Novel ways to make internal customers happy

Ratnalaya Jewellers started fun activities to make sure that the new employees quickly fit into the organization and mesh with the existing team

Manoj Chakraborty

Ratnalaya Jewellers from Patna recently opened a new showroom in the city. To quickly familiarize the new employees with the organizational values and also make them bond with the existing team members, Ratnalaya Jewellers has recently started a new programme called ‘Fun- Do- Friday’ and ‘Fun-Do Saturday’. The entire staff of the jeweller’s new showroom meets every Friday and that of the old store gathers on Saturdays to play team-building games and engage in relationship-driving exercises.

Saket Kesri, director of Ratnalaya Jewellers, said, “We have around 70 employees and an entirely new team at the new store. So, the idea was to strengthen bonding and intra-personal relationships between staff members.”

Kesri thinks that healthy work related competition is fine but any unhealthy rivalry or conflict between employees is uncalled for and everyone should respect their counterparts. In the new store, 80% of the employees are fresh recruits, so it was important to tell them what Ratnalaya’s brand ethos is. “More importantly, the office is like a second home for employees as they spend most of their time here. So, it is important to make work fun,” he added.

As part of the new initiative, the team from one showroom, along with HR and store manager, meet an hour before the opening and play games such as passing the ball, Chinese whispers, etc. People are provide with refreshments too and must give a performance at the end of a game—a song, dance or something unique. “We always end up focusing on external customers. I think it is also important to take care of the internal ones who are our employees. In the end, if the employees serving the end consumers are unhappy, how can we expect our customers to have good experience,” said Kesri.

Courtesy: As published in The Retail Jeweller India magazine