A Giant LEAP Forward
T he biggest challenge for modern brick-and-mortar retailers is attracting and retaining talent. For the `8,600-crore Lifestyle International, which owns multi-brand fashion retail stores Lifestyle, Max and Home Centre, it was no different. In 2005, for instance, the attrition rate was as high as 80 per cent. The company felt it had to do something about this if it was to grow. “We focused on growth for the first four-five years. After we built scale, our focus shifted to quality of growth, which was dependent on hiring and retaining the right talent,” says Kabir Lumba, MD, Lifestyle International.
Like at any modern retailer, the highest attrition was among the front-end staff — common complaints included long working hours, low pay, and lack of growth opportunities. “We had a new employee joining or leaving us almost every week,” says B. Venkataramana, President (Group HR), Lifestyle International.
The company decided to first focus on the front-end staff and started offering flexi working hours and medical facilities. It also introduced Zumba and yoga classes to reduce employee stress. However, the game changers were initiatives such as LIFE (Learn, Implement, Fastrack, Expert) and LEAP (Landmark Education). While LIFE is an in-house programme to provide technical and soft skills to frontend employees and reward them for shop-floor skills, LEAP enables them get a degree in retail management. “We bear 50 per cent course fee in the first year. In the second year, we reimburse even the 50 per cent fee the employee has paid in the first year. The employee is offered a cash reward of `10,000 after the course,” says Venkataramana. “Quite a few employees have made it to the middle management level from store supervision on completion of the LEAP programme,” he says.
The company has also started a programme in which the HR manager and the store manager meet the employee the day he joins and take him through the job requirements. After 90 days, the HR team reconnects with the employee to gauge the challenges he is facing. “Almost 40 per cent attrition happens within the first three months,” says Venkataramana.
In the past three-four years, the company has managed to bring down the attrition rate to 35 per cent (the industry average is 50 per cent).
Priyadarshini Abraham, Associate Director, RGF Executive Search, says Lifestyle’s HR interventions have been a major reason for the company’s exponential growth. The company has been growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 26-27 per cent. “Their competitors may be bigger in revenue terms, but when it comes to taking care of employees and offering them a clear career progression, Lifestyle is several notches than the rivals,” says Abraham.