Wal-Marts Vision Statement - Essay Example

Wal-Mart’s Vision StatementTo become the world leaders in retailingWal-Mart has been in the industry since 1962. The company was started with a vision of becoming the world leaders in retailing. Over the past years the company has been able to gain the position of the world’s largest retail company and is thrice as big as its closest competitor. The company’s mission has always been to provide the customers with best products and services at reasonable prices. The company’s main values and beliefs are – respecting individuals, service to the customers and striving for excellence.

The company’s signature for almost five decades has been ‘Everyday low prices’. The company’s main stakeholders are the shareholders, customers and employees (Wal-mart, 2008). This report focuses on the backbone of the company the employees. The aim is to understand the current situation of the employees and whether the company’s vision is helping the employees achieve the objectives. Wal – Mart and its Employees:Wal – Mart has wide operations spread across 14 markets, 7390 Wal – Mart stores.

They company employees over 2 million associates. It is the largest employer in America. The company claims to give importance to the employee’s growth and careers. The company’s website claims to provide the employees with a competitive pay, skills development and health benefits for the employee and family. However a recent article in Business Week highlighted the fact that the company has been paying employees about $8.23 per hour, or $13,861 a year. This pay is well below the federal poverty line of $14, 630 for a family of three.

Other articles and studies have shown that the company pays employees a salary which is way below the poverty line and employees have confessed that they cannot live out of the pay received from Wal – Mart alone. The average hours worked by employees is around 40 hours a week. However the pay received is very low and for some of the employees it is just enough to live out of a Dodge truck (Greenhouse, 2005). The employee’s goals however are very different. Employees benefit from a company that is making profits which in turn would mean the employees being paid higher salaries and bonuses.

From the above discussion it is clear that employees do not receive any extra benefits in spite of the company making profits. A study showed that even though employees were given hikes in salary they did not really benefit from the hikes. Wal – Mart has institutes a new payment method. The company has placed a range for every job level and once an employee reaches the top of the pay range, the salary freezes and chances of pay increase is completely eliminated. The promotion system is also very poor and it has been noted that there have been employees working for almost 13-14 years in the company and have not been promoted (Gogoi, 2006).

Conclusion:Looking at the above facts and discussions, it is clear that the employees do not receive the benefits they are entitled to. Even though the company’s vision statement is aligned with the needs of the employees, the actual business scenario does not cater to the employee’s basic needs. ReferencesGogoi, P., ‘The flip side of Wal-mart’s Pay Hikes’, August 14, 2006, Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/aug2006/pi20060811_696579.htm, Accessed on 25 September 2008Greenhouse, S, 2005, ‘At Wal-Mart, Choosing Sides Over $9.

68 an Hour’, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/business/04wages.html, Accessed on 26 September 2008Wal-Mart, 2008, ‘About –us’, Retrieved from http://walmartstores.com/AboutUs/, Accessed on 25 September 2008