Description
The retail formats in India have evolved vastly over a relatively short period of seven to eight years. Another credible factor in the prospects of the retail sector in India is the increase in the young working population. These key factors have been the growth drivers of the organized retail sector in India.
INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH X 95
Volume : 4 | Issue : 8 | August 2014 | ISSN - 2249-555X
RESEARCH PAPER
Role, Scope, and Challenges of HR in Retail
Sector
Prof.Dr.Jyoti H.Lahoti
Assistant professor, M.Com.,M.Phil.,M.A., Ph.D.,MBA, Smt.L.R.T.College of Commerce Akola.
KEYWORDS
HRM, special tellers, GDP, attrition.
Commerce
ABSTRACT The retail formats in India have evolved vastly over a relatively short period of seven to eight years. An-
other credible factor in the prospects of the retail sector in India is the increase in the young working
population. These key factors have been the growth drivers of the organized retail sector in India. But the entry of
global players in retailing business has created huge challenges to the Indian companies. 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 quali?ed, future-ready talent, sustain-
ing high performance and retaining key talent. Beyond the impact of globalization and mergers and acquisitions, retail
organizations continue to struggle with the recruitment of service-oriented employees. Therefore, the key question for
the retail organization in India is how they can sustain high performance whilst battling both economic challenges as
well as talent shortages.
The organized retailers in order to respond to the competition, started to realize the need for ef?cient man power. The
HR practices and the employee satisfaction became the primary concern for the organized retailers. The present study
will provide a clear picture on the issues related to the HR practices and its impact on employees. The study will also
focus on the various problems and challenges faced by the HR department in procuring and retaining the employees
of organized retailing companies.
INTRODUCTION:
What is HRM?
HRM in short means Human Resource Management, and
is the new avatar of Personnel and Administrative Depart-
ment. HRM refers to the way people are managed in retail
organization.
HRM has evolved too much because:
? The Retail Industry is a Service industry and people are
its most critical resource.
? It has built a very competitive environment
? People management is very critical as it involves cost
and revenue generation.
? In India, it is a growing industry.
? Provides employment to large numbers of people
? Skill set required varies as it involves both skilled and
unskilled manpower HR deals with HRM and. covers all
the technical areas.
1. Human Resource Planning during a set up of a new
store
a. Hiring and retaining people
b. Transferring people
c. Procurement and logistics
Listed down are critical success factors for an HR profes-
sional in the retail industry. These included the following:
• Strong customer service orientation
• Effective communication skills
• Fast decision making capabilities
• Ability to collaborate and operate within a team, inter-
personal skills
• Strong result orientation
• Meticulous planning
• Analytical and problem-solving abilities
• Flexibility and ability to deal with ambiguity
• Creativity and innovation
There is a rule in business that if you are not growing, you
may be dying. But grow too rapidly and you may still ?nd
yourself on the fast track to the business graveyard. That
will happen if you are not alert or constantly looking out
for the speed bumps that will come your way when you
are riding on a highway at top speed. Typically, the growth
challenges relate to outgrowing the infrastructure, losing
talented people, stretching the human capital resources
too thin, attracting new competitors and ?agging customer
service.
OBJECTIVES:
The major objectives of this study are:
1) To study the human resource management practices
pursued in the organized retailing.
2) To study the role and scope of HR in retail sector.
3) To study the various problems and challenges ahead
for HR managers in the implementation of HRM prac-
tices in organized retail outlets.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
This is an empirical study based on primary & second-
ary data. Primary data has been collected by observa-
tion and interview method. The secondary data has
been collected from Books, Periodicals, News papers,
Journals, Internet.
THE ROLE AND SCOPE OF HR:
From the following Diagram we can understand the role of
HR in Retail Sector-
96 X INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH
Volume : 4 | Issue : 8 | August 2014 | ISSN - 2249-555X
RESEARCH PAPER
(Source-96-99-Human-Resource-Bank-Charania-Nov-13)
Till a few years back human resources in any retail organi-
zation in India used to treat employees within the organi-
zation as just one employee number and there used to be
no emotional bonding. Here the role of human resource
means nothing but administration work such as preparing
salaries on month ends and recruiting staffs. Slowly this no-
tion is dying out and most companies have started utilizing
this department in a more productive manner. Now the ad-
ministration part is either outsourced or a separate depart-
ment is created for the same so that the human resources
team can concentrate and develop their role in the corpo-
rate. They have now started understanding the importance
of employees and started developing various methods to
retain them.
The challenges that face the retail industry in India today
as it whizzes along on the fast lane. Companies are be-
ing challenged to reorganize and adapt their employees
to become more ef?cient. The key concerns for HR as hir-
ing skilled talent, retaining critical talent and engaging and
motivating employees. Also, retail is a thin margin business
compared with other service industries where the rewards
and dividends are far higher. So, the task of retaining key
people becomes all the more dif?cult. The task of at-
tracting the best people and keeping them happy is big
enough to keep every HR head awake at night. The role of
HR in addressing challenges in the retail sector, he needs
to pre-empt and plan for the workforce skills that will be
required in the future given the changing industry scenario.
It also needs to develop the capability of in-house talent
while also working with employees to chart out tangible
career paths.
CHALLENGES OF HR:
As retailers in India weather 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, en-
gaged and productive workforce and to discover newer
sources of effective talent. In an industry that is character-
ized by enormous fux, change seems to be the only con-
stant. HR’s challenging role, then, is to pre-empt industry
trends, identify future business needs and create a pool of
future-ready talent.
Evidently, the challenges are many and there is no one-
size-?ts all formula for success. A lot depends on how pro-
actively ?rms pick up the warning signals. As globalization
and shifting consumerism continues to affect the retail en-
vironment, a number of critical HR pressure points directly
support pro?tability, including:
• Recruiting employees
• Retaining the customer
• Retaining the employee
• Organizational reputation and branding
HR objectives when addressing these challenges.
High Turnover
Retail is notorious for having a high rate of employee turn-
over. This means employees routinely come and go, which
poses several challenges. Training and developing are dif-
?cult, time consuming and constant if you constantly have
to recruit and hire new people.
Diversity
A diverse workforce is typically regarded as a good thing.
It helps a retailer better connect with its marketplace and
usually leads to more and better ideas and results. How-
ever, From an HR challenge is to manage diversity to avoid
major con?icts and promote a spirit of tolerance, teamwork
and collaboration.
Misconceptions
To build a staff of competent, committed and motivated
employees, retailers must overcome a number of common
challenges and misconceptions about the work environ-
ment. Common concerns include long hours, no full-time
jobs or bene?ts, low pay and no growth opportunities.
overcome these challenges by going against the industry
grain is the biggest challenge of the HR.
Seasonal Demand
Retailers often experience seasonal demand fuctuations.
Retailers often try to add temporary staff during these
times. They often wind up with fewer skilled and trained
workers who might not have the tools to best serve cus-
tomers. These workers can also alienate regular staff that
must pick up the slack..
Building Capability
The store supervisor or manager is often young and inex-
perienced and has several young store executives report-
ing into him. HR holds the responsibility for building the
capability of these young supervisors to lead and motivate
their teams.
Increasing employee productivity
In an era of cost-cutting and wafer thin margins, HR has
to focus on building manpower ef?ciencies and on ways to
enhance employee productivity on an ongoing basis.
Employee engagement and communication
The retail organizational structure brings in unique chal-
lenges in terms of keeping employees in distant, diverse
locations engaged and excited about organizational goals.
this is done at multiple touch points by involving senior
management across the organization.
RECOMANDATION:
The HR needs to come up with new initiatives for the
welfare of the staffs. They should provide recreational fa-
cilities to them, at-least once in a month the HR needs
to interact with every individual employee and address to
their personal issues, and need to highlight the same to
the management. The HR also needs to be involved with
INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH X 97
Volume : 4 | Issue : 8 | August 2014 | ISSN - 2249-555X
RESEARCH PAPER
REFERENCE
? Almas Sultana 2014 Human Resource Management in | Organized Retail Industry in India , Global Journal of Finance and Management.
| ISSN 0975-6477 Volume 6, Number 6 (2014), pp. 491-496 | ? www.shrmindia.org | ? Yourbusiness.azcentral.com | ?http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Human_resource_management | ? Kulik, C.T.2004.”Human Resource for the non-HR Manager”, New Jersey:Lawrence Eribaum Associates Publishers. | ?
Kundu,S.C.2003.”Workforce diversity status: a study of employees’reactions” Industrial Management & Data Systems,103(4),pp.215-226. |
the team, understand the effort they are putting in while
working for extra hours, around ffteen to eighteen hours.
