Retailers today are faced with the challenge of ensuring enhanced customer experience and loyalty, while maintaining a healthy bottom-line. Most of them realize that the loyalty of the customer is directly dependent on the loyalty and motivation of its workforce. Just as the external customer experience impacts profitability, it is important to maximize the employee’s (internal customer’s) experience to increase job satisfaction, improve ambassadorship, and reduce employee turnover.

To keep the workforce engaged with the organization, a constructive communication channel needs to be fostered. Be it online peer discussions for professional support or getting recognized for a job well done in a social forum, the end result would be that employees get to enjoy their work, get motivated and become strong ambassadors for the organization. Many retailers offer their employees increased communication by deploying mobile applications to foster a constructive and engaging work environment.

• Manpower is planned by the square feet of retail space owned and adjusted for the relevant seasonal variations.
• Since customer service is the most overt and high volume activity in retail, employers must know and constantly validate employees’ personal and professional conduct.
• The question is how aware employees are of these facts or how these facts play a role in their work-life. Selling a pair of branded glasses requires an engaging and clinical approach, while selling fruits requires a passion for hygiene and packaging.

Imperatives for HR

Talent Acquisition & Development

• Establish connect between the employee and the brand
• Address talent gaps from within and outside, targeting young and temporary workforce for seasonal needs
• Addressing multiple types of workforce, including hourly, seasonal, and contingent workers
• Set up an unambiguous model of business conduct (how the staff should deal with customers in stores)
• Set up a retail-specific training calendar for staff
• Set up and monitor store-wise targets
• Develop a pay-for-performance culture
• Track employee movements (in and out of stores)

Compensation & Benefits

• Automate Time Management for staff and integrate with Payroll
• Reward employees for successful conduct
• Gamify the results of the training program and reward employees instantly
• Address the needs of multiple types of workforce— hourly, seasonal, and contingent workers—aligned to store-wise targets

Employee Empowerment

• Conduct employee satisfaction surveys
• Implement staff suggestion schemes
• Life Event Reporting

FieldCloud HCM solution

Planning

• Use Competency Models to define the model business conduct

Workforce Management

• FieldCloud Time Management system is tailored for all employment grades
• Use reason types to trace the drivers behind employee life events – why is an employee going on leave and how many times has this reason been quoted?

Recruitment

• Automates the entire hiring process
• Allows sourcing from multiple channels—internal, job referrals, job sites and social networking sites
• Facilitates onboarding with automated pre and post-joining formalities, enabling an employee to get productive quickly
• Develop a pay-for-performance culture

Talent Management

• The Behavioral Appraisal process allows Talent Managers to capture the results of a surprise check or a formal audit on the employee’s model of conduct

Employee Development

• Offers Training Administration that allow users to set up the training calendar and program, enroll employees, monitor their attendance, and capture their performance and feedback
• Allows managers to define how to spot and reward successful performers through the gamification framework and link results to Payroll

Payroll and Benefits

• FieldCloud In-memory Payroll (Minnal) may be harnessed for quicker results, given that Payroll is highly computation-intensive

Employee Self Service

• Employee Survey feature allows vital “employee speak” to reach the ears of Talent Managers
• Comprehensive in scope
• Opens uber-cool UI through the FieldCloud Workspaces concept – all the data needed to make a decision is presented as a chart for quick analysis and action
• Context aware—the software ‘recognizes’ and knows the users from erstwhile usage patterns
• Self Service available on a mobile device
• Employee Relations processes such as Grievances and Disciplinary action, enable automation of data related to employee conduct and behavior, and this is an integral part of safety reporting