The acquisition of Human Resources - Essay Example

Staffing Wal-Mart Stores: A Case Analysis Staffing Wal-Mart Stores: A Case Analysis Recruitment is a critical function of human resources management to ensure that the organization has an adequate supply of the right quantity and quality of human resources at all levels and in all positions at the right time and in the right place to man the jobs that have been properly identified and described. As management wants to ensure the healthy operation of the organization, human resource acquisition should be given priority. Contemporary recruitment policies and practices become more sophisticated depending on the size of the organization, its availability of funds, and the scope of its operations. The passing of legislations on standards for basic functions of human resources management is a milestone in recruitment trends. The number of lives endangered and lost due to negligent and unequal screening and background checking cannot be replaced by the organization’s remuneration. Local agencies responsible for governing policies on human resources and practitioners should be vigilant in ensuring that these laws and legislations are properly implemented and enacted. Any violations should immediately be sanctioned so that future lawsuits could be averted. In this regard, the case on Staffing Wal-Mart Stores prepared by Ken Mark exemplifies a scenario on gender discrimination. The essay is hereby written to address the following concerns: 1. What were some of the commonly accepted hiring practices prior to the implementation of Title VII? According to an article on Equal Opportunity, “Title VII of 1964s Civil Rights Act is aimed at eliminating employment discrimination based on the usual litany of race, religion, sex, or national origin” (Equal Opportunity, 2010, par. 8). Prior to the implementation of Title VII, employers commonly practice unfair opportunities in terms of recruiting more male than female; more personnel from the younger generation than those from the older age range; those of the same race and ethnic orientation; those who are physically normal with no disabilities; and those from the same religious organizations; among others. 2. Is gender equality a current issue? Why or why not? In the case of Wal-Mart, the facts reveal that there is indeed a gender equality issue because as found in the statistics, although the company openly advocates equal employment opportunities for both men and women, apparently, actual practice reveals otherwise. In Exhibit 2 of Case B, page 4, the percentage number of women employed under the management level showed significantly less than the 50% policy stipulated in Case A, page 5. Further, the average earnings of males in all levels are considerably higher than those of females (Exhibit 2, Case B, page 4). These facts occur despite the higher average performance ratings of women over men (Exhibit 3, Case B, page 4), and despite the higher average number of years with the company since date of hire (Exhibit 4, Case B, page 5). 3. Are both genders equally represented in all levels of the company? No, both genders are not equally represented in all levels of the company. As previously noted, in Exhibit 2, there are more women employed in the store level than in management level. This statistics show that the company recognizes that the potentials of women are mostly in the entry level than in the managerial level. As such, there is a violation of the equal opportunity act in the area of gender discriminating women’s performance and pay against their male counterpart. 4. Are salaries equitable based on job performance and/or seniority? Salaries, as shown in Exhibit 2 do not have any relation with job performance or seniority. Despite the fact that women were found to be more productive in terms of average performance than their male counterpart, their salaries are way below that of men. 5. Should Wal-Marts managers care about these statistics? Why or why not? Wal-Mart’s managers are actually concerned about the issue as revealed in the case, to wit: the EVP was wondering about the company’s employment equity record as there have been several instances of legal suits regarding gender discrimination. In this regard, the EVP wanted to examine and analyze the root causes of the legal dilemma through a closer scrutiny to the company’s human resources information sourced from their People Division. They should continue to care about these statistics because if they ignore them, legal battles will persist and would cause Wal-Mart a lot of expenses. It would also give them bad publicity and affect their good image in the industry. 6. What, if anything, should management do about this issue? In this case, since the figures from the exhibits reveal that there is gender inequality in practice at Wal-Mart, management must immediately address this through the following measures: (1) immediately restructure the salary scale to align compensations of employees in each level regardless of gender, race, age, religion, and other pertinent elements, as identified under Title VII; (2) reward employees on the basis of performance – without any discrimination as to the abovementioned factors; (3) strictly adhere to the equal number of men and women in the workforce, as stipulated in their policy; (4) regularly monitor the ratio of men to women in terms of percentages in each level, adherence to equality in pay structure, and rewarding of employees based on performance and length of service, among others. Conclusion People constitute an organization’s most important and vital factor in its success or failure. In order to function efficiently and effectively, people must be managed well. Human resources management is the art and science of dealing with people at work for the optimum achievement of individual, organization and society’s goals. While general management is the orchestration of all the resources, human resource management is limited to people management – their motivation, acquisition, maintenance and development. The complexity of human resources management services calls for more professional qualifications backed up by sound knowledge of and apt skills in human behavior. Human resource managers are therefore tasked with responsibilities of recognizing that strategies in functions such as acquisition, training and development, employee involvement, as well as policies in equity and diversity, help or break the improvement in organizational performance. References Equal Opportunity. (2010). Retrieved 08 May 2010. < http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Ent-Fac/Equal-Opportunity.html Read More