The NEW Shop's ‘Employee to Entrepreneur’ Program Rewards Its Front End Retail Employees
The NEW Shop, India's largest omnichannel convenience commerce company, has announced the winners of the first-ever ‘Employee to Entrepreneur’ initiative. Through this program, the brand has been selecting their store managers and training them so that they can progress in their career trajectory and eventually become store owners. The move is aligned with the company’s vision of contributing to India’s economic growth and boosting the entrepreneurial ecosystem both within and outside the company.
With this first-of-its-kind program in the retail industry, the company is going beyond the conventional route and is empowering its workforce to be future entrepreneurs. This strategic move will help The NEW Shop reach one step closer to its goal of emerging at the forefront of empowering entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship in the country.
Speaking on the same, Aastha Almast, Co-Founder, The NEW Shop, said, “We are the first ever brand in the history of retail to come up with such an innovative program. Our retail employees are our most deserving business partners, and this is our way of recognizing and rewarding them for their contribution. It will be a life-changing moment for the candidates and their families. This is a platform through which we have been able to identify great entrepreneurial talent within our organization. Not only will they be our business partners, but they will also have financial security and a progressive future. They will further motivate our employees to dream big and inspire others to work hard to achieve their goals and never give up. The idea behind this concept is simple- the more entrepreneurs, the more employment opportunities.”
In its first phase, the brand has chosen two top performing store managers out of the 15 shortlisted candidates - Paras Vaid and Shashikant who will now be the franchise partners. They will be independently running the stores (the ones they were managing earlier) at Noida and Banaras, Uttar Pradesh respectively as true entrepreneurs. The NEW Shop will assist them at all levels by providing them financial and marketing support, manpower training and tech capabilities along with the required expertise to ensure they achieve success in their new endeavors.
The candidates are chosen based on the eligibility criteria which takes into consideration the years of successful service at The New Shop, educational qualification, skill sets, industry experience, competency levels, leadership and social skills, business acumen and significant contribution of the employees in their current role of Store Manager. Other factors including sales target achievement, capabilities of inventory and stock management, credit rating, expertise in dealing with cash management and stock audit input are also considered. The brand further takes feedback from the operations team keeping the ops metrics in the purview, and relevant stakeholders.
Next, The NEW Shop compiles the scores to shortlist candidates. As the last stage of the process, they have to go through a panel interview with the founders. Additionally, Store Managers achieving more than 70% in HR evaluation and clearing integrity and disciplinary checks by HR managers are eligible for becoming store owners.
Taking this initiative, The NEW Shop intends to establish its employee-owned and operated stores in 2023. The brand envisions empowering as many store managers as possible to grow and own The NEW Shop stores in the future. This initiative also has been helpful in curbing high attrition rates of blue and gray collar employees within The New Shop, a challenge that has plagued the retail industry since the beginning.
