Retail cos look overseas for brand-loyal employees

PUNE: A combination of attrition, rising wage bill and lack of trained manpower is making retailers look at the alternative of bringing in employees from overseas. Among the first to attempt this is Just in Vogue, a chain retailing luxury goods like watches, pens, jewellery and soon, leather goods, which is hoping to start a pilot run by early next fiscal.

“Industry attrition in retail is around 30%, which is a huge cost, not just in money terms, but in training and opportunity costs. In stores selling luxury goods, customers need to establish relationships and they cannot do that if our employees are constantly changing. Internationally, very high-end retail is done through personalised attention,” Just in Vogue marketing head Manoj Subramanian said.

Just in Vogue was established by Shabbir Khorakhiwalla of the Akbarally’s and Wockhardt family, and Shailesh Sangani, creator of the Gili jewellery brand.

Mr Subramanian suggests, one way out could be to hire from overseas, from the world’s premier shopping destination — the Middle East. These employees would mostly be Filipinos, although Mr Subramanian said that was a loose term since there are other nationalities also present. Far Eastern, he said, covers all nationalities.

Mr Subramanian said they are planning to run pilots in 10 stores in five cities, bringing in a total of about 25 people. These employees will work in groups of two-three per store, starting April 2008. “We will run this on a pilot basis and see how it goes and then perhaps expand. After all, we have an estimated 20,000 expats working here, most of them at the high end. This could be the start of more expats coming in at a lower level,” he said, adding that these could be store managers or handling premium sales, which is behind the counter.

With better loyalty, Mr Subramanian was also confident of being able to lower his salary bill in sheer money terms. “Their salary requirements are not very high and since they are not prone to job hopping, we can show them a career growth path. The Far Eastern workforce in the Middle East usually insist on being provided with housing. But even on this issue, they are accommodative since they are willing to share and live together.”

Salary levels in the Middle East are in the $250-300 per month range, which translates roughly into Rs 12,000. Add another $200 per head per month on account of housing and food and the $500 total wage bill per month is preferable despite the higher cost to company, because of their loyalty and experience, Mr Subramanian said.