Retail Store Management

Tutorial 8

Question 1:
· Who is responsible for employee scheduling?
There is fixed pattern for all Robinsons staffs which include, senior supervisors, assistant supervisors, senior sales associate and sales associates.

The pattern of the schedule is firstly designed and prepared by the Human Resource Management and the timetable is given to the staffs when they first joined Robinsons. After that, the Sales Manager and the Supervisors have the right the edit and change the schedules according to special reasons and activities of Robinsons conducted internally such as extra training sessions. The Sales manager of that department has to inform of any changes. Other reasons for changing include taking leaves and adjusting of schedule to go on a long holiday, etc. For each department in Robinsons, the schedule of each staffs is arranged together such as there will be available and ample staffs or personnel throughout the day, especially during weekends. Sometimes, the Sales Manager of the department will re-arrange the timetable for special reasons and inform his or her staffs.

· How far in advance is the schedule made?
The schedule is already fixed according to the pattern above. Any changes have to be done at least 3 days and the sales manager must be informed.

· How are breaks and lunch periods planned?
Break times for staffs having for their different schedules

· How are overtime hours determined?
Overtimes are determined immediately on that day and the manager or supervisor. It is recorded in a file for reviewing purposes weekly. The hours are clocked and given back where appropriate or upon the staff request to the sales manager.

· On what is the total number of budgeted employee hours for each department based?
The budgeted employee hours are based weekly or as required, sometimes as frequently as everyday especially for part-timers. Sometimes when the manger foresees that there would not be must sales for the day, he/she would send the part-timers off early by 2-3 hours hence helping the company in managing costs.
Also, full-timers especially if they are salesperson who get commission are forced to take no pay leave at least once a month when sales fall low and not much labour is required. This way, they plan out the number of hours that the available employees are supposed to work, also helping to cut down on labour costs.

· How is flexibility introduced into the schedule?
Flexibility has always been implemented and is part of the requirements of the employees to address and adapt to changes implemented.

· How are special requests for days off handled?
Special requests at the eleventh hour will not be entertained except for really valid reasons or emergencies. Due to the limited labour, it is difficult to cover up for a missing staff. However, if a staff happens to take leave, the rest are required to adapt and help to cover for the missing staff. For normal leave requests for full timers, it depends on the numbers of days of leave they can take. However they have to consult the manager before they decide to apply for leave.

· How are peak periods (hourly, days, or seasons) planned for?
Peak periods are usually planned monthly. Sales forecast is predicted by the marketing department and hence a monthly sales target is issued for each department of the store.

· What happens when an employee calls in sick at the last minute?
If an employee is called sick at the last minute, they are in fact encouraged to return home to take rest and seek medical attention. As Robinsons is a retail business, they prioritize customers as first and would not want to bring any harm to their customers by making an unwell staff to work.


E-learning:
Research Topic: Professional Skills Programme in Singapore
This programme is brought forward by Singapore workforce development agency. In another words, it is a programme by our government. This programme is subsidised by the government.

Professional Skills Programme
The Professional Skills Programme brings together the entire range of skills upgrading and job assistance initiatives under the programme. It targets the Professionals, Managers, Executives, Technicians (PMETs).

There are two main functions under this government programme. Skills conversion and skills upgrading.

Skills Conversion
Conversion Programmes enables PMETs to switch to a range of new occupations such as registered nurses, occupational therapists, preschool teachers, property officers, media and digital media professionals, workplace safety and health managers. This includes the Professional Conversion Programmes.

There are situations whereby an individual could not find a job under the set of skills he have. This may be due to reasons such as recession, an industry that has limited spaces for employment or other reasons. This workforce should not be neglected. Therefore the workforce agency came out with such a programme to re-equip this workforce with other set of skills such that they can go into the other industry to work. The ultimate aim of this skill conversion programme is to effectively distribute Singapore workforce to the available spaces of employment in Singapore.

Skills Upgrading
Helps PMETs to improve their skills and employability within the same industry. These include industry-specialised training.

Programmes that equip skills to an individual can be skill upgrading as well. Singapore workforce agency realise the importance of equipping the workforce with the newest set of skills such that the workforce remains competitive.

What has it got to do with the retail industry in Singapore?
This programme is supposed to benefit every industry in Singapore. However, this programme is tied closely to the retail industry for now and the next few years. This is because Singapore government is focusing Singapore finance on the tourism industry. It wants its tourism industry to be the biggest diversement against its port tradings, such that the financial state of Singapore in the future is more stable.

Evidence:
1) Biggest investment of Singapore in the recent years – The integrated resorts
2) Building a casino in IR helps in the boosting the tourism industry but goes against the culture of Singapore government.
3)The Singapore Tourism Board has set targets to achieve 17 million visitor arrivals and $30 billion tourism receipts by 2015

While it focuses in tourism industry, the retail industry flourishes. Here, I will like to highlight a point. The retail industry and the tourism industry is inseperable and co-exists. What happens on tourism industry will affect the retail industry, vice versa.

The tourism investments such as the the integrated resorts will find a surge in its manpower needs. The majority of these manpower demand arises from the retail industry. However, there will not be enough available workforce in the tourism/retailing industry to meet this demand. This is where the psp programme comes into picture. WDA aims to train 36,000 non-tourism workers to take on various jobs. This is the application of skills conversion under psp. By equipping available labour force with relevant skills such that they fit into the relevant industry. The retail industry will be greatly benefited by this programme, as there will be enough workforce to meet the demand.

A good example of how retail industry will be benefited by this programme is the casino. As such a retail format is not seen in Singapore previously, we lack expertise in this field. There is a lack of such a workforce, and therefore needs to be created. Psp skill conversion will be the function in creating such a workforce and then distributing it into the retail industry. In this case the retail industry being the casino.

As Singapore does not earn a good name in servicing customers, the government sees a need in improving the customer service level. This is an important factor in contributing to the tourism industry. This is where the skills upgrading function of psp comes into picture. By upgrading the customer service level in the retail industry, such that it flourishes the tourism industry.

Evidence: WDA is developing the Certified Service Professional programme (CSP), based on its Service Excellence Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ) framework.