Building Quality Organization Wal-Mart Inc - Example

Building Quality Organization (Student Name) (Course No.) (Lecturer) (University) (Date) Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Company Introduction 3 Question 1: HRM and Strategic Management 3 Question 2: HRM and organizational Objectives 5 Question 3: Organisational Philosophies, Structures and Strategies 7 Question 4: Training needs for future management potential. 10 Question 5: Employee Performance and Evaluation 12 Question 6: Human resource Issues and the impact on the organisation 13 Conclusion 14 References 17 List of figures. Figure. 1: Walmart competitive advantage strategy. Figure 2: Company Employment Trend Figure 3: Wal-Mart's HRM Strategies Figure 4: Strategi Human resource system standard model Building Quality Organization Company Introduction For the purpose of the analysis, Wal-Mart Inc. had been selected in developing a strategic HRM. Wal-Mart is one of the renowned and largest retail and grocery operating in more than 14 countries. It is the largest supermarket in the United States and faces stiff competition in the market from Morison, Tesco, and Sainsbury and ASDA. Nonetheless, from a global perspective, its major competitor is Tesco. The company employees more 470,000 people and prefer hiring fresh graduates. The major focus of the management includes respecting the employees, trust, teamwork, and supportive environment. Moreover, the analysis focused on indicating the HR plan of the company and critically evaluated the role of HR in contributing to and affecting the strategic plan. The report also evaluated the importance of the current, future, and anticipated HR requirements and manner in which organizational strategies impacts retention and recruitment of staff. Question 1: HRM and Strategic Management The quality of the HR used in any organization determines the company’s success in the competitive market. Therefore, HR plays an important role in ensuring organizational success. HR ensures efficient utilization of the organizational assets as well as ensuring increased production rates. Employees often develop their business culture, which distinguishes a company from other institutions. It is important to note that institutional financial resources are only important since they offer the means of attaining the proposed target; consequently, such activities require HR to build up towards organizational development. Each organization has its business aims, objectives, and progress towards such aims, which are measurable through evaluation of the business efficiency. However, in Wal-Mart, several factors are involved in such evaluations: production, financial calculations, and marketing. In most cases, the organizations fail to bother to relate their organizational strategy with the policies, procedures, and plans for the human resources. It is important to understand that not all HR are similar. Thus, people possess a distinct level of competencies, skill, and knowledge with the company utilizes to maintain is a competitive advantage. Through efficient utilization of the HR and business strategies, the organizations are likely to achieve their desired outcomes (Skariachan & Wohl, 2015). Wal-Mart performs such activities intelligently through measuring the competency and skill of each HR since misjudgment of the evaluation might result in risky operational activities. Besides, the HR strategy differs from the business strategy. The company uses different business strategies: cost leadership and differentiation strategy as shown below. Figure. 1: Walmart competitive advantage strategy. With regard to cost leadership strategy, the company reduced its production cost to capture the low cost competency. As a result, for the strategy to work effectively, the company made long-term investments, found the distribution channels with the lowest costs, focused on detailed reporting, and analysis of various aspects of the market with an aim of finding the low-cost business activities, measuring accountability, and simple business design. To meet such business needs, Wal-Mart’s HR policies responded through describing specific duties and responsibilities of the available personnel, conducted a cost-effective training programmes for the employees that created awareness the cost cutting methods, and focused on the regulations. The company also uses differentiation strategy. As a strategy, the company differentiates its products from those provided by the competitors through offering unique features. The aim of every differentiation strategy is to ensure the provision of high-quality products and related services that meet specific needs of the potential customers. The company used various activities to acquire its competitive advantage through differentiation strategy including development of new innovative products and features, focusing on stocking products of high quality, and development of its brand image (Bergdahl, 2010). Integration of the HR strategy and differentiation strategy within the company involves recruiting skilled and experienced personnel, market researchers, training the workers to enhance teamwork, and development of the performance linked compensation and reward system. Such activities aim to increase motivation among the workers to promote innovation and outsourcing some organizational activities. Question 2: HRM and organizational Objectives The major objective of the strategic planning is to ensure effective exploitation and identification of opportunities while minimizing the associated risks through coordination of the initiatives and company goals. Consequently, the company has to distribute resources appropriately to yield the desired outcomes. It is significant to involve the HR roles in each step of the progress. Any successful implementation of the guiding principles at every planning level often maintains the perception value of the HR function and profession (Human Resource Planning Society, 2008, 114). Furthermore, another factor that reinforces the role of HR is the fact that they shape the functional policies, procedures and plans, and ensure effective management of the resources to enable sufficient activities through coordinating the management systems of the performance system to the strategic plans. The company perfected its suggestion of having an efficient strategy of the HR to increase its competitive advantage. HR development and improvement of the workers throughout the company is its major strength. The organizational functioning of the company currently thrives in the positive progression owing to effective HRM. The market is becoming highly competitive that the HR department has to be active and ensure recruitment of result oriented employees. With the deteriorating global economy, human lifestyle is changing which makes it difficult for the organizations to makes adjustments to meet specific needs of the customers. Moreover, regulations are as well becoming stiff that the HR has to ensure compliance with employment and workplace regulations. In some cases, omissions of such factors might lead to high management cost due to the increased compensation cost for the affected employees. Experience and skills are important factors during selection as they determine the salaries and wages of the employees. These factors are changing the nature of employment, which even the HR roles more complicated. Workforce planning is a process involving evaluation of the company’s future requirements and each employee with regard to their skills, locations, and numbers. Planning allows the company to decide on the mechanisms of fulfilling such requirements through training and recruitment. The market is becoming highly competitive with new groceries and food chains coming into the markets. Moreover, the needs of the customers are continuously changing which makes it important before the company to make certain important adjustments. To achieve such objectives, the company has to hire employees on a regular basis for their food and non-food products (Kaufman, 2001, 522). Usually, the company creates positions whenever it begins a new store or prevail as the workers quit their jobs, retire, and get promotions throughout the company’s branches. Other factors creating jobs within the company are the progresses associated with advancement in technology. The company provides opportunities for ensuring efficient career development to its HR; as a result, Wal-Mart encourages the employees to work their way through and of the organization. The workers can identify and build their careers since the company provides periodic training which is important to its HR. To achieve its objectives, the company connects the personal and career objectives of the employees. However, the company allows the employees to set their ambitious targets and training objectives while the management ensures efficient identification of the technical skills, competencies, and assisting the workers in developing training plans for the new targets. Question 3: Organisational Philosophies, Structures and Strategies The company’s HRM address its recruitment needs using various recruitment sources and methods depending on the position. The selection criteria are retail industry-specific. To retain the employees, the HRM offers compensation programmes, career development, and employee-relations management. Several approaches are used to improve morale and motivate the employees. With the current approaches and strategies of recruitment, selection, and retention, the HRM effectively maintains adequate HRs to support organizational operations and planned global expansions. The company uses internal and external recruitment sources where internal focuses on the current workers to fill the vacant positions while external access the labour market in addressing the shortages of HR. Internal strategies include current employees, trainees, and transfers. Recruitment method include direct and indirect where direct involves contacting prospective employees or through its campuses. The method is beneficial, as the company does not have to wait for the applicants. External recruitment method involves reaching out to the larger population of the workers through advertisements. Selection method depends on the job position. The company’s basic methods include education and training backgrounds and criminal records. For those in hourly sales, the company uses knowledge retention and interpersonal skills. The Wal-Mart structure has a huge workforce that it controls. It has used resources in delivering several organizational objectives including searching for effective paths for executing business tasks. However, the advancement in technology permitted the institution to take some of the demanding duties from the workers to reduce the probability of human error. The long period strategy of the company continues to ensure excellence on training the employees and coordinating the excellence of organizational culture. This is the approach used by the company in maintaining its competitive advantage. Furthermore, the company has been able to integrate fully HR into its plans and policies. Besides, the management is using the aspects of HR in making decisions, which is revealing the greatest level of commitment to the HR and benefiting acceptance from all the employee types. The company also uses IQ and psychometric test in assessing the personality, aptitude, and intelligence of its employees. The methods are used in the recruitment and selection procedures to ensure employment of workers with high caliber. Moreover, IQ and psychometric tests have a series of questions on verbal and numerical that test spatial ability, personality, creativity, and memory which assist the HR to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their employees. The big image of the institutions strategic direction