Pantaloon Retail bid to expand talent pool  ( April '11,2006, HBL)

Netting talent early is not the prerogative of the IT industry alone. The retail industry, faced with a similar talent crunch, is thinking up newer ways of expanding its talent pool. In a proactive step, the country's retail giant, Pantaloon Retail India Ltd, has decided to go ahead and create `its own resources'.

In a tie-up with four management schools across the country — Welingkar Institute of Management Development, K.J. Somaiya Institute, IILM, Delhi and Chennai Business School — Pantaloon Retail will make offer letters to all students enrolling for the MBA programme. At the end of the programme, students can take a call on whether they want to join the company. In 2005, Pantaloon snapped up 62 management trainees from this pool.

Pantaloon Retail, currently has 14,000 employees and is adding about 600 frontline and 60 managerial employees every month. In a departure from the industry trend, the retail giant has not opted for the temping route. Mr Sanjay Jog, Head-HR, Pantaloon Retail India (Ltd), says, "We do not believe in temp staffing because employees need the assurance of a career growth and do not like to be treated differently." Is the result, a better attrition rate? Industry estimates put retail sector attrition anywhere between 40-50 per cent per annum and Mr Jog says Pantaloon has managed to put the lid at 8.3 per cent.

Chennai Business School

A press release from Chennai Business School says that admission letters from the school and job placement letters from Pantaloon Retail are to be awarded simultaneously to 30 CBS students at the time of selection. The appointments will be in the areas of retail, marketing communications and HR.

The company will also sponsor five of its employees as students in the Retail Programme, says the release. The MoU was signed on April 8 by Mr Kripesh Hariharan, GM, HR, Pantaloon and Ms Minnie Menon, Associate Dean, and Prof A.S. Srinivasan, Dean, CBS.