Retail staff at Courts (Singapore) Private Limited’s can now look forward to a Cheaper Better Faster way of working, with a positive spillover of sharing in the company’s gains.
The company, along with its union The Singapore Manual & Mercantile Workers' Union (SMMWU) and NTUC's e2i (Employment and Employability Institute), recently came together to sign an Inclusive Growth Programme (IGP) Memorandum of Understanding to raise productivity and service standards across all 12 Courts outlets.
With $150,000 funding from the IGP, Courts’ retail workers will be equipped with interactive mobile tablets. This makes the company the first to pioneer the initiative in the retail industry, specifically in furniture and electrical sales.
The tablet provides interactive product displays, service information and recommendations to enhance workers' product knowledge.
Workers can also be expected to be guided on selling techniques to understand customers’ situations and propose solutions through the mobile platform, addressing at the same time the problem of workers unable to attend classroom-based training.
Orders and payment can now be transmitted wirelessly, with the customers given a receipt to collect their purchases.
This is a breakthrough from the previous process where the sales staff needed to go to a designated computer system to enter the information and capture the sales.
A total of 224 local staff will be given bi-annual performance and tradeshow incentives as a sharing of company gains, in addition to other commissions and incentives. This translates to an increase of eight to 11 per cent from the current base salary.
SMMWU Secretary-General Emeritus John De Payva applauded the company for being a pacesetter and hopes the rest of the industry will soon follow. The union also looks forward to working with more retailers to explore how they can improve their productivity.