converses with the employees, which assist them in understanding their performances and role throughout the company. An implementation of an efficient leadership style that is relevant to the organizational management strategy and practices of the HR aspects would guarantee successful and effective growth and development of organizational performance. The roles of HRM within the company are important since it alters the employees and making them become of immense important to the company (Thompson, 2015). Accessibility of the HR with adequate skills and practices often leads to the achievement and success of the institutional objectives. Such beliefs and relationships clearly outline the functions of HRM rather than concentrating on recruiting of employees. Through development and hiring of the talented staff, the organizational HRM might lay the foundation for ensuring the achievement of competitive advantage. The achievement of the best strategic HRM model depends on the organizational ability to integrate the employment relationship that factor in key instruments as shown in figure two below. Wal-Mart uses participative strategy in acquiring its competitive advantage and prosperity on yearly basis. Figure 2: Company Employment Trend Question 4: Training needs for future management potential. The key elements that define the company’s HR strategy include employee training, performance management, efficient utilization of the core competencies of all the employees, and work simplifications. Such strategies show that the company measures have connection with the performance management. With reference to employee training, Wal-Mart majorly lays its foundation based on the effectiveness and efficiency of the employees, which it achieves through training (McGuire & Jørgensen, 2011, 141). The company offers different training programmes relevant to the available jobs. Within the company, training is must for the employees at the front end and dealing with the customers. Consequently, the company also gives training to the employees working at the back offices to improve their capabilities. Such training reflect the reason why the company’s customer services are some of the best in its operating countries. On the other hand, the company has an effective and efficient performance management system that ensures that the outlined activities aim to meet the end objectives. Within the company, HR strategy involves compensation and reward system that closely relates to the performance management. Employees are the greatest assets in every business entity; therefore, it is important that business objectives integrate their views and concerns (Armstrong & Armstrong, 2009, 132). The company’s HR often assign various targets to the workers and after completion, the company rewards benefits to the employees based on the level of performance. This is the methods that the company motivates its employees to improve their performances. Another HR’s strategy is the work simplification, which involves simplifying the responsibilities through ensuring that all the employees are aware of the organizational policies and procedures and their functions with the organization. Such methods often ensure that there is reduced time wastage and improved efficiency and reliability since the employees know their defined roles. To assist in meeting the overall organizational strategic aims, the company has a comprehensive HR strategy, which plays a significant role in guaranteeing its competitive advantage in the face of increasing market competition. Moreover, the organizational HR functions fully and support the outlined aims of the institution. The comprehensive HR strategy assists the company in supporting other business functions including IT, operations, marketing, and finance. Precisely, the human resource planning within the company ensures that the company utilizes the right people at the right place and time. The planning process within the HR department involves evaluation and identification of the needs of the HR by the company to meet its desired objectives. Through connecting the HR planning and the company’s goals, Wal-Mart lays a strong foundation of enjoying of enjoying its competitive edge over the competitors. Within the company, HR planning performs four distinct purposes: focusing the demands of the HR based on the company’s strategic goals and forecasting on supply of HR based on the talent and expertise needed for the forecasted positions. Moreover, it also involves keeping the HR database updated on the talents available in the market and creating and modifying the HR policies and procedures to align the HR’ demand and supply. Wal-Mart uses two distinct approaches in ensuring effective HR planning: quantitative and qualitative approaches. Figure 3 below represent that Walmart HRM strategies that are put in place to ensure successful development of future management. Figure 3: Wal-Mart's HRM Strategies Question 5: Employee Performance and Evaluation The strategic objective of the company involves maximization of sales and offering goods and services at affordable costs to the consumers. With the current management practices, the performance of the company is achieving its success with the clear outcomes of the efficient HR strategies that go with its robust marketing strategies, which are operational. Currently, the company operates internationally. Therefore, it is mandatory to focus on the strategic planning and international HRM. To manage the labour force and target market, the company is focusing probing the future markets and conducting feasibility studies to ensure effectiveness in its operations. The current resources and operations within the company would continue thriving as Wal-Mart verifies the notion that effective HR strategy and practices work as organizational competitive advantage between its local and international businesses (Kaufman, 2001, 512). The company’s competitive