recent past, the initiation of the worldwide recession has brought in a new set of challenges associated with a decline in consumer spending as compared to the overtly optimistic projections from a few years ago. Retailers today are focused on drawing customers into the stores to drive sales while at the same time reducing cost overheads. On the other hand, this poses huge challenges with respect to dealing with the short supply of qualified, future-ready talent, sustaining high performance and retaining key talent. Therefore, the key question for the retail industry in India is how organizations can sustain high performance whilst battling both economic challenges as well as talent shortages.

THE RETAIL SECTOR IN INDIA – KEY FEATURES

Some of the features of the retail industry in India include the following:

 Impending entry of many global players, basis the Government’s FDI policy changes, leading to ambiguity in the sector

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 Markets expanding beyond metros and Tier 1 cities

 Strong emphasis on profitable growth

 Toughening of internal efficiencies and cost or manpower optimization

 Optimization of technology usage

 Developing supply chain efficiencies

 Focus on effective store management and enhancing availability

 Handling very high attrition rates and low employee engagement levels

CHALLENGES FOR HR IN RETAIL SECTOR

 CULTURAL ALIGNMENT WITH ORGANIZATIONAL VALUES AND VISION

In an industry that is fast-growing, the organization is constantly on boarding employees from diverse backgrounds and with a wide range of experience. In this context, the challenge for the organization lies in galvanizing these diverse backgrounds to create a unified culture that is its own.

 ETHICAL DILEMMAS

With a very young and heavily decentralized working population as well as store supervisors in age groups often ranging from 22 – 30, the organization often has no visibility on the interactions happen between the store and the suppliers across India. So, there is a need for HR to ensure that no ethical breaches exist in these interactions between store level employees and suppliers.

 MATCHING ORGANIZATIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL PROSPECT

Retail being a promising industry reporting so much flux, it is next to impossible for HR to offer a real career path to the employees. This often impacts the employer brand equity of retail organizations when they scout for talent.

 INCREASING EMPLOYEE EFFICIENCY

In an era of financial prudence, HR has to focus on building manpower efficiencies and on ways to enhance employee productivity on an ongoing basis.

 MANAGING EMPOWERMENT VS. CONTROL

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 JOB INSECURITY

Given the history of lay-offs and manpower validation during recent recessionary times, as well as the ongoing flux in the industry, there is a high degree of job insecurity that heavily impacts employee retention.

 MANAGING COMPENSATION EXPECTATIONS

The compensation structure in most retail organizations has a substantial variable component that is linked to store performance. This additionally brings in challenges in terms of employee rotation into new roles across the stores.

 UNATTRACTIVE WORKING HOURS AND STRESSFUL WORK CULTURE

The customer-facing nature of the industry often results in emotional labor related issues of pressure and burnout. Employees who often come from underprivileged backgrounds often have to face the fury of affluent customers who may exploit the socio-economic divide that exists between them. Also, there is a need to work on weekends as well, which further makes the work requirements unattractive to many prospective employees.

Some of the significant success factors for an HR professional in the retail industry are following:

 Customer service orientation

 Effective communication skills

 Fast decision making capabilities

 Ability to pool resources and operate within a team, interpersonal skills

 Detailed planning

 Analytical and problem-solving abilities

 Flexibility and ability to deal with ambiguity

 Creativity and innovation

OPPORTUNITIES FOR HR IN RETAIL

 Impressive industry growth rate, potential to create jobs are key pull factors.

 MNCs entering the Indian market would bring in superior and robust practices in the industry.

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 Institutes having retail market understanding with RAI being closely involved in the sector.

 Retail has the potential to generate employment ( both direct & indirect)

o Currently accounts for approx 8% of employment.

o Creation of 10 million jobs in 10 years. Second largest employer after agriculture.

 Attracts large pool due to minimum qualification requirement of 10+2 for hiring.

 With the opening up of the sector, creation of enough skilled workers to cater to the demand is crucial.

CONCLUSION

Retail sector in India is fast growing sector. In India changing pattern of employment in retail brings specific challenges for HR in retail special regarding employee retention, compensation and attribution. Retail organizations are taking innovative measures to retain and motivate workforce. As retailers in India endure the economic challenges and prepare for competition from new players, it is evident that sharpening their talent portfolio will be critical to succeed. The key task for HR is to help shape a highly skilled, engaged and productive workforce and to discover newer sources of effective talent. HR’s challenging role, then, is to pre-empt industry trends, identify future business needs and create a pool of future-ready talent.

REFERENCES

1. Dr. V. Antony Joe Raja, “Emerging Trends in Human Resource Management with special focus on outsourcing in various sectors”, International Journal of Management (IJM), vol. 3, Issue 1, 2012, pp.197-204, ISSN Print: 0976-6502, ISSN Online: 0976-6510

2. http://www.citehr.com/4814-hrm-hrd-opportunities-retail-sector-India.html

3.

http://www.delloitte.com/assets/Dcom-india/local%20assets/documents/thoughtware/retail_sector_-_HR.pdf

4. Winslow, Mary A., HRM-Retail Industry (2012). Retrieved from