PIRAMYD MEGASTORE

Piramyd, India's first Megastore for lifestyle products. Piramyd spreads across 3 levels in the mall and has over 30000 sqft of space in Crossroads. To a typical Mumbai Women, shopping normally meant endless rounds of bargaining, endless trips back and forth from store to store, pushy sales people and scarcely enough space to push their elbow. Piramyd Megastore broke all these conventional hassles of shopping for women. In terms of product offering, Piramyd has everything that a woman would want to buy and more less than one roof. It has the widest range ethnic wear, western wear, lingerie, nightwear, leather accessories, sunglasses, fine jewelry, and saris. The idea is to provide her with a complete basket of shopping. In a single visit she can choose to pick up apparels, go over to the footwear section to pick up complimenting footwear, browse for that matching leather bag, and end up her buying with some matching jewelry. No longer has she had to visit different shops at times in different location. To extend her shopping she can also look out for groceries and foodstuff from the Supermarket which is just a bridge away. Today's working women wants products, which are fashionable and yet affordable. All the products in Piramyd are showcased keeping in mind the price-conscious Indian buyer. Projecting a dynamic image for the youth, Piramyd reflects the latest trend in style and includes new range of clothing on an ongoing basis. The store targets the upwardly mobile women of today who lays emphasis on quality. She is particular about grooming standards and spends on keeping herself and her family well groomed. Dressing right is no longer a fashion statement. It is a revelation of her personality and that is lodged deep within her. A woman can express herself with a choice of apparels and accessories from Piramyd that essentially speaks for her. This does not come at a very high price. For a mere Rs 1200 she can choose to pick up a decent Salwar Kurta set, a

footwear starting from Rs. 400, a leather bag at Rs 400 etc. However depending on the spending mood, she can indulge in luxury and choose a Linarika designer wear label at even Rs. 4500. To keep her family well groomed too, the Indian woman need not go looking beyond. For the man or the big kid in her life, she can just climb up one floor and buy the exclusive shirt, the gorgeous ethnic suit, the top of the line blazer or just a beautiful tie to match. Not only does Piramyd offer the finest brands available in India, but it also offers a world-class ambience and service, with the widest choice. A woman can browse through the offerings to her hearts content without any pressure of buying through serene ambience in the classy glass and marble interiors designed by International architects. There is enough space for her to rest, take a break while shopping and then continue again. The staff at Piramyd is trained to be unobtrusive. They are there to help one make a choice or simply serve quietly and efficiently. With constant in-depth product raining, the Piramyd Staff offers service to all customers with a positive attitude, pleasant disposition and good communication skills translated into a motto, which reads we believe in service, we do it with pride.

Employee Value Proposition Since inception in 1999 we as an organization have been through various phases of business. We created a mark for ourselves in a the Organized retail sector and now are known as a retailing brand .The single most factor that will act as a catalyst to our growth are the Human Resources To attract and retain the best people, we add value to the life of our employee at every instant. We are constantly designing, refining and implementing HR processes and activities which touch our employees.

Our HR Proposition: WONDERFUL PLACE TO BE, AN EXCITING PLACE TO WORK As far as the Human Resource Department of Piramyd Retail Limited is concerned, it consists of highly qualified people who have achieved their specialization in this very field.

The organization Structure for Human Resource development and Personnel Department is as follows:

Piramyd Retail Limited is a company dealing with its customers directly and there is a direct interaction with the customer in the service industry, it needed its employees to speak and interact with the customer in an efficient manner in order to know the requirements and then suggest the merchandises accordingly. In order to that it was necessary for the sales staff to be more effective and hence to achieve this very target they need good people with good inter personal communication skills, good knowledge and a sound sense of humor. And this can be done only when an effective H.R. Department is in place.

Out of the 6 factors involved in the 360 degree appraisal system, they considered only 3 which are the colleagues, the supervisors and the sub-ordinates. Out of the pre-decided and the predefined methods & techniques for performance appraisal; it was identified by our project group that they used a combination of two different methods. The two methods are The Grading Method & The Graphic Rating Scale Method.

