The retail industry has began to boom but there is no source to get people who are professionally trained for the job.
To counter this crisis, TeamLease Services, a staffing solution firm has recently tied up with Manipal Universal Learning of the Manipal Group to provide a short term retail programme for front end staff.
The course grooms individuals with limited qualifications ie 10 std or 12 std in basic skills such as spoken English, customer service, handling the cash counters/register, window dressing and so on. “Retailers have already tied up with business schools and other institutes for talent in the management level, but the real crisis lies in the front end, which is why we have introduced this course,” says Rajesh A R, Vice President - Temporary Staffing, TeamLease. Speaking about the shortage of manpower in the industry Mr Rajesh adds that the problem is not the gap in demand-supply of talent but attrition, productivity and training. TeamLease has adopted a HTD (hire, train and deploy) model wherein TeamLease selects students from various locations in Karnataka, Manipal provides the training after which TeamLease guarantees jobs in diverse job profiles in the retail sector.
The two-month residential programme comes at a fee of Rs 13,000. “The students are put on weekend part-time jobs at supermarkets and other retail formats to gain practical experience, as well as help them fund some part of the course,” Mr Rajesh explains. With this module, the retail company’s training expense is deferred as well as the training period is cut down by 80 per cent, says Mr Rajesh. According to Teamlease, the salary earned by these students is 20 per cent higher than the industry average for a fresher which would typically be Rs 3500-4000.
Besides training in vital skills required for the retail industry, the programme also throws light on the bigger picture of the industry and the job prospects it holds for the future. “Higher pay and career orientation would influence them to be associated with one company for a longer period, and we hope that this would infact curb the attrition rate to some extent,” opines Mr Rajesh.
TeamLease, currently has 50 students from Bangalore and other Tier II locations like Belgaum, Kolar for the first batch, starting September, 2007. The company plans to start this module in Hyderabad and Chennai soon. Currently, TeamLease has more than 4,000 retail clients. According to TeamLease, at any moment the demand for jobs in retail industry is  over 8000 vacancies in India.