OFF SITE LIVE PROJECT REPORT ON DECATHLON

Submitted by

Atul Anand Gurav – PGDM2Shubham Vithal Parsekar – PGDM2

December 1, 2015

"We are working in the Retail Industry and that too in the Sports Retail Industry. What kind of Trainings do you think would be relevant for people working in the Retail Store and in the corporate office - general and specific trainings - what would be the methods adopted for Training".

Executive Summary

The report is written to include the solutions for challenges faced by

Decathlon in retail stores specifically issues in training. Training will include

hard skills (domain subject knowledge), soft skills (Attitude and

behaviour) required to overcome obstacles and to cater to the

challenges arising out of customers’ expectations.

Key Words: Valued Customer, Soft Skills and Hard Skills, Behavioural Skills, Competency Mapping.

LIMITATIONS

Further detailed work is possible, only on understanding the different skills and competencies that are present in each of the different job descriptions.While this exercise gives a flavour of the training that needs to be carried, it will vary from person to person based on the Boss' KRAs and performance appraisal. There will be a need to study each JD and the performance and the gaps and then suggest the training which is broadly classified in three headings:

Behavioural Domain Knowledge  Business Communications

For example: A sales person at the counter is very good in product knowledge, but has difficulty in helping the customer (of course, when asked) to decide on a brand, among a series of brands/products and to balance his ambitions and affordability.  Also, this sales person, may lack in the ability to negotiate (to carry out a promotion of products/brands when inventory is slow moving, in a particular store. Thus the possible areas for training would be:

a.Negotiationb.Customer stickinessc. Cross Sellingd.Competition Analysise.Collaboration and coordination among teamsf. team selling

Similarly, it can be worked out for a finance executive:a. Business Communicationsb. Recent compliances by RBI, SEBI, CLB, GAAP, etcc. Inter department conflict resolutiond. MIS generation and also helping the line guys to understand the P&Le. Team work

All assessment centres will be for determining the HIGH PERFORMERS AND HIGH POTENTIALS. The latter will be used for succession planning.

Thus, if we get an opportunity to work at Decathlon, we will help and support the HR team to decode the requirements for effective working.

Why Decathlon Project

It will give us an exposure in dealing with real life situation in the field which we are opting to specialise in and it’s an opportunity for us to

provide solution to the query and contribute in making a difference.

Pain Area

What kind of Trainings would be relevant for people working in the Retail Store and in the

corporate office - general and specific trainings - what would be the methods adopted for Training.

Brief about Company

Decathlon is a French Sports equipment and Sports-wear company founded in 1976. Sell sports products in more than 725 stores in 20 countries around the world and develop their own products under the flagship brand “Oxylane”

MISSIONTo produce and sell under one roof the right choice of attractive, qualitative and affordable products for amateurs in 40 sports.

OVER 40 SPORTS UNDER ONE ROOFThey currently sell products for more than 40

Sports covering an extensive range of more than 4,000 products to address the needs of all types

of users.

Probable solution

Behavioural Skills, Hard Skills (Domain Knowledge) and soft skills (Business Communication) are very much essential to both top management and people working in retail stores. Corporate office employees must have both the skills, as they need to get first-hand experience of various tasks which employees in stores goes through and this will better allow them to provide a good valuable input which will result in good performance of the employee and Decathlon’s sale.Every organisation needs competency mapping to get to know perfect scenario of employee’s competencies.COMPETENCY MAPPING is a process to identify key competencies for an organization or a job and incorporating those competencies throughout the various processes (i.e. job evaluation, training, recruitment) of the organization.

Steps involved in competency mapping.i. Questionnaire - Conduct a job analysis by

gathering from employees what they feel

are the key behaviours necessary to perform their respective jobs.

ii. Develop a job description – based on the results of the analyses after carefully analysing the input from the represented group of employees and converting it to standard competencies.

iii. The competencies of the respective job description become factors for assessment on the performance evaluation. Using competencies will help to perform more objective evaluations based on displayed or not displayed behaviours.

iv. Employer can use the results of employee’s evaluation to identify in what competencies individuals need additional development or training. This will help in focusing on training needs required to achieve the goals of the position and company and help the employees develop toward the ultimate success of the organization.

