The service sector in India is witnessing phenomenal growth at the rate of 9% since the mid-1990s. This includes IT/ITES, retailing, tourism, media, education, healthcare, etc. However, the supply of suitably qualified and trained workforce to fuel this growth further is inadequate. Although India has a high proportion of low cost English-speaking workforce and a large number of technically and professionally qualified professionals, the advantages offered by these skills are not enough. Currently there is a mismatch between the vocational skills obtained by a number of fresh graduates passing out of tertiary institutions and the skills needed by the industry. Therefore, training and development activities have a great role to play in bridging this gap. Service professionals have to invariably deal with customers directly. Hence, they need to be equipped with soft skills in addition to technical and business skills. HR professionals have to ensure that HRD interventions equip employees with the requisite skills in order to ensure efficient service delivery, improve customer satisfaction, and positively impact the bottom line of the business.
This book offers a number of different perspectives with regard to training and development in the service sector. It can serve as a useful reading reference for HR professionals, business students, business teachers, and business executives.
The derivative book Compensation Management: Concepts and Current Practices endeavors to bridge the gap between the concept and the actual practice of designing and managing the strategic compensation system for an organization. Earlier, many business organizations did not find the need of spending high-level of effort, energy and time on the `Strategy' part of compensation management, as they did in areas like selling and marketing of products and services. One major reason for this is that the results and gains of strategic compensation management are difficult to measure and are intangible. Whereas, the results of the efforts in areas like selling and marketing are comparatively easy to measure. |
