Franchisor Management

HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT

The Human Resources Department was headed by Ms Lim Soh Buay, the Human Resources Manager  with at least 20 years of experience as a human resources practitioner with the assistance of 2 Officers and a Clerk. The total workforce of Watson's was about 550 people throughout West Malaysia. The main function of human resources was to recruit the staff for the operation in the Klang Valley as when and where needed. For the outstation stores, the Store Managers were empowered to recruit and trained by the management in the stores. It was compulsory for a newly joined staff to undergo the induction training and on-the-job training for 3 days upon reporting to work before placing them at the specify store in the Klang Valley. However, when there was an urgent basis, some of the newly joined staffs were send to the shop floor before they had the chance to undergo the proper training.

The turnover for the sales personnel were high in Klang Valley compared to the outstation stores.Through the exit-interview that was conducted in Klang Valley, the following were the reasons

of the high tumover:-

1. Wider job opportunity even though at this economic downturn as more new giant retailers were opened such as Tops,Giant etc.

2. The working environment in Watson's was humid and hectic especially at the busy stores such as Watson's Kota Raya and Sg Wang. Both stores generated the highest sales compared to other stores.

3. The sales personnel felt that there were no career development for them.

4. Relationship with superior - was only a one way communication whereby store management only gave instructions and orders without any guidance to the sales personnel.

5. No proper training as sometimes the store management did the recruitment themselves without the knowledge of Human Resources Department.

6. Salary was not attractive compared to the workload that need to be done as Watson's had different promotions monthly.

7. The sales personnel found difficulties to understand in the language being taught as most of the training modules were in English. Majority of the sales personnel were only Form 3 and Form 5 dropouts.

Besides that, the other reasons were some of the staffs were terminated by the management due to dishonesty and mishandling of cash money and they were immediately sent to the police.

OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT 

Ms Ho Lai Lan , the Operations Controller joined Watson's since 1997. Prior to that, she was attached with KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) for 17 years and her last position was as the Country Manager before joining Watson's. As the Operations Controller, she was fully responsible for the total operations in all the outlets throughout Malaysia.

BUYING DEPARTMENT 

Buying department was led by Catherine Williams, the Merchandise Controller which was based in Watson's Singapore. She was assisted by 2 Merchandise Managers i.e. Ian Cruddas who was in-charged of the Toiletries and Cosmetics Department and had only joined the company 6 months ago while Loo Chii Shian, a qualified Pharmacist was in-charged in the Confectionery and Pharmaceutical Section, had been with the company for the past 4 years.There were 2 Buyers and 4 Buying Assistants to perform the task in the Buying Department.

The task of Buying Department were as below:

a) plan for centralized buying
b) plan for centralized promotion
c) plan for the layout design
d) negotiate with suppliers on the trading terms and pricing

Despite the monthly centralized promotion which was planned one year ahead by the HQ (Head Quarters), Catherine still receive complaints from the operations on the ordering of stocks to be allocated to the stores. There was no proper planning; all was done on ad-hoc basis. Some of the store did not receive the promotion stocks although the promotions had already started or quite often, there were insufficient stocks to be sold to the customers. For ordering of stocks, the Buyers decide the quantity of stocks to be ordered. This had raised dissatisfaction among the Area Managers on this issue. Many times, during the monthly meeting with the Buyers, they brought up this matter. Their argument was that since the management staff in the operations knew best which stocks were top sales and which were not, they were the best person to do their ordering of stocks instead of the buying department.