Tutorial 8

Retail Store Management Tutorial 8

Question 2

1. Discrimination – it means a bias that denies someone of opportunities such as promotions, selection and transfer.

2. Extrinsic reward - it is common reward that is expected by the employees and it will not lead to any greater satisfactions.

3. Intrinsic reward – it is an outcome that gives personal satisfaction. Example is such as one that derived from a job well done.

4. Job description - it is a written description of the specific jobs. It also includes the duty, responsibilities, scope and the working conditions.

5. Job enrichment - it means to add the level of responsibility of the employees. Job enrichment can also lead to higher level of job satisfaction.

6. Compensation - it is a direct or indirect benefit that the employees will receive from their employers. Example, direct benefits such as salary, allowances, bonus and commissions. Indirect benefits such as insurance, pension plans and vacation.

7. Commission – it is form incentives to motivate the employees. Example employees will get a % of commission from their sales so it will motivate them to push harder and also more discipline.

8. Labour scheduling - it is a tool to control and manage the company labour cost.

9. Job application form - a form for the employees to state their general information such as their contact numbers, education levels & qualification, address.

10. Shoplifting - the process of taking a retailer’s property without permission, ownerships rights which is illegal in nature.

11. Orientation programmes – it is a form training programme that educates the employees on the company’s policy, regulations, working hours, job representation and fringe benefits.


Question 3
The changing demographics in Singapore workforce:
1. Higher educated people
2. Aging baby boomers
3. Diversity of foreign talents

These following demographics factors will affect the existing staffs as they now have to compete with a group of higher educated people and also the influx of foreign talents. So the existing staffs have to show more diversity in the skills so that they can still be valuable to the company in addition to the better educated and also the foreign talents which is cheaper in labour cost. The management role will likely to become more competitive. The baby boomers are also most likely to lose out to the younger people but they still have experience that is valuable to the company.

It will also affect the recruiting efforts as higher educated people will only accept higher paid jobs, higher job positions and also more relaxing job scopes. So the retailer now has to look at foreign talents who can accept the lower salary and also the more challenging working conditions. While recruiting foreign talents they also have to retrain them especially their language command.

Recruiting efforts for local staffs also have to be more flexible so as to accommodate their high salary, low working hours demand.

E-Learning

1) How the employment acts help people interested in a retailing career?

Overtime Work:
In a retail career, one have to be more flexible in term of the working hours as there are times where we have to work overtime. So the employment acts come into action with the law that for any overtime works, the overtime pay must be paid within 14 days of the salary period. This ensure that anyone in the retail career will be paid according and on time. Furthermore, there is also a maximum of 72 hours overtime granted for regular cases only so on one are to work overtime exceeding that amount of hours.

Damage or loss of goods:
In the event where of damage to or loss of goods entrusted to an employee for his custody, or for loss of money which an employee is accountable for. No deductions shall be made unless the employee has been given an opportunity to explain the cause of the damage or loss and his reasons why the deductions should not be made. Except with the permission of the Commissioner for Labour, the total amount of such deductions must not exceed 25% of the employee's one month's salary, and such deductions may only be made on a once-off basis.
This have an impact on any person interested in a retail career as they have to handle many goods in a daily basis so there are chances that they may damage the goods. So will this law implemented, it will ease off some financial responsibility on the workers if such incidents did happen.
Employees’ Resignation
The employment acts stated that employers cannot reject any employees request to resign from his or her works.

2) How the employment acts help the retailer?

Termination of contract without notice

The employment acts help to prevent the retailer from taken advantage of, the acts state that the retailer can terminate a employees if he is absent from work for more than 2 working days continuously without excuse, medical certificates or with informing the employer. So this act helps the retailer by instilling discipline and responsibility into the employees. In a retail store, there must also have manpower to operate so if anyone is absent without valid reasons it will greatly affect the daily operations and even the sales.

3) How the employment acts help the retail industry?

Transfer of Employees

Under the employment act law, the employers have the right to transfer their staffs to another employer. In this way it can help the retail industry in a way as the company may set up a subsidiary brand so the retailer can transfer the staffs over for a temporary basis to stabilize the new brand. In this way the retailer can utilize their resources.

The employment act law also state that the retailer can transfer their staffs to a associated company or even to a totally unrelated company. In this way the resources is actually shared and utilize across the retail industry and it can save the trouble of finding and training new staffs.