Interview With HR Professional

HR Interview

The author of this report has been asked to conduct an interview with a human resources professional. The one chosen works for Dillard's department stores and the interview with that person was very revealing and illuminating. Topics covered include the company's background, the experience of the person, the degrees (if any) that the person possesses, how they progressed to that position along other important details. Other topics include the most prominent challenges, the union environment at the firm (if any) and what sort of orientation and training is provided to the employees. While people may think that retail is a simple field to work in, that is far from being true and Dillard's is no exception.

Analysis

As noted in the introduction, the person in question works for Dillard's department stores. While certainly not up there with Wal-Mart and Target, Dillard's is currently defying the odds and is hanging in there along with competitors like Macy's, Nordstrom's and JC Penney. Dillard's is a publicly traded company. Like Wal-Mart, they are headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. They have existed since 1938 and they have always had Little Rock as their headquarters. They deal primarily in goods such as clothing/apparel, home furnishings and cosmetics. Overall, the firm operates using two main segments, those being construction and retail operations. The departments in their typical stores include fashion apparel for women, men and children, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and some other assorted consumer goods. They have several store-specific brands that they sell including Daniel Cremieux, Roundtree and Yorke, Gianni Bini and Antonio Melani. They currently operate just less than three hundred standard stores, two dozen clearance centers and they also have a web portal to buy goods for those that prefer the online route (Yahoo Finance, 2016).

The person interviewed for this assignment was Deanna Ruffin. Her title with Dillard's is administrative assistant. She has worked within the human resources and/or Dillard's realms for more than a generation, clocking in at about 23 years total. Despite her large amount of experience within the field, she actually has no degrees or certifications in the human resources field. She also does not belong to any professional organizations. Even so, her duties include benefits, payroll, paperwork handlings and training of employees. According to Ruffin, the division of duties is pretty basic. The administrative assistant handles benefits, payroll and training. The store and assistant managers handle things like hiring, staffing, safety, training and development. Her start in the human resources realm came from when she worked in the sales audit field of the company. At some point, the store's management asked her if she would like to shift to the role of administrative assistant, which is where she currently still is. The store that she works at has nearly two hundred employees in total. About nine of them are salaried managers and the rest are hourly employees.

When asked if she finds the job and the associated events as a "rewarding" experience, she answered in the affirmative. When asked if the company is more team oriented or if they take a more traditional approach, she answered the former rather than the latter. When it comes to safety initiatives, there is not a lot of worries when it comes to safety as many of the items in question are light and easy to maneuver. However, stockers and anyone else who moves fixtures and stock are given strict training on how to lift, bend and otherwise operate when it comes to doing their job. Lifting with their legs rather than their back is a huge thing that is focused on and heavy items that come off of trucks and/or that have to be moved are done using teams rather than persons doing so on their own. Pallet jacks and other equipment is to be used in the proper manner. Horseplay and careless behavior in general is greatly frowned upon and is not tolerated. There are no incentives staying safe. Rather, there is the order that people need to follow the guidelines and those that do not do so are coached and/or disciplined depending on the severity and commonality of the offense. People that work in the dock area wear standardized uniforms. The people on the sales floor have a lot more freedom but are expected to look presentable and professional in their appearance.

Ruffin notes that turnover is rather high at the Dillard's. However, this is the case for most low-skill retail jobs. About the only position that is not high-turnover is management. Many of the employees are part-time rather than full-time and benefits are scant except for those that are hourly and that have tenure or managers. Benefits available to full-time employees who meet the right criteria include paid time off, health insurance and a few other perks. There is also a store discount. Part-time employees are usually college kids who are covered by their parents' insurance and/or people that need/get a second job for extra income. Of course, a lot of turnover at Dillard's is due to not meeting the aforementioned professional standards or due to not meeting sales quotas. There is an ebb and flow throughout the year. The holidays throughout the year are the busiest and, of course, the months of November and December are the peak time of year. Like most stores, Dillard's has "Black Friday" events and the store's staffing level is at its peak during that time. There is the use of seasonal temps to keep the store staffed during peak business so that customers are not left waiting and stock is not left unhandled.

