The Hindu Business Line : Future Group to set up training institutes

Chennai, April 5 The multi-brand, multi-store retailer Future Group plans to set up training institutes in Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Kolkata this fiscal and is in the process of finalising infrastructure requirements.

Each institute will be equipped with classrooms, mock-training rooms resembling retail stores and a library and laboratories. The facilities will be used initially to train employees, but later will be open to the public.

Plan to cover 30,000

“We plan to cover about 30,000 employees in two years, with each employee spending about 15-20 days a year in training,” said Mr Kripesh Hariharan, Chief Human Resources Officer-New Initiatives, Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd — a Future Group Venture, without sharing investment details of this project.

Training would include retail-specific skills such as store management, back-end operations, customer service, language training (besides English and local language, employees will learn one other Indian language) and also cross-industry training in areas such as telecom, insurance, beauty and wellness and hospitality.

“This is our long-term employee retention strategy,” Mr Hariharan told Business Line.

Currently the company emphasises on multi tasking where an employee must be able to handle the front-end and the back-end of the retail operation.

But in the next 2-3 years one will see a convergence of services, he said.

“An employee will have to handle customers across segments like food and beverage, beauty, telecom and insurance.”

Such cross-industry training increases the career longevity of an employee giving him an option to move within various retail based segments.

A case in point is that employees from established businesses (such as Pantaloon, Food Bazaar) constitute up to 90 per cent of employee strength in new businesses started by the Future Group, such as insurance and telecom. It has also reduced attrition in the group, which is around 9 per cent compared to the industry average of about 20 per cent.

Talent pipeline

To build a talent pipeline at the managerial level, the company will tie up with 23 institutions across India for starting a postgraduate course in retail management. Currently, this course is available at Chennai Business School and Welingkar Institute of Management and about 350 students would graduate this year.

“We plan to double this number in a year, in line with our store expansion plans,” Mr Hariharan said.

There are over 90 Future Group hypermarket stores, including the 40 opened last year. Each hypermarket requires 150 people, while each Food Bazaar outlet needs 75 people. The Central chain of stores requires 300-325 employees each.

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