The HR’s job is a tough job as he has to cater to em-
ployees coming from different background, with differ-
ent grievances or queries, need to be able to reply or
solve them very positively without creating any imbal-
ance, thus creating harmony. At times it becomes very
diffcult for an HR to handle such situations. Experience
and everyday learning makes one perfect in this ?eld.
One needs to be personally very strong as an individ-
ual to handle this role otherwise tend to lose very early.
HR’s who have joined as executives and then get pro-
moted as managers in the Corporate offce after getting
exposed to tremendous knowledge and experience in
handling employees. They have then started training; men-
toring and guiding the sales team on the shop ?oor.
CONCLUSIONS:
Retail organizations have signi?cant business challenges
ahead. In order to continue to survive and thrive, execu-
tives must align employee performance with customer sat-
isfaction and loyalty as a part of a successful retail strat-
egy. The human resource management practices are vital
for the development of any business or sector. The HRM
practices have inevitable dependence on the organized re-
tailers.
In retail organization Human Resources is the backbone of
the business. Each employee has a big role in a small re-
tail environment. Hence the HR team needs to really take
care of them and take care of their daily requirements. HR
needs to take care of their health, need to create vibran-
cy, develop eloquently motivational factors like incentives
or perks to continuously motivate them and also impart
knowledge to them and train them periodically so as they
become more ef?cient in their work. If the employees are
taken care of they will in turn automatically take care of
the organization and thus build a ?duciary relationship.
The HR department is facing the challenges which include
high attrition rate, absenteeism, and implementation of
innovative practices in the retail outlets. Hence, from the
study, it was found that the HR management practices in
the retail outlets are still in the initial stages of develop-
ment. The employee facilities and proper performance ap-
praisal measures will always encourage the employees to
achieve the best. Hence, the retail outlets should decide
and implement proper HR practices in order to retain and
develop the work force who are the assets for the devel-
opment
Therefore, the retail sector in India has been de?ned by
experimentation, risk-taking, trial-and-error methods. Its
manpower intensive nature and unique requirements have
resulted in human resource considerations taking on para-
mount importance for the sustainable growth of the sector.
doc_335277297.pdf
The retail formats in India have evolved vastly over a relatively short period of seven to eight years. Another credible factor in the prospects of the retail sector in India is the increase in the young working population. These key factors have been the growth drivers of the organized retail sector in India.
INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH X 95
Volume : 4 | Issue : 8 | August 2014 | ISSN - 2249-555X
RESEARCH PAPER
Role, Scope, and Challenges of HR in Retail
Sector
Prof.Dr.Jyoti H.Lahoti
Assistant professor, M.Com.,M.Phil.,M.A., Ph.D.,MBA, Smt.L.R.T.College of Commerce Akola.
KEYWORDS
HRM, special tellers, GDP, attrition.
Commerce
ABSTRACT The retail formats in India have evolved vastly over a relatively short period of seven to eight years. An-
other credible factor in the prospects of the retail sector in India is the increase in the young working
population. These key factors have been the growth drivers of the organized retail sector in India. But the entry of
global players in retailing business has created huge challenges to the Indian companies. 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 quali?ed, future-ready talent, sustain-
ing high performance and retaining key talent. Beyond the impact of globalization and mergers and acquisitions, retail
organizations continue to struggle with the recruitment of service-oriented employees. Therefore, the key question for
the retail organization in India is how they can sustain high performance whilst battling both economic challenges as
well as talent shortages.
The organized retailers in order to respond to the competition, started to realize the need for ef?cient man power. The
HR practices and the employee satisfaction became the primary concern for the organized retailers. The present study
will provide a clear picture on the issues related to the HR practices and its impact on employees. The study will also
focus on the various problems and challenges faced by the HR department in procuring and retaining the employees
of organized retailing companies.
INTRODUCTION:
What is HRM?
HRM in short means Human Resource Management, and
is the new avatar of Personnel and Administrative Depart-
ment. HRM refers to the way people are managed in retail
organization.
HRM has evolved too much because:
? The Retail Industry is a Service industry and people are
its most critical resource.
? It has built a very competitive environment
? People management is very critical as it involves cost
and revenue generation.
? In India, it is a growing industry.
? Provides employment to large numbers of people
? Skill set required varies as it involves both skilled and
unskilled manpower HR deals with HRM and. covers all
the technical areas.