edge is positioned to its comfortable, strategic plan used by the management that comprises of the HR. In fact, an effective HR strategy often leads to a competitive edge. Furthermore, the HR strategies refer to various approaches to the management of the workers with a view of accomplishing the competitive benefit through strategic deployment of the capable and committed employees, implementation of a wide array of structural, cultural, and personnel procedures and policies. Optimizing organizational performances involves researching, revising, and ensuring effective application of the HR practices in the company’s external and external contexts as it affects the various procedures of integrating HR procedures. Such activities occur across the company’s international environments with an aim of increasing a multiple stakeholder experience, environment, partners, and customers. Question 6: Human resource Issues and the impact on the organisation Although the company’s HR department plays an important role in determinations its competitive advantage, it still experiences a variety of performance issues, which require immediate address. Some of the most significant HR issues include productivity loss due to tiredness and absenteeism, inaccuracies or errors associated with reporting, and negativism or hostility within its customer or workplace relations. Some of the productivity issues are associated with tardiness or absenteeism that the company uses as ground for terminating employment. Consequently, inaccuracies while reporting and recording information could lead to bigger problems including bullwhip that effect the company’s supply chain. HRM provides adequate training opportunities to assist in minimizing such errors as well as changing the processes and procedures to address the possible contributors that give rise to the errors and inaccuracies (Nankervis et al., 2013, 108). Besides the company, other organizations also succumb to negativism in their HRM. At Wal-Mart, negativism often leads to low productivity of its sales team and reduced efficiency of those in managerial positions. To address such problems, the company encourages its employees to participate in the outline institutional activities including the socials. Furthermore, Wal-Mart also provides its employees with benefits and incentives to assist in reducing the negativity within the workplace. The HRM is often on the lookout for the other performance issues that could be resolved through HRs adequate training, compensation, and other associated approaches. Conclusion Wal-Mart is one of the largest employers in the private sector in the United States with approximately 470,000 employees across all its branches. The company majorly employs fresh graduates considered ambitious and committed to achieving the desired results. Throughout the years, the company has been experiencing massive growth and development globally, which forms part of its strategy of growing and diversifying its business activities. With the rising level of competition and the changing needs of the potential clients, the company focuses on creating an effective pool of workers through the development of HR planning. Therefore, workforce planning is important for achieving the desired organizational needs. In order to achieve the objectives, the company has developed a HR standard system model as shown in figure 4 below. Figure 4: Strategi Human resource system standard model Such planning permits the business to create mechanisms of training the newly recruited staffs while focusing on accountabilities and development of work-specific skills. With such objectives, the company requires employees with the right behaviors and skills to ensure maintenance of its development and growth. Wal-Mart has an apparent organizational structure, detailed job description, and individual specification. The company uses two business strategies to link with its HR strategies: cost leadership and differentiation strategy. Competition is very stiff that every company needs to acquire a better competitive advantage. However, the company uses various components to strengthen its HR strategy including employee training, performance management and work simplification. To meet such objectives, the company uses a comprehensive HR strategy, which functions fully and supports organizational efforts in meeting its planned activities. The company’s HR planning involves identification and evaluation of the needs of the employees to ensure the achievement of the competitive advantage over the competitors. References Armstrong, M., & Armstrong, M. 2009. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. London: Kogan Page. Bergdahl, M. 2010, September 21. How the HR division at Wal-Mart drives the company's success through people. Retrieved April 27, 2016, from http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/how-the-hr-division-at-wal-mart-drives-the- companys-success-through-people Human Resource Planning Society. 2008. People & strategy: Journal of the Human Resource Planning Society. New York: Author. Kaufman, B. E. 2001. The theory and practice of strategic HRM and participative management. Human Resource Management Review, 11(4), 505-533. McGuire, D., & Jørgensen, K. M. 2011. Human resource development: Theory and practice. Los Angeles: SAGE. Nankervis, A. R., Baird, M., Coffey, J., & Shields, J. 2013. Human resource management: Strategy and practice (8th ed.). South Melbourne: Cengage Learning. Skariachan, D., & Wohl, J. 2015, June 14. Walmart's New Staffing Strategy: Hiring Mostly Temps - AOL. Retrieved April 27, 2016, from http://www.aol.com/article/2013/06/14/walmart-hiring-most-temps/20620807/?jwp=1 Thompson, A. 2015, September 1. Walmart’s HRM: Recruitment, Selection, Employee Retention - Panmore Institute. Retrieved April 27, 2016, from http://panmore.com/walmart-human-resource-management-recruitment-selection- employee-retention Read More

