Employability Skills, Recruitment, and Training: Timbacourt Case Study

This case study analyzes the employability skills essential for the success of Timbacourt, a retail company expanding its operations with a new flagship store in the UK. The report details the job descriptions, roles, and responsibilities of both store managers and employees, emphasizing the importance of effective resource management, customer service, and sales performance. It outlines a comprehensive training program for junior managers, including orientation, training and development sessions, and personal development sessions to enhance their skills and align their goals with the company's objectives. Furthermore, the study explores various tools and methods used in the selection process for new staff members in Timbacourt's online business, such as screening and telephone interviews, highlighting the significance of IT knowledge and verbal communication skills in the e-commerce environment. The case study underscores the critical role of employability skills in driving business growth and ensuring the effective performance of employees at all levels.

EMPLOYABILITY
SKILLS
(A Case study analysis on
Timbacourt)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................12
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INTRODUCTION
Employability skills representsEmployability skills represent those skills, learning and
knowledge that are crucial for a person for being successful in a particular job. Employability
skills further help in getting the desired job to an individual and attaining attain growth in its
career. The significance of employability skills is not restricted to workplace where an individual
work, as they further assist in the overall growth and development of the individual
(Employability skills, 2015). Thereafter, these skillskillss include involve, communication skills,
managing information, personal management, problem solving ,solving, self learning and
adapting to changes. Therefore, these skills are significant for doing a job and carrying a positive
attitude towards job duties and work responsibilities. In this report, learning will be shown
regarding significance of employability skills for the human resource manager of Timbacourt. As
per given scenario, Timbacourt is a retail company providing high end fashion apparels for both
men and women. Further, in this report, significance of recruitment, selection and training
program will be explained.
TASK 1
Overview
By considering the provided case scenario, Timbacourt is intending to start new flagship
store in UK. The organization is already having a famous store in Westfield shopping center. In
addition to this, company is also operating effectively through its online business. However, to
expand its operations, Timbacourt is planning to develop new flagship store. In this respect,
company is recruiting and selecting new employees for vacant position at the management and
staff level (Raybould and Sheedy, 2005). Further, in this section the job description and roles as
well as and responsibilities of to be recruited staff personnelstore manager and employee will be
explained.
Job description at management level
Job Position: Store manager
Roles and Responsibility: To manage resources, both financial and human and use them
effectively for attaining the overall goals and objectives of Timbacourt. To manage the day
to day operations of flagship store and assure maximum profitability of store (Roles and
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responsibility of manager, 2015). Further, description of roles and responsibilities of manager
can be explained as follows:
Since, it is an its inception that Timbacourt is developing a brand new flagship store and
for this it require a responsible manager. The manager will be a key person who will be
responsible for the administration of new flagship store. Further, its duty of the manager will be
to to ensure effective operations of store so as to attain the overall goals of productivity and
profitability. Therefore, manager will be in charge for ensuring the smooth functioning of
Timbacourt's new flagship store. The key responsibility of store manager will be regarding the
recruiting new employees for store like, sales personnel, floor manager, cashier etc. The major
responsibility of the manager will be regarding administration of flagship store (Cassidy, 2006).
Therefore, manager will identify the resources which that will be required for the effective
execution of variousof various functions. Further, the resources will be allocated to each and
every task. However, it is duty of the manager to ensure the optimum utilization of resources.
For this aspect, the manager is required to prepare budget, where the need and requirement of
resources will be estimated and it will be allocated and allocation will be done accordingly
(Lowden, Hall, Elliot and Lewin, 2011). Further, manager will ensure that requirement of new
flagship store is met properly. For instance, there should be proper availability of all the
demanded products and services in flagship store. However, it is the responsibility of manager to
check there is no over stocking or under stocking of products and services within the flagship
store.
Further, major role of the manger is to delegate duties among other store personnel so
that proper services can be offered to customers. This will further help in managing the workload
during peak days like, Sundays when there is too much rush in the store. However, duties should
be allocated as per the capacity and capability and specialization of staff personnel (Mason,
Williams and Cranmer, 2009). For instance, new sales personnel lackpersonnel lack the skill of
solving customer query and giving appropriate solution, therefore this work should be delegated
to the more experienced employee. The major responsibility of store mangermanager is to check
that flagship store is meeting the desired sales target and earning revenue. Thereafter, the store
manager is in charge of maintaining the overall reputation of the store. Therefore, he/she should
ensure that appearance of store should be eye is eye catching, store should be is clean and
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products are displayed properly (Houston, 2005). Thereafter, the manager should check that all
the products and services as per current trend and current demand are present in the store.
