How could you Benefit

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Pantaloon (Retail) India Limited (PRIL) Kishor Biyani formed a company named Manz Wear Pvt. Ltd. On October 12, 1987. The company was converted into a public limited company on September 20, 19991. On September 25, 1992, the name was changed to Pantaloon Fashions (India) Limited and at the same time it went public and today it has approximately 14,000 shareholders. It has also evolved as a leading manufacturer-retailer in India.

The challenge

With rapid business expansion, the company employed over 800 people to service the needs of the customers visiting these outlets. The client was challenged with upgrading the communication skills of the employees dealing directly with the customers. In order to improve the quality of customer service, it was therefore necessary to improve the skills of the employees in the following areas:

• Accent / pronunciation
• Grammar (language connected and to be used at their workplace)
• Telephone / Social etiquette (language connected and to be used at their workplace.)
• Personal grooming; confidence building
• Personality development
• Positive attitude (the right attitude in a workplace and attitude towards the job.)

The solution

Pantaloon entered into a special training contract with English Centre. English Centre conducted a Needs analysis in order to understand the employees’ training requirements. The team of experts from English Centre met 700 employees from various departments and spoke to them in order to assess their knowledge of English language and found that:

• Some of the trainees spoke extremely faulty English.
• Majority of the employees could speak good language in their work situations, but failed to speak in general situations.
• Employees were very low in self-esteem and self-confidence.

This was followed by a customized and focused one and a half day training session. These training sessions were conducted at Bangalore and Vishakhaptanam. The course content was discussed with the HR of Pantaloons. During the training sessions emphasis was made on the language to be used in common work situations. The sessions included rigorous practice activities with a lot of interaction between the trainer and the trainee.

The benefits reaped

Today, the trained employees are better equipped with the language, high self-confidence and self-esteem. This has improved their performance at work with an apparent increase in their ability to work more efficiently before and after the training:

Estimated selling capacity of an employee before the training = Rs.500.00 per day.
Selling capacity o an employee after the training = Rs.1000.00 per day.