The Hindu Business Line : Shoppers' Stop to tie up with B-schools to retain staff

Shopper's Stop intends investing between Rs 60,000 and Rs 80,000 for a three-year graduation programme, while an MBA would cost anywhere from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 1.7 lakh.

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Mumbai Feb. 1 Strategising an employee retention scheme, Shoppers' Stop is planning to tie up with B-schools, such as Symbiosis and Manipal Institute, to offer professional degrees to its ground level staff. Providing options for career development, the retailer is exploring ways of structuring the deals with these institutes to help finance degrees of its employees at the shop floor level.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr Govind Shrikhande, Chief Executive Officer, Shoppers' Stop, said, "All this time we have had upgradation programmes, but now we intend offering them on a bigger scale. There is a proposal to even offer two-year MBA programmes and we are talking to universities and B-schools such as Symbiosis and Manipal to structure the course and the financing options.''

Salary correction

With high attrition rates plaguing the retailing industry, Shoppers' Stop has been undergoing salary corrections to retain staff. "There has been a salary jump between 20 and 35 per cent for our employees, but now we have realised that retention is a function of career development along with salary and the working environment,'' states Mr Shrikhande, having doubled the performance bonus of the deserving employees.

Shoppers' Stop intends investing between Rs 60,000 and Rs 80,000 for a three-year graduation programme, while an MBA would cost the retailer anywhere from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 1.7 lakh.

Managerial staff

At present, Shoppers' Stop has hired 400 employees at the managerial level, while the bulk of its 2,200 employees at the floor level pose a retention challenge. "We intend increasing the number of the non-managerial staff to almost 10,000 and retaining talent is a challenge since there are other industries such as BPOs who are also gunning for them," adds Mr Shrikhande.

Addl degrees as incentive

With lack of graduates and even under graduates to cater to the demands of the retailing industry, the leading retailer has taken the onus of providing additional degrees as an incentive to retain and attract employees.

For instance, its customer care associates are being lured with post graduation and post graduation programmes. The employees would be facilitated with onsite classes, which could be downloaded on their computers. Additional hours would be given to them to complete their assignments apart from their regular work hours.

The financing terms and conditions for these courses would vary. It would range from full financing options to adjusting the fees over a period of time with the employees' salaries, all with the purpose of prolonging the number of years with the retailing chain.

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