Therefore, the success of flagship store is dependent upon store manager’s managers capability
and efficiency to large extent so, he must be selected appropriately.
Job description at staff level
Job Position: Store employee
Roles and Responsibility:
The store employee also plays an important role in the functioning of store. He/she
support the manager in attaining the overall goals of Timbacourt's new flagship store. The major
role of store employee is to provide effective assistance to the customer while they are making
purchase. Therefore, store manager help in marketing the products by demonstrating them and
describing about the detailing out the features and uses of product and explaining how they
match with the customers need. Therefore, it is also an important aspect that will help in boosting
the sales of flagship store (Singh and Singh, 2008). Thereafter, store employee will help in doing
marketing through point of sale by arranging mannequins so that they can attract the respective
customers. Further, the store employee will ensure that products are displayed as per the latest
trend, demand and prevailing seasons. For instance, in winter season, winter wears, caps, jackets
etc should be displayed. In addition to this aspect, it is the responsibility of store employee to
check there is proper availability of products and if any required product is short, the same
should be ordered from the supplier (Lowden, Hall, Elliot and Lewin, 2011). Therefore, stocking
the shelves, checking the product availability is also one of the main
responsibilityresponsibilities of store employee. Thereafter, the ambiance of store should be
positive and attractive. It is the responsibility of store manager to meet the sales target by
inducing the customers to buy the wide range of products and services offered in flagship store.
Further, the store employee playemployee plays an important role in retaining the brand loyal
customers and ensuring repetitive purchase from them. In this aspect, store employee gives give
warm welcome to customer, communicate with them in courteous manner and identify their
needs and requirement (Cassidy, 2006). Thereafter, store employee also provideemployee also
provides customer service by offering home delivery, dealing with consumers who need to
exchange the product etc.
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Training program for Juniorjunior manager
In order to ensure that recruited personnel's perform their roles and responsibilities in best
manner, it is important to give them proper training and development. This will also help in
identifying the existing skills and improving the lacking competencies. Further, training program
for junior manager will involve following steps:
 Orientation: It is the initial step of training and development program in which the brief
introduction about the new employee will be obtained by HR manager. Further, the
employee will be given an will be provided a introduction about organization, the overall
objective of Timbacourt. In addition to this, roles and responsibility of respective
employee will be explained to him/her. This will further help the employee in
understanding its area of responsibility and knowing what is expected of him/her and
how the duties will be performed by the individual to attain the goals of flagship store
(Wilton, 2011). Thereafter, Timbacourt's vision, mission, objectives and core competence
will be explained to new joined employee. Therefore, junior manger can consider them
while performing various functions. The orientation program will also help in identifying
the existing skills of individual and the areas in which training is required. Therefore,
training and development needs of individual are identified. However, the orientation
program should not be more than 2 days. The main objective of orientation program is
that it familiars the junior manger with the culture, structure and working style of
Timbacourt stores.
 Training and development session: In the training and development program, the skills
of employee will be enhanced that will further assist the help the individual in working
beyond its own capacity and capability. Further, training session will ensure that
employee gives his/her best performance while working in Timbacourt's flagship store.
Therefore, training will be provided regarding the duties which the job junior manager is
required to perform. Further, various skills of employee will be improved like,
communication, listening, analytical, decision making, customer service etc. Further, in
training program the adequate motivation should be given to junior manager so that
he/she can align its personal goal with its the organizations objective (Williams, 2005).
Training and development session will assist the junior manager in growing
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professionally. However, the initial training and development session should not be more
than 5 days. Further, the employee will be given more training as per work requirement
in the future. After, the training sessions, feedback can be obtained from new hire hires so
that loopholes in program can be identified for the future betterment.
 Personal development sessions: After, considering the feedback survey, the
management of Timbacourt can identify those areas where employee wantemployee
wants more training. Further personal development session will help in inculcating the
habit of ongoing learning within an individual. Therefore, junior manager can improve its
personal skills which that will help in performing better at its workplace. It will also help
in developing positive attitude towards toward work in junior manager.
