Omara fine jewellery hires non-industry sales staff, finds success

Samarth Jaiswal, Director of Omara Fine Jewellery, feels hiring people from the same sector is a big challenge as experienced employees often tend to follow the system they learnt in their previous roles and are not ready to learn new things

In the gems and jewellery industry, it is common for jewellers to hire staff from the same background, making it easier for them to run their day-to-day store operations. However, Samarth Jaiswal, Director of Omara Fine Jewellery, has adopted a different strategy for recruiting people in his sales team.

According to him, adaptability is the biggest challenge in hiring people from the same sector. “Experienced employees often tend to follow the system they learnt in their previous company; they become used to it, and it’s their comfort zone. I have felt that they are not ready to come out of their shell and learn new things. So, for example, if four people are hired from the same industry, then it becomes a tricky task to handle all of them at one time,” says Jaiswal.

Another challenge, he says, is that although some employees have product knowledge, they don’t know how to give the customers a luxury sales experience. “At a boutique store like ours, where the majority of the customers are HNI clients, it is essential for us to hire people who can give a luxury experience. So, to overcome these challenges, I have decided to recruit people from other luxury segments, such as auto, watches, hotels, etc., since they already know how to cater to rich customers. Although the product is supreme in retail, it also becomes equally important to create an experience around the product,” says Jaiswal.

“The training programme focuses on identifying and removing the recruit’s shortcomings in selling jewellery suggestions. They are taken through the working culture of the company”

Samarth Jaiswal, Director, Omara Fine Jewellery, Chandigarh

For the past seven months, Jaiswal’s company has been successfully conducting in-house training; the newly hired people are inducted into training sessions that span one week. The trainee learns on the job from the moment, a customer walks in till the time they leave the showroom.

The training programme is divided into three parts: etiquette and personal grooming, the working culture of the organisation, and product knowledge. “First and foremost, the training program focuses on identifying and removing the recruit’s shortcomings in selling jewellery. After that, they are taken through the working culture of the company, such as how the employees need to greet and talk to the customers; which words they should use and which words to be avoided; how to present the product to the customers; which type of fragrance to be used, etc.,” says Jaiswal.

A couple of senior staff members and the senior management impart the required knowledge and skills to the newly hired employees. Apart from the theoretical knowledge, practical or dummy sessions are also conducted wherein a few staff members take on the role of customers and test the other employees on their product knowledge, etiquette and selling skills.

 A written exam is conducted after the training period to judge the product and brand knowledge of the recruits. Finally, an oral interview takes place with Jaiswal, who will decide the outcome of the training program. If the recruit is found needing more in all categories, such as product knowledge, etiquette and working culture, new training sessions are conducted.

The Retail Jeweller India