The Value and Importance of Training: The Case of Wal-Mart - Coursework Example

The Value and Importance of Training: The Case of Wal-Mart here (first/middle initial Your here Wal-Mart has been chosen as an organization that values training as an important tool to deliver excellent customer service to its customers. Wal-Mart’s retail activities are discussed to emphasize the role its human resources play in achieving corporate goals. Given the magnitude of its operations, how corporate values are translated to customer service through its employees further emphasized the role of training in Wal-Mart’s human resource management. Two trends in training were mentioned which included multi-media based training, and online, web-based training. Wal-Mart would be better off adopting a training program the combines the traditional ones with recent trends incorporating use of multi-media and web-based resources. The Value and Importance of Training: The Case of Wal-Mart Wal-Mart is a giant retail store with international operations spanning across the globe. According to its corporate website, Wal-Mart operates in 27 countries, serving its customers primarily through its retail outlets, on the internet, or through mobile devices (Wal-Mart Corporate, 2012). It employs a little more than 2 million associates worldwide, and is expected to earn about $444 billion for the current fiscal year. While Wal-Mart has international operations, it has maintained its North American character, having 80 percent of its revenues coming from its domestic operations. Accordingly, only 20 percent is being contributed to sales by its international divisions (Taylor & Archer, 2005). With the entrepreneurial vision of its founder, Mr. Sam Walton, Wal-Mart has become not only a big business for its sheer size of operations, but also a respected business entity for its phenomenal growth and ethical business operations (2005). Wal-Mart has been named as America’s Most Admired Company, following a Fortune Magazine survey of business executives in America in 2003 (2005). Its Chief Executive Officer, Mr. H. Lee Scott, has been quoted as saying that Wal-Mart “had never set a goal to become the biggest, but rather to be the best, retail company, as measured by customers, associates, suppliers, communities, and shareholders” (2005). Taylor and Archer (2005) were positive that Wal-Mart will “continue to grow” and looked forward to a “continued growth in all divisions”. Given the corporate success Wal-Mart has achieved through the years, what would have been the role training has played to achieve Wal-Mart’s corporate goals? This paper would attempt to analyze the value and importance of training in Wal-Mart’s corporate strategies, and how the current trends in training can further contribute to growth and success of the retail giant. What is Training? Wal-Mart prides itself for serving its customers “200 million times each week” (Wal-Mart Corporate, 2012), serving customers and members the way they want to be served. This is done by Wal-Mart through its first contact employees referred to as associates. Associates are recruited, hired, trained, and motivated to serve the company’s millions of customers who troop to the retail outlets each week for their grocery supplies. Associates are trained to give excellent and consistent quality customer service, as expected from a big company such as Wal-Mart. Contact with customers are also possible through online shopping via the internet or mobile devices. Through various corporate trainings, the company vision and mission of serving customers excellently are passed on to associates who come in contact with customers when they do their shopping online or in the retail store. Training and development is a human resource management function that aims to “improve productivity by increasing an employee’s ability to perform” (Nickels, McHugh, McHugh, Cossa, & Sproule, 2010). Investments on training prove to be a resource well-spent, as a “quality training program could lead to higher retention rates, increased productivity, and greater job satisfaction” (2010). It is impossible to maintain a certain standard of quality service, or produce a consistently high-quality product in the case of manufacturing firms, if no appropriate training is given to personnel responsible to do the job. Training gives the employees the knowledge, skills, and first-hand experience to do a certain job properly. If the job is done exceedingly well by a well-trained employee, this produces excellent customer service that meets customer satisfaction. Training is an avenue where new employees are introduced to the company’s history or its rich heritage, which can motivate employees to become better and loyal corporate citizens. According to Beemer and Shook (2009), training gives newly hired employees an orientation to corporate culture, values, and traditions. Employees are more motivated if they are aware of the rich heritage of their companies, as it somehow represents what they stand for, together with the corporate values and traditions of the company. Current Trends in Training According to Nickels et al, “training focuses on short-term skills, while development focuses on long-term abilities” (2010). Among the most common forms of training companies necessarily provide their employees to do the job properly include “employee orientation, on-the-job training, online training, vestibule training, and job simulation” (2010). For managerial positions, among the trainings provided include “on-the-job coaching, understudy positions, job rotation, and off-the-job courses and trainings” (2010). Current trends in training include the use of multi-media resources, and the use of online facilities to train employees. Multi-media resources include the use of CDs, while using online facilities usually refer to web-based training. Multi-media based training involves a facilitator teaching training participants a set curriculum, while web-based training calls for employees to take a self-monitored assessment of skills after a self-guided curriculum has been presented. Accordingly, the drop-out rate for self-monitored training is high (Heathfield, 2010). Training at Wal-Mart Wal-Mart does recognize the value of its human resources in delivering an outstanding service to its customers. Hence, it has placed greater importance on the value of training and development, both for its associates and its management executives. It has emphasized training and development as a “lifetime” requirement for its employees to undertake in order to be of continuous service to its customers that it professes to serve. According to its corporate website, training and development “is not a onetime event…it is an integral and on-going part of an associate’s life” (Wal-Mart Corporate, 2012). In order to maintain employee productivity, high morale, loyalty, and motivation, Wal-Mart needs to deliver a well-organized training program to its employees, to be able to maintain its top position in meeting customer satisfaction. It has to compete with many existing retailers for a slice of market share, and it will be a good strategy if Wal-Mart seeks the development of a highly skilled work force able to respond positively to the needs of its customers. This is done through an effective training program through the following suggested schemes: 1. Employee orientation – introduces new employees to the organization, the corporate heritage, cultures, and traditions, the hierarchy, and principles of excellent customer service. Wal-Mart’s website describes employee orientation as an in-depth personal orientation to corporate values Wal-Mart stands for (Wal-Mart Corporate, 2012). 2. On-the-job training – After a brief orientation, on-the-job training gives employees being trained a learning experience “by doing, or watching others for a while and then imitates them, right at the workplace” (2012). This is cost-effective, since employees are already working while learning the ropes. The supervisor has a responsibility, though, that customer service quality does not suffer when being rendered by the on-the-job trainee. 3. Online training – a possible option to train employees through the internet. Orientation to work place, such as routine work, equipment to be used, dress code, practices, etc. can be given online. Employees can assess their skills directly through self-directed exercises. 4. On-the-job coaching – is where a senior manager assists a lower level manager in learning the ropes of the job. This is similar to mentorship to be able to train future managers and leaders of the company. Wal-Mart should be able to design a responsive training program for its employees that combine the tried and tested results of its current training programs with the cost-effectiveness and efficient results being offered by online resources-based training programs. References Beemer, C. B., & Shook, R. (2009). The Customer Rules: The 14 Indispensable, Irrefutable, and Indisputable Qualities of the Greates Service Companies of the Workd. New York: McGraw-Hill . Heathfield, S. (2010, October 24). Training Trends. Retrieved from About Human Resources: http://humanresources.about.com/od/trainingtrends/a/training_trends.htm Nickels, W., McHugh, J., McHugh, S., Cossa, R., & Sproule, B. (2010). Understanding Canadian Business. McGraw-Hill Ryerson. Taylor, D., & Archer, J. S. (2005). Up Against the Wal-Marts. New York: AMACOM. Wal-Mart Corporate. (2012, November 3). Our Story. Retrieved from Wam-Mart Web site: http://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/ Read More