Retail Talent Management- Subin Soman

Retail Talent Management, often times referred to as Retail’s Human Capital Management, is the process of recruiting, managing, assessing, developing and maintaining an organization’s most important resource—it’s people! Retail Talent Management is a new concept evolved in the Retail industry. Not much study has been done on this particular area of interest till now. Very few companies like Accenture, Nike, etc. have conducted study on Retail Talent Management.

Challenges faced by the retailers in this process are:

· Measurement: Analysis of the correct metrics across a broad range of strategic talent management and training practices has a very significant impact on workforce performance.

· Foster innovation and manage change: New strategic initiatives can be more effectively implemented and the organization better positioned to manage through the inevitable "boom–and-bust" cycles if there is constant innovation of processes.

· Technology: New technology can be applied in innovative ways to convert the retail workforce into a driven, operationally excellent, informed and accountable unit.

· Create a participative culture: Fostering loyalty and a high level of engagement among employees at all levels of the company improves performance.

· Align skills/training with business goals: Only when this is done does the workforce contribute to overall company performance.

· Reduce costs without sacrificing performance: Innovative models—including shared services and outsourcing—help provide better talent management and training services at a lower cost.

It helps in efficient and effective management of the retail staffs by following ways:

· Attracting and recruiting qualified candidates with competitive backgrounds

· Managing and defining competitive salaries

· Training and development opportunities

· Performance management processes

· Retention programs

· Promotion and transitioning

Objective of the Retail Talent Management is to get better productivity on walk in & improve franchisee profitability through better management of retail manpower.

Purpose of Retail Talent Management

1) Identification of area which need immediate improvement and provide faster solutions for them

2) Gather information on current status of staff skills & training needs.

3) Set up process for sourcing of right profile and enhancing skill level among staff

4) Implement the processes & evaluate them timely for improvement.

Measures of Success

Financial indicators

Increase in net sales of targeted stores

Operational indicators

MSP rating of stores

Attrition rate

Individual performance tracker

Failures in Retail Talent Management may be more recognizable than the concept itself. Those failures mean mismatches between supply and demand: Too many employees, leading to layoffs and restructurings on the one hand, and not enough talent, leading to talent crunches on the other.