Ruffin notes that the store is quite good at keeping job descriptions up-to-date and current. When there is a change in the duties for a certain job, a point is made to make the corresponding update in the employment procedures and forms. These are maintained electronically and employees are required to review them and acknowledge them as part of their job. There is a formal, yet fairly brief, orientation offered to new employees. There is also a good amount of on-the-job training offered to the employees. As noted before, the job is not all that complex but Dillard's does expect their employees to do the job the right way and the way that Dillard's corporate wants it done. As for the union situation with Dillard's, there has been a smattering of union activity around the retail sector and some companies are partially or fully unionized. However, Dillard's is currently completely non-union and there is no sign that this will be changing in the foreseeable future. Ruffin notes that a lot of the negative attention lobbed about when it comes to unions is falling on Wal-Mart due to their dominance and sheer size when it comes to revenues and number of employees. The Dillard's corporate team does have some charitable and other endeavors that they engage in but these things happen at the corporate level rather than the store level. Dillard's mostly associates with charities that are national in terms of scope rather than regional outfits.

As far as how human resources has changed as a field while Ms. Ruffin has been there, she notes that the Internet as a business tool was in its infancy in the 1990's as compared to what it is now. Nowadays, so much is paperless and automated whereas a lot of paper and pen was used in prior years. This includes both human resources specifically and the operations of the store at a broader level. A lot of the ordering of merchandise and calculation of sales/revenues is done in automatically whereas there was a lot more manual intervention needed in the past. The human resources forms and tracking is much more computer-based and driven as compared to the way it was when the internet was much slower and not nearly as user-friendly as it is now. The payroll function, which Ms. Ruffin is also involved in, has become entirely electronic except for paper checks for those that do not have bank accounts or pay cards. Another thing that has changed are the equal opportunity laws that exist. In the past, there was nothing pertaining to LGBT people, people with criminal records and some disabilities (e.g. alcoholism, etc.) but all of that has changed or is seemingly about to change in more recent years.

A third major thing that has changed is that a lot of people that would generally not be in the retail field are seemingly gravitating towards it. Ruffin suggests that this is because of the economy and its shift away from manufacturing and other fields in the direction of the service sector. She said this was especially true during the Great Recession from 2007 to 2009 when the jobless rate exceeded ten percent and a lot of people desperate for work would apply at Ms. Ruffin's Dillard's because they were out of a job or needed to earn more money due to hour or benefit cuts at other jobs. Ruffin notes that this was a challenge because the perception was that they were not experienced in retail and thus would probably not do well. On top of that, there was also the fear that the people who did do well would leave as soon as they could find a better job, which would typically be expected once the economy recovers. Ruffin says that this has happened but the rather slow economic recovery made that change more gradual than expected.

As for three challenges that Ms. Ruffin sees, she says that complying with the ever-changing human resources and payroll laws at the state and federal level have made for a challenge. This would include minimum wage, gay marriage laws and their impact on health insurance, non-discrimination laws, what is and is not considered a disability, what can and cannot be asked on job applications, whether people can be disregarded for prior criminal history and so forth. Another challenge, per the earlier talk of the changing job market landscape, is picking the best people in terms of who will perform the best and who will stay at the company the longest.

A third challenge that Ms. Ruffin cited is that there is a fairly common instance where younger employees and managers will be managing older employees. This is certainly a break from the past and some more mature employees do not take kindly to it. Of course, rank is what it is and people in management have the power to direct those that they manage. However, the seemingly reversed position that exists in some instances is a challenge to some older employees. For example, it is entirely possible that a thirty-year-old manager will be directing sales associates that are in their 40's, 50's and 60's. There are a number of reasons for this condition but it is absolutely existing and present.

As far as future trends, Ms. Ruffin noted a couple. First, she thinks that the continued struggles and pains being experienced by low-skill workers will continue. She thinks that some people are unable or unwilling to get skills that are more marketable but at the same time they refuse to accept that Dillard's or a job like it is the best that they can do. A second trend that Ms. Ruffin points to is that department stores and malls seem to be on the way out in terms of being a "thing" in the United States. She notes that JC Penney's is not doing so well and Dillard's isn't breaking sales records either.

This leads to the third trend that Ms. Ruffin cited and that is the fact that people will shop more and more online and Dillard's had better get on board with that or they will fall prey to the same fate as other firms that have not adjusted with the times. She thinks that online sales portals like Amazon and Wayfair will be the norm at some point and the brick and mortar stores, both department and general retail (e.g. Wal-Mart) need to adjust quickly and decisively. Ms. Ruffin is not sure if Dillard's is willing to do that or even if they have the proper amount of resources to do so. She says that only time will tell.