What and How Human Resources Strategies Can Be Implemented - Essay Example

? What and How Human Resources Strategies Can Be Implemented? Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Recruitment 3 2.Training and Development 5 3.Performance Management 6 Conclusion 8 References 10 Introduction Wal-Mart is the biggest retail chain business across the globe. The retail giant has implemented a robust and innovative business model in its operations. The company is acclaimed for a robust work culture and management with more than two million people working for the organization throughout the globe. Wal-Mart is one of the largest employers in the world and implements effective human resource practices and strategies to maintain the diverse work culture in the company. The company maintains a detailed database for its human resources and keeps eye to the intricate details of proper recruitment, training and development, compensation and performance management for the employees. The effective management and human resource practices are identified as the key factors for driving the success of Wal-Mart through decades of its operations across the globe. Strategic human resource management plays a critical role in delivering the performance of Wal-Mart. Therefore, the company pays major attention to the human resource practices followed in the organization. 1. Recruitment Wal-Mart over the years of operations has taken various recruitment and staffing policies in order to maximize their outputs with the minimum costs incurred. In 2013 June the company had been hiring only the temporary staffs for their U.S. stores. Though the temporary recruitment is one of the popular policies of the retail organizations during the holiday seasons when they would require additional employee strength. However, the company had adopted this policy at a time when there is no such pressure of the holiday season in the US market. According to the managers of the organization that policy was taken to ensure that there is no dearth of employee in Wal-Mart in running their day to day activities. They also claimed that it was not something that the company had taken in order to cut the cost of hiring the employees (Morrison, 2006, pp. 75-91). This is because the cost of hiring a permanent employee is much more than what it takes to hire a temporary worker. But this was denied by the managers of the organization. The Human resources managers has taken this strategy on the ground that the temporary workers would be adequately able to meet up the needs of Wal-Mart on the nights of the weekdays and on the weekends when the number of footfalls in the stores in the greatest. Thus there would no need for hiring the additional permanent staff that would otherwise be required (Needle, 2010, pp. 112-137). This would however lead to a slackening of the employment in the country of US since the employment in the company is huge and would comprise of the large section of the employed population of the company. This policy may not be considered as a feasible policy considering the long run scenario (Marching ton and Wilkinson, 2012, pp. 45-59). This is because the temporary employees are generally not loyal to the company and therefore if they get better offer they would switch to the other companies from Wal-Mart. There would also be lack of motivation among the employees to do the job because of the lack of loyalty among the employees and the lesser remuneration that they would derive out of the organization. This is also unethical on part of the company to recruit the temporary workers in order to dodge the healthcare costs (Kew and Stredwick, 2008, pp. 241-297). This is because the new healthcare laws of the United States demand that the organizations that hire the workers on a permanent basis have to provide them with healthcare benefits. In order to retain the loyalty of the employees and to keep them motivated to the work the company has to provide them with these healthcare benefits as well. They should also be provided with the insurances in order to take care of the ethical aspects of the business. 2. Training and Development In every organization there is an immense need for the training and development of the employees. The training and development programs ensure that the new recruits are made adept with the work flows in the organization as well as adapt themselves to the organization culture (Harrison, 2010, pp. 26-48). On the other hand the employees that have been working in the organization since quite a long time are provided with development programs to keep them updated with the new skills and the changing technologies and to keep them motivated in the changing business environment (Kovach, 1996, pp. 31-78). Wal-Mart inculcates the training programs of the employees through the Wal-Mart Leadership Academy. There are different kinds of training programs for the employees of the different departments like the store managers, the merchandising managers, the shift managers as well as the operations managers. The training programs generally run for 16 weeks. There are different sets of learning objectives for the employees at the different levels. For carrying this out every week there is a different set of objectives that would be fulfilled through the training programs. During the programs the employees have a very good expose of the different kinds of stress levels that the managers may encounter. There are conducted mainly under the simulated environment. However, on the job training is also an essential part of the learning process of the new employees (Johnson, Scholes and Whittington, 2008, pp. 73-87). The training programs of Wal-Mart also incorporate the different exposures of the employees towards the team performances and the collective thinking. However, despite training programs on these the employees have various kinds of problems relating to team performance. There are however loopholes in the training programs according to the stakeholders of the Wal-Mart. They are of the opinion that the employees are not adequately trained in interpersonal skills. Thus they do not turn out to be very good listeners or are involved with their co-workers. The sense of empathy is somewhat lacking. This in turn acts as a barrier for the employees to becoming successful leaders in the organization. The leadership style and the training programs that are practiced in the organization are of the military style in which the employees are put under a lot of pressure in simulated situations. Thus the company has tough and scheduled training programs which make the employees acquainted with various aspects of the job. But along with the formal training there should be opportunity for on the job training as well (Taylor, 2007, pp. 12-34). Along with that internship programs need to be launched. There are some of the essential human resources strategies. Unless the employees come in direct contact with the retail environment they would not realize the problems that may crop up in the actual process. By incorporating learning by doing the company can also reduce the cost of training the employees. 