METHODS OF COMPETENCY MAPPING 1) Assessment Centre:

a) Group Discussions: In these, candidates are brought together as a committee or project team with one or a number of items to make a

recommendation on. In the work place, discussions enable management to draw on the ideas and expertise of staff, and to acknowledge the staff as valued members of a team.

b) Role Plays: candidates will be allowed 15 -30 minutes to prepare for such a meeting and will be given a short, general brief on the objective of the meeting. Although the assessment is made mainly on the conduct of the meeting.

c) Case Studies / Analysis Exercises: In this type of exercise the candidate is presented with the task of making a decision about a particular business case.

2) Psychometric Tests: Most of these tests are time bound and have a correct answer. A person’s score is calculated on the basis of correct answers. Most tests could be classified in two broad categories:

a) Aptitude Tests: They refer to the potentiality that a person has to profit from training. It predicts how well a person would be able to perform after training and

not what he has done in the past. They are developed to identify individuals with special inclinations in given abilities. Hence they cover more concrete, clearly defined or practical abilities like mechanical aptitude, clinical aptitude and artistic aptitude etc.

b) Achievement Tests: These tests measure the level of proficiency that a person has been able to achieve. They measure what a person has done. Most of these tests measure such things as language usage, arithmetic computation and reasoning etc.

Training for people in Retail stores and Corporate.

1. Behavioural Training2. Domain Knowledge3. Business Communication

Decathlon should inculcate a practise of transforming and considering their employees as Brands, by following certain training practises, so that the customers who is the boss , receives a rich and superior experience when interacting with Decathlon Brand’s.

1) Behavioural Training

i. Lively Orientation : Initial Training is very much important and crucial. One needs to know about the domain field in which employee is going to work. So the task here of HR training team is to ensure, he/she gets a detail description of the company work culture, policies, dress code, facilities available for them, individual job description.

ii. Positivity : The Smile on the face of employee can make a world of difference to customers from long and possibly chaotic day. More than communication part of staff, first thing a customer looks at the face of the staff, so it is very much crucial to enlighten the mood of employee so that it reflects on his face. The ability to smile in the face of employee a long and possibly chaotic day can make a world of difference to customersSuggestion: - This can be incorporated in Decathlon by playing a more of a sarcastic or humour related video on huge screen or television set in the store before the store opens to enlighten the employee’s mood.

iii. Building Team spirit : Coordination in a team is very important. If the Organisation like Decathlon need to flourish in market, than team spirit is required. If there is dispute or conflict among team members, it will eventually reflect in the way they behave towards the customers. Suggestion : - Organizing task related to teamwork which includes 5-6 employees once a week, which will also help in knowing and better understanding of each other and will help in maintaining better work environment.

iv. Confidence and friendliness : The confidence to make eye contact and strike up a conversation with strangers is absolutely essential. Customers don’t want to deal with sales associates who are not friendly.Suggestion: - Counselling session for those specific employees who think they are week in this soft skill.

v. Patience : - Dealing with people means that you will have to take the good with the bad. The patience to deal with all types of customers is vital. Not all

customers are same, different people have different attributes and way of communication which the sales representative attending them may perceive it to be different.Suggestion: - Stress interview rounds which will help gain confidence and develop the habit of maintaining their cool even in the worst scenario.

vi. Proactive : - It’s never a good idea to wait until a customer is stressed or agitated before offering assistance. Being one step ahead to gauge when someone needs help is the best way to minimize a brewing situation.Suggestion : - This activeness can be installed in employees through Motivational speech and stories about various personalities mainly from sports and Sales related field and their success story. This can be done by conducting assembly before the store opens.