1. Human Resource Planning during a set up of a new
store
a. Hiring and retaining people
b. Transferring people
c. Procurement and logistics
Listed down are critical success factors for an HR profes-
sional in the retail industry. These included the following:
• Strong customer service orientation
• Effective communication skills
• Fast decision making capabilities
• Ability to collaborate and operate within a team, inter-
personal skills
• Strong result orientation
• Meticulous planning
• Analytical and problem-solving abilities
• Flexibility and ability to deal with ambiguity
• Creativity and innovation
There is a rule in business that if you are not growing, you
may be dying. But grow too rapidly and you may still ?nd
yourself on the fast track to the business graveyard. That
will happen if you are not alert or constantly looking out
for the speed bumps that will come your way when you
are riding on a highway at top speed. Typically, the growth
challenges relate to outgrowing the infrastructure, losing
talented people, stretching the human capital resources
too thin, attracting new competitors and ?agging customer
service.
OBJECTIVES:
The major objectives of this study are:
1) To study the human resource management practices
pursued in the organized retailing.
2) To study the role and scope of HR in retail sector.
3) To study the various problems and challenges ahead
for HR managers in the implementation of HRM prac-
tices in organized retail outlets.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
This is an empirical study based on primary & second-
ary data. Primary data has been collected by observa-
tion and interview method. The secondary data has
been collected from Books, Periodicals, News papers,
Journals, Internet.
THE ROLE AND SCOPE OF HR:
From the following Diagram we can understand the role of
HR in Retail Sector-
96 X INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH
Volume : 4 | Issue : 8 | August 2014 | ISSN - 2249-555X
RESEARCH PAPER
(Source-96-99-Human-Resource-Bank-Charania-Nov-13)
Till a few years back human resources in any retail organi-
zation in India used to treat employees within the organi-
zation as just one employee number and there used to be
no emotional bonding. Here the role of human resource
means nothing but administration work such as preparing
salaries on month ends and recruiting staffs. Slowly this no-
tion is dying out and most companies have started utilizing
this department in a more productive manner. Now the ad-
ministration part is either outsourced or a separate depart-
ment is created for the same so that the human resources
team can concentrate and develop their role in the corpo-
rate. They have now started understanding the importance
of employees and started developing various methods to
retain them.
The challenges that face the retail industry in India today
as it whizzes along on the fast lane. Companies are be-
ing challenged to reorganize and adapt their employees
to become more ef?cient. The key concerns for HR as hir-
ing skilled talent, retaining critical talent and engaging and
motivating employees. Also, retail is a thin margin business
compared with other service industries where the rewards
and dividends are far higher. So, the task of retaining key
people becomes all the more dif?cult. The task of at-
tracting the best people and keeping them happy is big
enough to keep every HR head awake at night. The role of
HR in addressing challenges in the retail sector, he needs
to pre-empt and plan for the workforce skills that will be
required in the future given the changing industry scenario.
It also needs to develop the capability of in-house talent
while also working with employees to chart out tangible
career paths.
CHALLENGES OF HR:
As retailers in India weather 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, en-
gaged and productive workforce and to discover newer
sources of effective talent. In an industry that is character-
ized by enormous fux, change seems to be the only con-
stant. HR’s challenging role, then, is to pre-empt industry
trends, identify future business needs and create a pool of
future-ready talent.
Evidently, the challenges are many and there is no one-
size-?ts all formula for success. A lot depends on how pro-
actively ?rms pick up the warning signals. As globalization
and shifting consumerism continues to affect the retail en-
vironment, a number of critical HR pressure points directly
support pro?tability, including:
• Recruiting employees
• Retaining the customer
• Retaining the employee
• Organizational reputation and branding
HR objectives when addressing these challenges.
High Turnover
Retail is notorious for having a high rate of employee turn-
over. This means employees routinely come and go, which
poses several challenges. Training and developing are dif-
?cult, time consuming and constant if you constantly have
to recruit and hire new people.
Diversity
A diverse workforce is typically regarded as a good thing.
It helps a retailer better connect with its marketplace and
usually leads to more and better ideas and results. How-
ever, From an HR challenge is to manage diversity to avoid
major con?icts and promote a spirit of tolerance, teamwork
and collaboration.
