Panel: Emerging People Management Insights

Panel from L-R:

• Aditya Narayan Mishra, President (Staffing), Randstad India
• Ajay Kaul, CEO, Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd
• Dr Nitin Sanghavi, Manchester Business School
• Laura Whyte, Personnel Director, John Lewis

Does the retail industry represent an attractive career option for Indian youth?

Moderator: Prasenjit Bhattacharya,
CEO, Great Places to Work Institute

At the stage of lifecycle that we are in, retail industry does provide quality jobs and growth opportunities to the youth.

– Ajay Kaul, CEO, Jubilant Foodworks Ltd

As a employer, the retail industry requires the “5 R’s” – Recruit, Reward, Retrain, Refresh and Retain.

There is a huge skill set and knowledge base in the country that can be tapped by retail.
– Dr Nitin Sanghavi, Manchester Business School

The John Lewis People Management Strategy

• Define company culture in terms of employee behaviour
• Power and profit sharing. For example, the employees of John Lewis choose to work longer hours during Christmas sales with the knowledge that they will share greater profit at the end of the holiday season.
• Choosing leaders who can strike a balance between strategy v/s execution and legacy v/s transformation.
• Democratic engagement: At John Lewis, we run a magazine whereby employees suggestions are published and acted upon immediately.

 Laura Whyte, Personnel Director, John Lewis

The John Lewis People Management Model

How to bridge the skill gap in Indian retail?

• Retail requires more soft skills that technical skills.
• Hence, it is essential for employers to clearly define the kind of talent they are seeking.
• Skill gap is not a phenomenon unique to India – it’s a natural result of a high growth market. However, many retailers have come forward to invest in the right talent.

Aditya Narayan Mishra,
President (Staffing), Randstad India

How to bridge the skill gap in Indian retail?

• At Domino’s Pizza, we have a philosophy of “Make, Bake OR Take”.
  Everybody in the company must either Make  pizza, Bake it or Take it (to the customer). And anyone who doesn’t do that needs to help others who do.

• Thus, we glamorize mundane jobs like pizza delivery to make young people feel empowered.
• We have an active suggestion scheme which takes into account  and acts upon feedback from all employees irrespective of rank.  Out of 3000 suggestions received, 360 have been implemented.
• We have a policy of ‘No sub-Franchising’. Hence, everyone is part of the Domino’s family.

Ajay Kaul, CEO, Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd

“Front line employees need to see management “walking the talk” – i.e. ‘Make, Bake OR Take’

In Conclusion

“Glamorize mundane tasks to empower ground-level employees.”
Ajay Kaul, CEO, Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd