Human Resource Practices in Organized Retail: A Study of Selected Outlets

Abstract

The human capital of any organization is largely responsible for its success or failure. Therefore, the human resource management (HRM) functions play an important and catalytic part in providing a competitive advantage to any organization. The organized retail sector has registered a burgeoning growth in the recent past and has given a strong fillip to the economy of India. This, in turn, has underscored the vital need for improved and more effective HR practices. Due to this direct association between human resource efficiency and organizational productivity, organizations have started paying more attention to the HR practices that they follow. This paper has tried to study the various HR practices in three selected retail organizations, namely, Reliance Super, Spencer’s Retail and Big Bazaar. The objectives of the paper were to analyze the human resource practices followed by the selected organized retail outlets in Greater Noida (UP), to identify various problems and challenges faced by HR managers in the execution of HR policies and to suggest measures to solve HR-related problems in the organized retail industry. It was found that training, performance appraisal, proper utilization of skills and abilities of the employees and career development were the major areas of concern. In terms of level of perception towards the HR practices, it was found that, in general, employees had an ‘average’ perception towards the prevailing HR practices in all the three organizations.

Keywords: Human Resource Practices, Organized Retail, Challenges

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