The growth of multi-channel retail in India is translating to higher demand for human resource and the need to minimise employee turnover. Fortunately, Indian retail companies now are successfully implementing numerous initiatives to retain existing talent and foster a great workplace culture experience among employees.
In 2015, Great Place to Work® Institute (GPTWI) – India, surveyed nearly 5,000 employees from the Indian retail industry to measure the extent to which they found their organisations a great place to work. The study revealed that, overall, 72 per cent of retail employees expressed positive perceptions of their respective workplaces. What makes this study critical for leaders in the retail industry is the fact that organisations that are great workplaces best companies typically experience higher profitability, lower employee turnover, and are able to attract better talent.
Must Read:Â 10 Best Indian Retail Companies to Work For
GPTWI’s data is testament to the fact that employees from these companies truly appreciate the efforts made by their employers that result in pride in the organisation, an enjoyment of the work environment, and an abiding trust in management.
Here’s a list of retailers in India that have succeeded in creating great workplaces with the benefits they extend to their employees:
1Puma India
PUMA employees enjoy a wide variety of benefits that clearly display the level of care and respect given to them as individuals. For example, sick leave can be availed of not only for oneself, but also to take care of ailing family members. Support is extended during personal crises or family emergencies.
A congratulatory email is sent on special occasions, and employees are gifted vouchers of their choice. Paid maternity leave of 12 weeks before or after delivery is provided, along with an additional 12 weeks of unpaid leave, if desired; new dads can also take 10 days of paternity leave. PUMA extends support to employees with children with their education and child-care related expenses with a reimbursement policy.
Puma, which has an extremely young staff with the average employee age below 30 years, successfully engages them through a fun-filled sporting initiative called the Puma Sports League (PSL).
2Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt Ltd (McDonald’s India)
Sales Operating Income (SOI) is a profit-sharing plan at McDonald’s India, wherein a pre-defined percentage of profits are allocated to team members who achieve their targets and contributions towards store profitability.
Read: Hardcastle plans to invest Rs 750 cr to expand McDonald’s in India
This is an annual scheme with half yearly pay-outs. If the restaurant achieves over a certain percentage increase on the year till SOI per cent compared to the same year till date SOI per cent of the previous year, certain percentage of the increase will be awarded to the store management team.
There is no upper limit on the amount that be earned. McDonald’s India also believes that feedback from each employee is critical to their success. Therefore, they conduct and act on COSMOS (Crew Opinion Survey/Management Opinion Survey), an anonymous Employee Opinion Survey for employees to voice their opinion freely regarding the company and their work culture.
Feedback received through COSMOS is considered extremely valuable and is analyzed by management for continuous improvement, especially to make changes within the organisation as per employee sentiment. Such initiatives can enhance perception on management credibility. The company also makes it easy for employees to raise concerns and provide anonymous feedback through their Personal Action Letter (PAL) programme.
3Metro Cash & Carry India Pvt. Ltd.
The Metro Specialised Program for Accelerated C(K)areer (MSPARK) and Metro Supervisory Talent Enhancement Program (MSTEP) aimed to create a talent pool of trained employees in order to support the expansion of the organisation, make them an Employer of Choice, enhance growth opportunities for employees, provide aspirants with a rewarding career path in operations, address the growing gap between demand and supply of trained manpower, and ensure threshold skill sets for frontline operations in minimum lead time.
Read:Â Metro to prioritise existing markets to consolidate its position
4Jubilant Foodworks Ltd. – Ambition Club
‘Ambition’ refers to the company’s 3-year vision. Ambition is formulated by a committee comprising young managers spanning across departments with varied levels of experience in the company; they are called the Ambition Committee – Young Board.
Read: Infographic: Domino’s and the Indian QSR market
Involving young minds of the company ensures that fresh ideas are extracted while at same time increasing their sense of ownership. Being involved in strategy also helps young managers to connect their job to the larger picture. Employees at Domino’s India (Jubilant FoodWorks) are empowered to give away free pizzas to customers in case of a delayed delivery; delivery boys at Domino’s are not penalized for delayed deliveries.
5Titan Company Pvt. Ltd. – Ignitor
Through its Ignitor programme, Titan aims to tap into its employees’ entrepreneurial capabilities by allowing them to submit business plans for new businesses or extensions of the current businesses. Teams with shortlisted ideas are provided resources – including office space, seed funding, mentoring by senior executives – to execute their project over a 12-week period.
6Lifestyle International Pvt. Ltd. – Create A Ripple Program
This is a grievance redressal programme, the objective is to create an ecosystem where employees display high degree of sensitivity and empathy towards each other’s issues/problems/troubles which may be work-related or even personal. Colleagues are encouraged to provide solutions to others when they could, for example helping another employee find accommodation and so on. The programme helps connect an employee with an issue with someone who could help.
Read:Â Lifestyle India opens 55th store in Phoenix Marketcity, Bangalore
In case of serious grievances, an employee who needs help can be connected with the HR team. The company has also created ‘Lifestyle ka Genius’ for its frontline staff, a quiz-based structured learning initiative focusing customer service, product knowledge, store processes, brand details, grooming standards and retail specific concepts at the store like footfall conversion.
