Rijish Raghavan lists skills that employers are looking for in job aspirants in the retail industry
Indian retail industry has come of age and has emerged as one of the most dynamic industries in the world. Newage retail is fast becoming an attractive career prospect for many graduates who are aspiring to build career in the retail sector. The employer of today is also looking for skillsets that match up to industry standards and are adept at acclimatising to the changes and accordingly perform in an effective manner. Jobs may vary from specific internal requirements to representing the company at the store front. Hence, it is imperative that a candidate has sharp, analytical and number sensitive approach to handle a job in retail coupled with competent people management skills.
Changing retail landscape scripted a new trend in the job market. let’s at look some of the skillsets that an employer from the retail sector is looking for.
Communication: Retail sector demands tremendous amount of interaction across platforms. People in retail need to communicate with customers, buyers, employees, and employers. Genre that any retail company deals with, vary in categories; ranging from general floor supervisors, buyers, internal and management employees of the organisation to the most important asset in a retail industry — “the customer”. Another important part of communication is listening. Here an employee needs to be smart, savvy, effective and most importantly — should be an excellent listener. Another job function retail employers look for is strong product and quality knowledge. Presentation skills are a crucial function, and the ability to display know-how about the products is a must have.
Customer Service Experience: There are certain customer service skills that every retail sector employee must master if they are forward-facing with customers. They need to be positive and helpful with customers, helping them make purchases and deal with any issues during or post-purchase. Employees should be able to interact with customers under all kinds of situations. Customer service skills can enhance business in many ways, including financially and socially.
Technical skills: Retail jobs need candidates to be adept with the latest technical skills, as this is a digitally driven industry. Information Technology plays an important role in this sector, and any candidate who demonstrates strong IT abilities, will have an added advantage. Companies, today, use IT platforms to analyse and understand the consumer behaviour matrix. It is also a skill, which is needed for structuring and understanding billing methods, strategising product pricing, social media promotions to mention a few.
leadership: This is a sector which requires people who demonstrate leadership qualities. Creating teams and managing relationships between internal and external customers are a must have. Any employer looking out for employees focuses on individuals who are multi-taskers with people-centric skills. Another skillset which employers are looking for is to manage stress. Retail requires multiple tasks to be completed simultaneously, this needs employees to be focused and manage difficult matters such as irate customers, billing issues and many more work-related matters that may crop up during a general day. These instances showcase an employee’s resilience and display of maintaining a calm and cohesive work environment.
Focus on business: This is a crucial skill. Business focus and efficiency to increase sales or the acumen to show abilities to project high sales focused initiatives means that a candidate is highly suitable for the industry. One needs to have a larger vision and quick decision-making abilities. Another important factor which is equally measurable as any other, is self-discipline such as maintaining work ethics and turning up to work impeccably dressed; because, a manager in a retail store cannot look shabby and unkempt.
Effective negotiation and critical thinking are also imperative skills. Critical thinking helps professionals to think out of the box for the business and devise a roadmap for its growth. Strategic skills coupled with sound business acumen are fundamental in shaping relevant strategies for organisational growth. Employers need employees who are focused and excellent customer acquisition managers. While doing so, they look for people who are goal oriented and driven by numbers. This is an industry driven by numbers, if the industry were to lead on a single band, without the numbers, the retailer will not survive. At the end, regardless of anything else, the above skillsets are important must haves.
The writer is VP, Payback, India