TASK 2
Tools and methods used in selection process of new staff members for the online business of
Timbacourt
According to the provided case scenario, the organization is planning to recruit new staff
for managing the various functions of Online business. E-commerce will help Timbacourt in
reaching the vast segment of customer and enhancing the productivity and profitability of
business enterprise. With the wide use of internet and other digital technology it has become
significant for retail company to do online business. The online presence will also help
organization in building strong brand image and generating awareness about its offering among
customers. Further, the success of online business will depend upon the employees and other
personnel's operating the e-commerce site (Benefit of online business). Therefore, they must be
selected properly by management. Further, various tools and methods that can be used for
selecting new staff members are as follows:
Screening: This is a initial step of recruitment process , that help in determining whether
the prospective candidate meet the required qualification and knowledge for a job. The screening
process will explain up to what extent job applicant meet the basic criteria compulsorily required
for doing job effectively in e-commerce website (Selection technique). For instance, for online
business it is important for employee should have proper knowledge about IT and computers,
basic knowledge about software, programming etc. thereafter, screening will also disclose
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whether the job applicant have followed the application instruction or not. Further, in appropriate
candidate who are not suitable for doing job should be eliminated after screening.
Telephone interview: The candidates selected in first round will be
qualified for telephonic interview which will be second round selection tool. This will help in
identifying the verbal skills of employees. The main advantage of telephonic interviews are, they
are cost effective, time saving option. Therefore, in this interview prospective candidate can be
asked whether he/she is interested in doing job or not. If the reply of candidate is negative he/she
can be eliminated. Further, if the reply is positive than various question regarding past work
experience and other basic question can be asked (Cassidy, 2006).
HR Interview: The candidates who gave positive reply and performed exceptionally
good can be called for direct interview with HR manager. In this process, the salary and other
requirements of employee will be identified (Wilton, 2011). The job role, responsibility and job
description will be provided to prospective candidate. The main objective of HR interview is to
ascertain best suited candidate for job as per the knowledge, qualification, acceptance of pay
structure etc.
Skill assessment: For doing online business, prospective candidate require technical
expertise therefore, they must be assessed before making final selection of candidate. Therefore,
the computer competence will be checked. Further, various elements can be checked like, is
candidate capable of doing online marketing or not. In addition to this, whether candidate can
remove bugs from e-commerce sites or not. The creative, decision making, critical thinking and
analytical skills of candidate are identified (Lowden, Hall, Elliot and Lewin, 2011).
In addition to this aspect, background is checked after selecting the candidate. This reveals the
prospective employee is indulged in forgery or have criminal record. Thereafter, health is
assessed by doing pre medical check up before hiring employee.
Development of recruitment strategy
By developing recruitment strategy, the management of Timbacourt can ensure effective
execution of recruitment process. Further, management of company can also involve new and
innovative recruitment tools like, video conference, social media and gamification. The
gamification involves using game design techniques and factors to identify the creative skills,
challenge accepting skills and sportsmanship of individual. The video conference is another cost
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effective methods in which one to one interview of person situated miles away can be obtained.
Further, the social media gives a wide platform to HR manager of Timbacourt to invite large
number of skilled, competent and creative individuals to apply for the job. Apart from this,
assistance can be taken from career website where individual looking for good job can be
approached (Innovative recruiting strategy, 2014). The recruitment strategy will ensure that
management determine why people will like to work for them and than use same factor for
inducing people to work for Timbacourt. However, company can also use internal and external
sources for recruitment process. In internal source, the employees working in Primer product
company or store at Westfield complex can be promoted and selected to work for Timbacourt
online business. The main objective of internal recruitment will be that existing employee will be
well aware of the functioning and internal affairs of company. This will save the cost of
induction and other training programs. However, HR manager can also ask existing employee to
refer a suitable candidate who can work for organization. Further, external recruitment process
will help in hiring young, talented and dynamic individuals (Mason, Williams and Cranmer,
2009). The employee having experience in online business can be hired through external
recruitment process. Further, the skills of individual can be assessed by management and how
they can be helpful for online business can be determined. Thereafter, for finalizing the
prospective candidate, written test, verbal test and psychometric test can be used. The best suited
candidate according to the test can be selected for doing job in Timbacourt online business
(Raybould and Sheedy, 2005).
Impact of online business
With the growing presence of internet media, it has become essential for Timbacourt to
do online business. This will help company in targeting the large segment of customers. Further,
it will help company in ensuring global recognition and increasing productivity and profitability
of organization. At present, customers like to purchase those products and services that are easy
to buy with minimum efforts. The online business give 24*7 hours availability to customer’s.
