HRM Practices in the Wal-Mart



HRM Practices in the Wal-Mart

Introduction

The founder of the Wal-Mart retailer store is Sam Walton. He opened this store in 1962. According to 2012 Fortune Global 500 list, Wal-Mart is at number three public corporations in the world. In the same way, it is the leading retailer store in the world. It is an USA based multinational corporation (MNC). On an average, some 245 million customers visit the Wal-Mart stores in 27 countries. In the FY-2013, the volume of sales is about $466 billion. Wal-Mart is closely working on two pillars vis-à-vis “Save Money” and “Live Better”. Wal-Mart has given the name “Associates” to its employees. It has about 2.2 million associates in all over the world (Lichtenstein, N. 2005, pp.21-30). The major chunk of associates is the Females and people from Minority.

The Wal-Mart business strategy is following the three traditional business strategies namely Differentiation, Overall Cost Leadership and Focus Strategy. The differentiation strategy focuses on innovation and technology. The companies are trying to produce something new which their competitors are not offering. In the cost leadership strategy, the company is lowering the price of goods, services or products. They are buying or manufacturing in the bulk quantity. In this way, the cost of per item becomes low. The low cost strategy is successful when the product is standardized. Then definitely people prefer the store or shop which is offering at the low price. The third strategy is the Focus on any particular segment, location or cluster of people. This type of strategy is usually when the business is new, and the competitor has already captured the major part of the market.

Discussion

The human resource management is the mature field of study. All organizations are following one or another human resource model. The only purpose of the following model is to effectively manage the overall staff of the company. They divide the work in parts like selection, training, recognition and rewarding. To maintain a force of 2.2 million is not an easy task. Furthermore, the entire workforce is not located in any one geographic location. They are spread in 27 countries (Fernie, J., & Arnold, S. J. 2002). Every country has a different culture, laws, efficiency and working time. The Wal-Mart made policies while keeping these things on the table.

Wal-Mart Strategy of Selection, Training & Development

This is the most important and in the same time most difficult thing to select, train and develop the work force of an organization. In the true sense, these are the things which become the cause of success or failure of any company. The selection policy of the Wal-Mart bases on three factors. First, Wal-Mart without a doubt is the only largest MNC in the world which believes on the diversity. The people of various backgrounds are working there without any disturbance. The working atmosphere is so much friendly and cooperative that everyone is easily adjusted. According to the figures, out of total ...