3. Performance Management Wal-Mart maintains an effective performance management system through the maintenance of several human resources policies like maintaining an open door policy for effective communication between the employees and the senior management. Also, the company aims at managing the performances of their employees by delegating a certain level of power to the employees and recognizes their efforts through various rewards and benefits. This not only helps to boost the morale of the employees but also ensures loyalty and efficiency among the workforce (Noe, 2001, p.15). Wal-Mart has successfully implemented the profit sharing program and the stock purchase programs in the company in which a part of the profits earned is given to the employees and the employees can become the stakeholders of the business. The company uses effective benchmarking and industry standards to manage and evaluate the performance management system implemented in the business. Being a company with a huge workforce belonging to different cultures and backgrounds, Wal-Mart has to face several challenges regarding the effective management of their people resources (Freeman, 2001, p.67). Among the most critical issues are training and development, performance management and compensation management. To follow its customer oriented business model, the organization has to ensure developing and retaining skilled and high performing employees. Wal-Mart employs a rating system model to manage and recognize the performance of the employees. The company has a decentralized authority system and some decision making capabilities and autonomy are given to the employees as well. The objective of the business is to align the external factors influencing the business with the internal human resource practices to develop a highly robust performance management system within the organization (Flannery, 2006, p.8). The organization promotes the growth of talent within the organization by promoting the employees to new roles when opportunities arise. Also, the strategy helps the employees to adapt to the new roles easily as they are familiar with the existing work culture in the business. This helps in retaining talent within the organization as well as utilizing the talents towards new roles and job responsibilities. Apart from this, the company is also acclaimed for its highly rewarding incentive programs that ensure high payment for the performers in the business. The company provides the employees with different benefits to manage the performance of the workforce among the different departments of the business. Wal-Mart increases the pay scale of the employees based on their performance and not on the level of seniority of the employee. Wal-Mart also implements effective employee advancement programs to support the employees for higher education and scholarships. The company employs innovative strategies in its performance management practices to increase the personal leadership factors as well as team work levels of the employees (Mathis, 2008, p.41). The company provides extensive health benefits as well as financial benefits based on the performance of the employees. The company also maintains a list of a wide range of benefits for the employees under the career section of their website. The performance system is designed based on a proper balance between different types of behavioral control like rewards and benefits, work culture and empowerment (Rao, 2004, p.192). Performance management is given critical importance in the organization as a part of maintaining the largely diverse employees working in the organization. The performance management results in a number of positive impacts on the organization like enhancing the motivation and productivity of the employees leading to the increase in the productivity and performance of the business as a whole. The company uses the evaluation of the performance levels as a key step of strategic management in the business. Conclusion Thus from the above analysis it is clear that Wal-Mart has several issues relating to the Human Resources Management in the organization. The Company has taken various aggressive policies in order to cut their costs and also to increase their productivity. However, these policies cannot be regarded as sustainable policies because these harsh policies have a negative impact on the minds of the employees in the organization. Along with that the loyalty and belongingness of the employees get reduced. Therefore there is a need for the revision of these HR policies as it has been discussed in the different sections of this report. The implementation of the restructured HR policies which would be pro-employee would inculcate a healthy culture in the organization. The training programs that the company plans to devise for the employees have to be constructed in a scientific manner. Apart from the work related training the employees have to be trained in the interpersonal skills that would help them in their team playing skills as well as in shaping the organization culture. The training programs should motivate the employees in the right way and should help them in relating themselves with the organization. Along with this the human resources management of the organization should also practice performance based management practices in order to get the best out of the managers. This should be done regularly to nurture the skills of the managers and to provide them with the maximum facilities through the support of the best technologies. This would help the managers to get the best results out of the performances that the employees can deliver at their maximum capacity. References Flannery, M. 2006. Wal-Mart Case Study. [Pdf]. Available at http://people.ucsc.edu/~rbaden/Case%20Study%20Example.pdf. [Accessed on 18 December 2013]. Freeman, E. 2001. Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Boston: Pitman. Harrison, A., 2010. Business Environment in a Global Context. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Johnson. G., Scholes, K. and Whittington, R., 2008. Exploring Corporate Strategy: Text & Cases. New Delhi: Pearson Education India. Kew, J. and Stredwick, J., 2008. Business Environment: Managing in a Strategic Context. London: CIPD. Kovach, K. A., 1996. Strategic Human Resource Management. Maryland: University Press of America. Marchington, M. and Wilkinson, A., 2012. Human Resource Management at Work. London: CIPD. Mathis, R. 2008. Human Resources Management. Stamford: Cengage learning. Morrison, J., 2006. 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