2) Domain Knowledge:

i) Product knowledge : - A sales representative who doesn’t perfectly understand the product which they’re

selling, is a completely ineffective representative. They should be able to explain in detail how each product works, what business value it offers, and the reasons it appeals to company’s ideal customers. Material used in making of the product. Its alternate uses. What will the customer benefit from the product? Finally the price of the product.Suggestion: - To keep sales representative well grossed with the product information and the news related to it, company should display Ad’s around the stores so that it will help customers as well as sales representative while explaining to customer.

ii)Production process - Having an In-depth knowledge of the process through which the product has undergone through is always a plus point, it increases one’s self confidence and can handle any issue raised relating to it.Suggestion : - Organising a monthly visit to production plant will help sales representatives to be well aware of material and ingredients used in it.

iii) Exit counter handling : - This is the main place which determines whether the customer is happy with the service of the store or not. Generally in stores, staff handling the payment section are very inefficient in handling the card swipe machines.Suggestion: - Training the staff during induction and also providing training to some other sales representative so is to keep backup, in case of unavailability of trained employee.

iv) Training back end office (supply chain management):- Supply chain management is very much important because it ensures a continuous flow of goods at the right time. A person handling the back end office should be also technologically updated.Suggestion: - Training session organized for person handling supply chain along with software’s like SAP or Tally ERP which is very much essential to keep track of the items ordered by customers and accordingly how much need to be produced again.

v)Workshops : Conducting workshops will help to bring management team and store team together to drive customer service. It will help employees to understand the key features and benefits of Decathlon products, to enhance their confidence when assisting customers and to provide the skills to upsell and add on sales.

vi) On the Job Training : Decathlon’s Brands should provide coaching to Employees in the Decathlon’s Stores, through on the job training explaining about the key features and benefits of the products. Ways to improve on Selling skills and techniques. Employees should be encouraged to ask as many questions and to engage in role playing to increase customer service skills.

3) Business CommunicationHow sales personnel engage customers, can make or break a retail store.  It’s all about the initial engagement and how the engagement commences that determines how the rest of the shopping experience will go and therefore Soft skills plays a very crucial role. Following are the list of essential soft skills training need to be focused on.

Communication: Fluency in English is important, it portrays one has a good knowledge of the subject. But more than the fluency, the tone and voice modulation is very much important. Communication main goal is to tell the customers what is the problem a product or service will solve.

Suggestion: - To ensure fluency of English, company needs to conduct a session once or twice a week on English speaking in different batches, at a time when there are less customers in the store. Technology also can be utilised to help in improving the communication. E.g. – Use of karaoke mike or extempore.

Whether it's practicing effective verbal communication, being purposefully positive at work, or learning to work in teams or groups, any time invested into honing soft skills is likely a good investment. Unlike specific technical skills, soft skills are almost always transferable among jobs and even industries.

Conclusion

To conclude, we all know that training and development programs are important for an organization to develop the employee. Training aims at continuous self-development of the employees. They are expected to develop themselves continuously in an organization. When the employees in an organization are developed from time to time with all updated knowledge, then definitely that organization will grow to a greater height.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS1) Beebe, S., Mottet, T., & Roach, K. (2003), Training and Development: Enhancing Communication and Leadership Skills,

Pearson2) Bell, R. (2012), Coaching, Training & Developing The Retail Manager, CreateSpace Independent Publisher3) Bersin, J. (2008), The Training Measurement Book: Best Practices, Proven Methodologies, and Practical Approaches (Essential Knowledge Resource), Jon Wiley & Sons4) Brown, M., Leavitt, P., Lemons, D. & Vestal, W. (2004), Corporate Training: A Guide for Your Journey to Best-practice Processes, APQC5) Gulati, S. (2012), Corporate Softskills, Rupa Publication6) Kirkpatrick, D. & Kirkpatrick, J. (2005), Transferring Learning to Behavior: Using the Four Levels to Improve Performance, Berrett-Koehler Publishers7) Neo, R. (2009), Employee Training & Development, Business And Economics8) Stolovitch, H. & Keeps, E. (2011), Telling Ain't Training: Updated, Expanded, Enhanced, ASTD

JOURNAL ARTICLES1. Devi, V. & Shaikh, N. (2012), ‘TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT – A JUMP STARTER FOR EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE AND ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS’, International Journal of Social Science & Interdisciplinary Research, Vol. 1, No. 72. Hameed, A. & Waheed, A. (2011), ‘Employee Development and It’s Effect on Employee Performance a Conceptual Framework’, International Journal of Social Science & Interdisciplinary Research, Vol. 2, No. 133. Warr, P. & Birdi, K. (1998), ‘Employee age and voluntary development activity’, International Journal of Training and Development, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 190-204

WEBSITES1. http://redseed.training/solutions/2. http://www.retailtraining.com/ 3. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-corporate-training.htm