Hence, it is most convenient platform for buying high end fashion apparels. Further, online
business will also assist Timbacourt in showcasing wide range of products and services offered
by company to its customers (Benefit of online business). With few clicks, consumer can get the
information about wide range of offerings by the brand. Thereafter, online business also remove
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the problem of overstocking and under stocking. Only the products available for sale would be
displayed on e-commerce site.
Further, the online business will also assist company in building strong interpersonal
relationship with prospective customers. For instance, company can provide separate section on
its e-commerce website where management can directly interact with customer, answer their
queries, identify their needs etc. This will further help in developing sound relationship among
company and employee (Wilton, 2011). Likewise, management can also use social media
platform which will help in knowing customers personally. Furthermore, online marketing will
also facilitate the marketing of Timbacourt high street retail business. In this respect, marketing
can be done on e-commerce website by displaying attractive products etc. In addition to this
aspect, for social media marketing banners can be designed, pages or social groups in the brand
name of Timbacourt can be designed. Therefore, company can target domestic as well as
international customers (Raybould and Sheedy, 2005). This will further result into recognition at
global level. Hence, it can be concluded that there are ample number of benefits of online
business. Overall, it will have positive impact on the growth, productivity and profitability of
Timbacourt. Further, it will make simple for customers to approach the brand and its other
business.
CONCLUSION
In a nutshell, it can be concluded that employability skill are very important for getting
desired job and work successfully in an organization. The prospective store manager and
employee for Timbcourt will be selected on the basis of employability skills possessed by
him/her. Thereafter, the job description process will help the selected candidate in knowing its
roles and responsibility in Timbacourt new flagship store. Further, selection tools will assist
management in selecting right person for the right job. Thereafter, for recruitment process
company can use modern techniques like, gamification and social media. Further, there will be
positive impact of online business and will boost the sales of retail products.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cassidy, S., 2006. Developing employability skills: Peer assessment in higher education.
Education+ Training. 48(7). pp.508-517.
Houston, D., 2005. Employability, skills mismatch and spatial mismatch in metropolitan labour
markets. Urban Studies. 42(2). pp.221-243.
Lowden, K., Hall, S., Elliot, D. and Lewin, J., 2011. Employers’ perceptions of the employability
skills of new graduates. London: Edge Foundation.
Mason, G., Williams, G. and Cranmer, S., 2009. Employability skills initiatives in higher
education: what effects do they have on graduate labour market outcomes?.
Education Economics. 17(1). pp.1-30.
Raybould, J. and Sheedy, V., 2005. Are graduates equipped with the right skills in the
employability stakes?. Industrial and commercial training. 37(5). pp.259-263.
Singh, G.K.G. and Singh, S.K.G., 2008. Malaysian graduates’ employability skills. UNITAR e-
Journal. 4(1). pp.15-45
Singh, G.K.G. and Singh, S.K.G., 2008. Malaysian graduates’ employability skills. UNITAR e-
Journal. 4(1). pp.15-45.
Williams, C., 2005. The discursive construction of the ‘competent’learner-worker: from key
competencies to ‘employability skills’1. Studies in Continuing Education. 27(1).
pp.33-49.
Wilton, N., 2011. Do employability skills really matter in the UK graduate labour market? The
case of business and management graduates. Work, Employment & Society. 25(1).
pp.85-100.
Online
Benefit of online business. n.t.d. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.business.qld.gov.au/business/starting/business-startup-options/business-
online-basics/benefits-business-online>. [Accessed on 18th December 2015].
Employability skills. 2015. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.conferenceboard.ca/topics/education/learning-tools/employability-
skills.aspx>. [Accessed on 18th December 2015].
Innovative recruiting strategy. 2014. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.recruitingdivision.com/innovative-recruiting-strategies-for-2014/>. [Accessed
on 18th December 2015].
Roles and responsibility of manager. 2015. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.halogensoftware.com/ae/learn/how-to/roles-and-responsibilities-in-a-best-
practice-performance-management-process>. [Accessed on 18th December 2015].
Selection technique. n.t.d. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.shell-livewire.org/home/business-library/employing-people/recruitment-and-
selection/Selection-techniques/>. [Accessed on 18th December 2015].
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