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FRESH INSIGHT

Official HR-T&D Newsletter

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ENGAGEDP.3

Highlights of the Megamart Bahrain Employee Engagement.

7R1Q0 training achievers p.1

D&T-R 1st quarter Choithrams Training Achievers.
what is employee engagement?
Kunal p.2
Wadhwani tells the need to engage employees.

1st Quarter Starter p.6

HR-T&D achievements in the 1st Quarter of 2017.

A+ Practices p.7

Best Practices from select Choithrams Departments

1 FI CHOITHRAMS HR-T&D

TRAINING ACHIEVERS
1ST QUARTER 2017

BUTCHERS

MANOJ PANAPARAMBIL KESAVAN - THE GREENS SUPERMARKET
LIAN TORRES VARGAS - GREEN COMMUNITY SUPERMARKET

cashiers

MELODY BARENG PASCUAL - DEC MARINA SUPERMARKET

stockers

VISHAL KUMARAWAT - MANHATTAN TOWER SUPERMARKET
JITENDRA RAMCHANDANI - J3 MALL SUPERMARKET

AKHILESH KUMAR GURJAR - SAFA PARK SUPERMARKET
MARK KENNETH CANARIO - THE GREENS SUPERMARKET

2 FI

employee
Engagement?by Kunal Wadhwani

Employee engagement is a workplace approach Make them relevant and personal, and schedule
resulting in the right conditions for all members of an regular meetings to ensure progress is tracked
organization to give of their best each day. With a sense 3. Focusing on Strengths:
of personal well-being, it is about being committed to Those seeking to improve engagement should focus
organizations value system and be motivated to on the strengths of their staff, and on developing the
contribute, each day, to organizations success. areas where they are naturally strong. Where they are
Why is it important? weak, other members of their team will be strong, and
An engaged employee is one who feels a strong support can be given where needed.
emotional and personal connection to their workplace. 4. Carrying your team:
They’re enthusiastic and passionate about their work, Customers can get two different prices, for the same
throw themselves into tasks with maximum effort and product, from two shop floor representatives. In a
always want to achieve the best possible results. large team, it is possible to encounter one employee
Strong employee engagement will be a key factor to doing one thing, while someone else is doing
influence organization's success. Having said that, something entirely different, possibly at odds with
engagement cannot take place on its own. Certain what their colleague is working on.
factors include: At times, employees want to feel essential and it may
1. Being a Good Boss: lead to a feeling of insecurity. Therefore, keeping
People do not leave organizations, they leave Managers. everyone in the loop and fully aware of what they
Disliking their manager is one main reason why an should be working toward is crucial. Discussing,
employee will leave their job, and even if they stay it’s organizations/ department level goals regularly will
unlikely they’ll put in maximum effort. create a confluence.
2. Setting Achievable Goals: To conclude, as Richard Branson quotes, “If you take
Simple challenges to meet an arbitrary figure will not care of your employees/ teams, they will take care of
create employee engagement. You need to set the customers”.
meaningful goals.

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Highlights  of the Megamart Bahrain Employee Engagement.

“To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.”

-Doug Conant, CEO of Campbell’s Soup
What makes a good employee? When do you say that an employee is the best? How do you characterize an
outstanding employee?

For sure, many of you will have a plenty of answers to these questions. After all, we always want to have the best
so we can be the best.

The bigger question is, how do we get a hold of these type of employee pedigree? If you have them already, how
do you make sure you get to keep them in your team?

Employee Engagement is one of the best ways to attract and maintain quality employees. It brings about positive
behavior and affirmative attitude from employees, eventually leading to a collective and harmonious work
environment.

On 5th to 8th of February 2017, HR-T&D together with Megamart Bahrain organized a 3-day series of
engagement activities for retail, office and warehouse staff. 319 Megamart Bahrain employees participated in
different activities that showcased their skills and their untapped potentials.

Here are the highlights of the 2017 Bahrain Employee Engagement.

Bowling
Tournament

Store and Office Managers together with
the Warehouse and Office Staff showed
their bowling prowess in the Bowling
Tournament for Megamart Bahrain.

Obstacle Obstacle Challenge was
Challenge an activity that tested the
critical and strategic
thinking skills of the
Office, Retail and
Warehouse Staff. The
entire competition was so
intense but was still full of
fun and laughter.

Sandwich 4 FI
Making

The contest was participated
by Bakery Staff and F&V Stockers.
Contestants assembled the best
sandwich they can and through blind
tasting the winner was declared.

The task in this competition Visual
was to apply visual Merchandising
merchandising techniques
using General Merchandise Challenge
items. The fun meter was at
its peak in this competition
because the contestant
themselves served as human
mannequins.

