Page 266 - DMGT551_RETAIL_BUSINESS_ENVIRONMENT

Unit 13: People in Retailing: Making People Matter

standards we must indicate the level of proficiency required to meet the quality and quantity Notes
expectations. This in turn helps us to identify as to what can be the training needs for a new
employee or an existing employee. At the same time it guides the human resource management
department in giving reasonably logical feedbacks to the employees.

Training and Development

New developments are always taking place in the retail scenario. With the growth in retail the
consumers are maturing by the passing of everyday. In India, whatever you experienced as a
customer 10 years back is very different now. Retailing is the most dynamic field of business
management. With such changes in the field employees of any retail store ought to learn and
train themselves to meet the new challenges. This is one of the most important profiles of any
HR department. Training and development can take place in various ways. An organisation
may like to give on-the-job training to the fresh incumbent whereas, the oldies may be sent for
some advanced training to back up the vast experience which they already have.

Compensation and Benefits

The HR department of any retail business needs to have policy guidelines regarding compensation
and miscellaneous benefits to be given to the employees. For this the HR department needs to
know similar policies and guidelines in similar organisations. Benchmarking is very essential
as far as compensation and benefits are concerned. Compensation and benefits at any point of
time are the best way to satisfy the employees at the lower and middle level of management.

Labour Relations

The HR departments should know the rules and regulations with respect to labour relations. A
harmonious labour relation always argues the efforts of an organisation to achieve its goals. All
regional organisations besides having an HR department also hire legal practitioners for
consulting from time to time. This has become necessary since each state has got different set of
rules for human resource management with some standard rules.

13.6 Tasks Performed in a Retail Firm

We can broadly divide the tasks performed in a retail firm under four heads:
1. Strategic Management

2. Merchandising
3. Shop Management

Strategic Management

Devising and implementing a retail strategy. For devising a retail strategy the retailer must
have a very clear understanding and complete information of the following:

Target market
Different retail formats catering the target market
Present buying trends and preferences
Various tasks to be performed within the organisation

Accordingly designing an organisational structure

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 261