Human resource in retail: Challenges, issues & opportunities

Retail sector is a dynamic industry that includes many different employment positions and these retail workers are recruited by human resources departments to represent retail businesses to the customers. Retail means working and serving customers in direct personal way. This calls for special action from retail companies to fulfill the demand of an increasing number of well informed and sophisticated. In view of all the changes in both national and international contexts, it is absolutely essential to have the right people if a business is to be successful and sustainable. Nowadays, customers play a very important role in retail industry. In retail industry employees are highly visible to the consumers, retailers must select and train employees carefully, especially care about their manners and appearance. Retailing is a major labor intensive industry sector. Therefore, companies are continually to re-organize and adopt their structure to become more efficient. The necessity for part time workers, because of long store opening hours and peaks in the trading day/week, requires a flexible framework to optimize labor processes. Some of the main challenges faced by HRM in retail sector are High employee turnover, constant recruiting and training etc. Expressively, the workforce needs orientation and vision in changing times. Human resource management (HRM) has to provide a coach, not only to organize but also to support employees and management mentally and professionally in fulfilling their tasks in terms of future company goals. People are the driving force behind all transactions that occur in retail outlets. In the future world of retailing, there will be an increasing need to adopt and change toward a more formative and proactive style of Human resource management (HRM).