Product This competition determined Task
Knowledge the fastest FMCG Hunt
Challenge The exercise challenged the Stocker who could
distinguish products and
product knowledge of Butchers place the correct price
and F&V Stockers. labels on the shelves.

Awarding The 3-day program concluded with a Rewards &
Recognition ceremony graced by no less than
Mr. Rajkumar Waghnani, the General Manager
of Megamart Bahrain.
Winners of the competitions were awarded with
certificates. Furthermore, employees who have
shown great dedication to their work were
recognized as Star Employee Awardees.
Certificate of Excellence was also awarded to
Supermarkets who got the highest audit scores
for 2016.

1st QUARTER STARTER
HR-T&D Milestones for the 1st Quarter of 2017

February January

Selected Choithrams Shorooq Butchers have undergone Customer Service
Mirdif staff got the chance to training with the help of MLA.
learn Basic Arabic. Managers got the chance to learn how it is to
The Choithrams JIP be an effective leader in the Leadership
team showcased how strong their Training conducted by James Vineeth,
bond is during the team building External Leadership Consultant.
session conducted by HR-T&D. Cluster and Store Managers were introduced
Bahrain Employee Engagement to the PMI initiated Step Up program. .
was a total success.
March

HR Training Audit kicked off in Qatar with 2
stores reaching the benchmark score.
The new staff of Megamart Qatar were given an
overview of NBK and Choithrams Group.
Megamart & Shopright Qatar's newly
joined Cashiers & Fresh Department Staff
experienced interactive Job Orientation session
with HR-T&D trainers. On the other hand,
newbie stockers learned more about their job
responsibilities through on-the-job training.

PRACTICES 6 FI

Employee engagement can be achieved even in the
simplest way. It does not have to be big & bold. Here
are a few of the A+ engagement practices of some
departments in Choithrams Group.

What's on your mind?

- Human Resource Department

How well do you know your co-workers? What are
their likes? What are their passions?
HR-Training & Development came up with “What’s
on your mind?” board to allow members of the
team to get to know and understand each other
more. To make it more interesting, cartoon
versions of each member were made to represent
them.
Each week, a new question is posted on the board
and members of the team should post their
answers on the board. Questions vary from life,
work and anything under the sun.
This exercise is a simple activity that keeps the
members of the HR team engaged. They get to
express themselves and also realize that they
have more things in common than differences.

Up Scaling Skills with
Up Selling

- Choithrams Umm Suqeim

One can say that employees are engaged when they are
eager to try something new to help the organization grow
its business.

This is how Shirley Ann Gallo, a cashier from
Choithrams Umm Suqeim, felt when the up selling
exercise was introduced to them. All the cashiers in the
said store were challenged to do "suggestive selling".
They were asked to promote certain products to
customers during check-out.

The Up-Selling exercise showed positive growth not only
with the sales but also with the cashiers’ confidence. For
Shirley she thinks that the exercise made her more
confident because she can now express herself better to
customers. She is also happy because she feels that
she is contributing something to her team.

The up-selling activity was a brainchild of the Umm
Suqeim Store Manager, Mr. Venkatesh Lakshmanan
with the supervision of Fresh & Super Cluster Manager,
Ms. Rehana Raj.

Speak Out When do you feel
engaged at work?

Mona Shah

HR Coordinator

I feel fully engaged at work whenever
something great is going to happen - whether
an event, a new initiative or an exercise where
I am involved. I feel engaged when I am given
an opportunity to contribute & maximize my full
potential. It keeps me going when I see
everyone in the team collaborating & having
fun working towards completing a goal. Indeed,
I am lucky & I am happy to be around with a
fully engaged team around me.

Jagdish Wadhwani

Export Manager

As an Export Manager I have a lot of
responsibilities, deadlines, meetings and so
many things. Even with my busy schedule, I
find time to chat with my team get to know
them; ask about their challenges; appreciate
them of any good things they have done or
just simply laugh with them. I do this because
that’s when I feel I am engaged at work. I
believe that work place should always feel
like your second home.

Neeraj Makhijani

Asst. Store Manager

Editorial Staff One is fully engaged at work when he is fully
absorbed and enthusiastic about what he
Sugar Espadera does. Just like me. I always make sure that I
Editor-in-Chief take the extra mile in everything I do to help
MDaannaigeinlgJEodsiteor the company achieve its goals. I believe that
when the company achieves its goals, I also
Geethashree fulfill my personal goals.
Jayakanth
Associate Editor Be a Fresh Insight Contributor

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