To meet such business needs, Wal-Mart’s HR policies responded through describing specific duties and responsibilities of the available personnel, conducted a cost-effective training programmes for the employees that created awareness the cost cutting methods, and focused on the regulations. The company also uses differentiation strategy. As a strategy, the company differentiates its products from those provided by the competitors through offering unique features. The aim of every differentiation strategy is to ensure the provision of high-quality products and related services that meet specific needs of the potential customers.

The company used various activities to acquire its competitive advantage through differentiation strategy including development of new innovative products and features, focusing on stocking products of high quality, and development of its brand image (Bergdahl, 2010). Integration of the HR strategy and differentiation strategy within the company involves recruiting skilled and experienced personnel, market researchers, training the workers to enhance teamwork, and development of the performance linked compensation and reward system.

Such activities aim to increase motivation among the workers to promote innovation and outsourcing some organizational activities. Question 2: HRM and organizational Objectives The major objective of the strategic planning is to ensure effective exploitation and identification of opportunities while minimizing the associated risks through coordination of the initiatives and company goals. Consequently, the company has to distribute resources appropriately to yield the desired outcomes. It is significant to involve the HR roles in each step of the progress.

Any successful implementation of the guiding principles at every planning level often maintains the perception value of the HR function and profession (Human Resource Planning Society, 2008, 114). Furthermore, another factor that reinforces the role of HR is the fact that they shape the functional policies, procedures and plans, and ensure effective management of the resources to enable sufficient activities through coordinating the management systems of the performance system to the strategic plans.

The company perfected its suggestion of having an efficient strategy of the HR to increase its competitive advantage. HR development and improvement of the workers throughout the company is its major strength. The organizational functioning of the company currently thrives in the positive progression owing to effective HRM. The market is becoming highly competitive that the HR department has to be active and ensure recruitment of result oriented employees. With the deteriorating global economy, human lifestyle is changing which makes it difficult for the organizations to makes adjustments to meet specific needs of the customers.

Moreover, regulations are as well becoming stiff that the HR has to ensure compliance with employment and workplace regulations. In some cases, omissions of such factors might lead to high management cost due to the increased compensation cost for the affected employees. Experience and skills are important factors during selection as they determine the salaries and wages of the employees. These factors are changing the nature of employment, which even the HR roles more complicated. Workforce planning is a process involving evaluation of the company’s future requirements and each employee with regard to their skills, locations, and numbers.

Planning allows the company to decide on the mechanisms of fulfilling such requirements through training and recruitment. The market is becoming highly competitive with new groceries and food chains coming into the markets. Moreover, the needs of the customers are continuously changing which makes it important before the company to make certain important adjustments. To achieve such objectives, the company has to hire employees on a regular basis for their food and non-food products (Kaufman, 2001, 522).

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