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Women take on the retail wave Are you a mother with a family to look after and feel that your professional life has hit the break? Well, the retail industry is a place to look at, as this sector is now taking more women on board to enhance customer service and trim attrition rates, writes Chanda P Kumar.

Thanks to our swelling pockets, the retail industry is a burgeoning one and according to Euromonitor International, the Indian retail market will grow in value terms by a total of 39.6 per cent between 2006 and 2011, averaging growth of almost 7 per cent a year. Of this modern retail accounts for about 4 per cent of the total retail market in India, which is expected to increase to about 15 -20 per cent.

With its huge growth, retail biggies are on a hiring spree to support and run their hundred odd stores of various formats. And here, the sector seems to have taken fancy to the womenfolk and demanding more women employees for better service and enriched store experience for the customers.

“Given that there is an overall huge demand for manpower, everyone irrespective of gender is in demand these days in retail. Having said that yes, I do agree that there is a demand for women but for specific requirements, formats, products compared to others,” says Rituparna Chakraborty, Vice President, TeamLease Services.

 

The fairer sex is the employers choice in the retail space specially with certain sections and product categories like food & grocery, cosmetics, kids, jewellery, home decor and apparels.

Why women?

So are you wondering why women are taking on the retail wave? Well, women are gifted with certain qualities, which are tailor-made to suit the needs of the industry. The ability to be pleasant, patient and effectively communicate with customers, are probably some of the unique characteristics, which make women more suitable for certain roles in retail. “There is a possibility that more of our customers are women than men in some of our formats like Reliance Fresh, Health and Wellness etc.

Women employees are likely to be more comfortable in dealing with women customers,” explains Bijay Sahoo, President & Chief People Officer, Reliance Retail.

With customer being the king for all retailers, women are quite expectedly becoming the preferred choice in most front end profiles, which requires constant interaction with customers. “Yes, definitely retailers are hiring more women. Also more number of women are now interested in retail due to increased awareness about the sector and growth opportunities it holds,” says Ashok G, HR Head for South Zone, Pantaloon Retail India, which runs retail chains like Pantaloon, Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar.

Given the high attrition levels, which are plaguing the industry, women seem to be a better option as they stick longer in the service industry compared to men and here retail firms are also targeting those who quit their jobs after going the family way. “With the dearth of manpower across the sector, retailers are trying every means to increase the size of the pie by adding the so called “outsiders” to the overall workforce by trying to attract housewives and women who have given up their jobs due to ‘child break’,” Ms Rituparna says.

According to TeamLease the retail industry has nearly 70 per cent attrition and any improvement to this statistics would have an immediate impact on reduction of the overall manpower costs.

“Attrition rate is definitely lower among women, I would say less than four to five per cent as compared to 8-9 per cent prevalent with male employees. Women are generally tolerant and look for long term prospects. Yes, we retailers definitely benefit by hiring more women,” Mr Ashok of Pantaloon says.  Though there is no are no reliable statistics, which give the strength of women workforce, it is estimated that the ratio is almost equal between men and women employees in the retail industry. “The demand for women is almost equal to that of men in retail jobs. Almost in 50 per cent front-ending profiles, women are preferred over men,” Ms Rituparna explains.

Taking to the trend

According to TeamLease many retailers across the nation have taken to this trend in recruitment including retail biggies such as Pantaloon, Reliance Trends, Shopper’s Stop and many others. However, few retail majors say that they are employing individuals based on their skills regardless of gender “Being an equal opportunity employer, we have not provided for any preference for women employees in our selection process. We are focussing on training all our people in etiquette, grooming, communication and customer service. We are assigning roles based on their competence and not on gender,” says Mr Sahoo of Reliance Retail.

Outlook

While at present there is demand for more women employees for front assistance, counter sales and store management, Ms Rituparna believes that there will be many more women in middle and senior level positions in retail.

“We are seeing more women as Business Heads, Functional Heads and other top positions in our retail brands since a couple of months,” says Mr Ashok. Going forward experts believe that women are expected to make a mark in other areas  of retail management in a big way.  

Source : Deccan Herald