It takes nearly 2 months for the H.R. Department complete the whole process of performance and potential appraisal of all the employees right from the Store Manger to the Trainee Sales Associate of the firm. The foremost condition of the performance appraisal of an employee in PRL is that he / she should have completed at least a year in the organization. And also there are no performance appraisals for Part-timers in PRL. The appraisals take place in the months of April - May and the results are announced through a meeting which sees the attendance of the Manager Human Resources as well as the Store Manager of that particular branch store. There are 3 grades designed for the employees of PRL which are A OUTSTANDING B AVERAGE / GOOD C ADEQUATE. On the basis of the above 3 grades, all the employees are divided and placed among the above slots. Any positive or negative feedback from an individuals colleague, supervisor or subordinate sees him / her in the respective column. The Organization Structure for Piramyds Operations Department.

From the above given grades, only the individuals obtaining the topmost grade i.e. the A grade gets a rise in the post or only those individuals can climb the ladder of this organization structure. Although, most number of employees settle in the second grade i.e. the Average grade. However, these employees are only given a nominal increment of Rs. 450/- in their monthly salaries. On the other hand, for the apex achievers apart from the rise in the post in the organization, they are awarded with an increment of Rs.750/- in their monthly salaries. Whereas there is bad news for the employees at the bottom level, by terming them as the Adequate people in the firm. They are not given any sort of incentives or increments for that particular year and also are allowed to leave PRL at their request without any further hesitation. The process of appraisal is as follows: First of all, before the appraisal period, there is a meeting held, which all the employees on the lower or the higher post have to attend and it is mandatory for all. This meeting takes place at least a week before the original appraisal period starts. In this very week all the employees are informed individually about the date of his / her performance appraisal and hence his / her

attendance on that very appraisal day becomes compulsory. On a day nearly 4-5 employees are appraised. The employees are asked to be prepared for any sort of situations during the appraisals. As an important step of their career, employees also take it very seriously and do their work seriously before and after appraisals.

The employees are called for the appraisals along with their managers for his / her appraisal. 1. Self Evaluation: This is the first step in the appraisal process at PRL, where an employee has to rate himself from 1 6, where 1 is the lowest point, whereas 6 is the highest grade. The employee is actually given a questionnaire which contains approx. 30 questions. On these questions the employee has to award the points to himself. The questions in the questionnaire are based on the following important aspects of his Job Responsibility in Piramyd Retail Limited. Each aspect under this job responsibility is given a different weightage. The chart showing the different aspects of the Job Responsibility in PRL and their weightage is given below:

Job Related Questions: The employees are then asked the questions relating to their jobs, for instance, about the fabric knowledge, any extra knowledge that the employee shares while selling the merchandises to the customers, any further developments he would suggest towards the betterment of his own section, brand, or the store. The best suggestions are also given bonus

points. The employee is also enquired about his mobility to move to any other branch of Piramyd Megastore at any point of time. The positive response is given good points. he is also asked about the ultimate post that he would strive for in this particular organization and the ways of achieving it. if he is found capable and his means and ways to reach that position effective enough then he is given good ratings which fall under the Other Factors category in the above table. 4. The Results: The employees are rated accordingly from the questionnaires, the out comes of the arguments are also given significance and lastly the abilities of the employee judged on the basis of the Job Related Questions. the employees are judged on the following basis or distribution and cut-off percentages which are stated below:

And accordingly the increments are given in the salaries of the employees at PRL. personally as a group we feel that the performance appraisal standards at PRL are quite dicey and difficult as well, as a person in order to come true to these standards of the appraisal committee is very difficult as we inquired with a few of the sales staff deployed on the different levels of Piramyd Megastore. The response to the appraisal techniques had many people saying that they found in difficult to make it to the top 2 levels of repute and most of them landed up in the 3rd category which is of a bit embarrassing position.