Misconceptions
To build a staff of competent, committed and motivated
employees, retailers must overcome a number of common
challenges and misconceptions about the work environ-
ment. Common concerns include long hours, no full-time
jobs or bene?ts, low pay and no growth opportunities.
overcome these challenges by going against the industry
grain is the biggest challenge of the HR.
Seasonal Demand
Retailers often experience seasonal demand fuctuations.
Retailers often try to add temporary staff during these
times. They often wind up with fewer skilled and trained
workers who might not have the tools to best serve cus-
tomers. These workers can also alienate regular staff that
must pick up the slack..
Building Capability
The store supervisor or manager is often young and inex-
perienced and has several young store executives report-
ing into him. HR holds the responsibility for building the
capability of these young supervisors to lead and motivate
their teams.
Increasing employee productivity
In an era of cost-cutting and wafer thin margins, HR has
to focus on building manpower ef?ciencies and on ways to
enhance employee productivity on an ongoing basis.
Employee engagement and communication
The retail organizational structure brings in unique chal-
lenges in terms of keeping employees in distant, diverse
locations engaged and excited about organizational goals.
this is done at multiple touch points by involving senior
management across the organization.
RECOMANDATION:
The HR needs to come up with new initiatives for the
welfare of the staffs. They should provide recreational fa-
cilities to them, at-least once in a month the HR needs
to interact with every individual employee and address to
their personal issues, and need to highlight the same to
the management. The HR also needs to be involved with
INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH X 97
Volume : 4 | Issue : 8 | August 2014 | ISSN - 2249-555X
RESEARCH PAPER
REFERENCE
? Almas Sultana 2014 Human Resource Management in | Organized Retail Industry in India , Global Journal of Finance and Management.
| ISSN 0975-6477 Volume 6, Number 6 (2014), pp. 491-496 | ? www.shrmindia.org | ? Yourbusiness.azcentral.com | ?http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Human_resource_management | ? Kulik, C.T.2004.”Human Resource for the non-HR Manager”, New Jersey:Lawrence Eribaum Associates Publishers. | ?
Kundu,S.C.2003.”Workforce diversity status: a study of employees’reactions” Industrial Management & Data Systems,103(4),pp.215-226. |
the team, understand the effort they are putting in while
working for extra hours, around ffteen to eighteen hours.
The HR’s job is a tough job as he has to cater to em-
ployees coming from different background, with differ-
ent grievances or queries, need to be able to reply or
solve them very positively without creating any imbal-
ance, thus creating harmony. At times it becomes very
diffcult for an HR to handle such situations. Experience
and everyday learning makes one perfect in this ?eld.
One needs to be personally very strong as an individ-
ual to handle this role otherwise tend to lose very early.
HR’s who have joined as executives and then get pro-
moted as managers in the Corporate offce after getting
exposed to tremendous knowledge and experience in
handling employees. They have then started training; men-
toring and guiding the sales team on the shop ?oor.
CONCLUSIONS:
Retail organizations have signi?cant business challenges
ahead. In order to continue to survive and thrive, execu-
tives must align employee performance with customer sat-
isfaction and loyalty as a part of a successful retail strat-
egy. The human resource management practices are vital
for the development of any business or sector. The HRM
practices have inevitable dependence on the organized re-
tailers.
In retail organization Human Resources is the backbone of
the business. Each employee has a big role in a small re-
tail environment. Hence the HR team needs to really take
care of them and take care of their daily requirements. HR
needs to take care of their health, need to create vibran-
cy, develop eloquently motivational factors like incentives
or perks to continuously motivate them and also impart
knowledge to them and train them periodically so as they
become more ef?cient in their work. If the employees are
taken care of they will in turn automatically take care of
the organization and thus build a ?duciary relationship.
The HR department is facing the challenges which include
high attrition rate, absenteeism, and implementation of
innovative practices in the retail outlets. Hence, from the
study, it was found that the HR management practices in
the retail outlets are still in the initial stages of develop-
ment. The employee facilities and proper performance ap-
praisal measures will always encourage the employees to
achieve the best. Hence, the retail outlets should decide
and implement proper HR practices in order to retain and
develop the work force who are the assets for the devel-
opment
Therefore, the retail sector in India has been de?ned by
experimentation, risk-taking, trial-and-error methods. Its
manpower intensive nature and unique requirements have
resulted in human resource considerations taking on para-
mount importance for the sustainable growth of the sector.
doc_335277297.pdf