team project

Introduction

                               Walmart and Its Impact on Society

you turn into almost every neighborhood in the United States you will come across a Walmart. It can be anything the consumer needs from a grocery store to a retail department store. Walmart is the second largest retail store in the world excluding China. Beginning in 2022, they have been an enormous domestic and international chain that covers 24 different countries with over 10, 500 stores and employ 2.2 million employees. An incredible accomplishment from its beginning in the small town of Roger, Arkansas in 1962. Walmart is an everyday store that meets all the needs of the consumer; it is seen as a hypermarket, express mart, fuel station and even college campus convenience store. The company’s mission statement or its slogan, "Save people money so they can live better". Simply put, the core value of this company is to save the consumer money. To do this, the company will need to save production costs while increasing production and this is reflected in how this company operates.

The Need

Walmart’s employment of over 2.2 million employees calls for a lot of training due to the low retention rate. In recent retention rankings with Comparably Employer Brand Solutions, Walmart ranks in the bottom 30% of 1,341 companies similar in size comparability. While Walmart is praised in many ways, its biggest criticism that leads to its retention is it low wages and lack of full-time positions. The criticisms that are being backed up by labor-backed groups call for Walmart to match their competitor’s minimum wage. Competitors such as Target, Amazon, and Costco whose minimum wages is minimum $15 dollars. Walmart averages between $10 to $19 an hour. Further criticisms on benefits such as medical care and the stringent guidance that come with having access to the coverage as well as the price. For example, one employee who has been an employee of Walmart for almost 13 years says that his insurance price goes up every year (HINES, 2020). These are just a few of the examples that lead to the low retention rates. Additionally, roughly 25,000 of their employees are high school students. Overall, that is a small amount, but it does add to the fluctuation of their employees and a need to continuously have employees trained to keep up with the work (Meyersohn, 2019).

Work Related Attitudes

Employee Engagement

Connecting with and understanding what employee require in order to create an environment that is support and trust is built can aid in boosting productivity in the workplace. The challenge for leadership and HR is how to consistently get the best performance from employees so that the company can achieve its targets of productivity, customer experience, product quality, and profitability (Peters, 2019). In the case of remote workers, the need can be attributed to work schedule flexibility that was not previously available. Workers in work-from-home situations find that there is a work-life balance that is beneficial to them or their families. Employee engagement is also about understanding the relationship between employees and the organization and vice versa. Employee engagement has thus become a high priority for all organizations, for a company to be successful in a tough business environment, it needs highly competent and highly engaged employees who can meet the employer’s high expectations of them (Peters, 2019). Workplaces that invest in employee engagement find that employees are more productive and have the best interest of the company they work for in mind.

The company cares for employee

Companies that care for their employee find that employee productivity increases, and employees are more autonomous. Being able to work on their own and develop skills with the company having their best interest in mind. The more employees invest themselves in each day, the better their work product (Vogel, Rodell & Agolli, 2021). Investing the employees builds trust in the organization and allows employees to better communicate their needs to build a better working culture. Employee engagement is related to job involvement and enthusiasm for the work performed (Scandura, 2019). When enthusiasm for the job increases then the company benefits from increased productivity from the employee in being able to meet or exceed the expectation of their roles.

Employee receives support and flexibility

Employees require support from an organization to receive the best performing and productive employees. We expect unanswered support to negatively affect employee well-being, because not receiving a response from a supervisor after asking for support is likely a painful experience, resulting in negative affective reactions (McIlroy, Parker & McKimmie, 2021). Support is crucial as it may impact situations in the lives of employees at work or at home. Support to work remotely or work from home can provide support to employees that may require time at home to better balance their home life. Situations for employees that may require a work-from-home situation could include safety concerns from COVID or other diseases, childcare adjustments, or taking care of a family member. Providing support to the employees in these situations can provide better productivity from the employee that knows the organization has their best interest in mind.

Employee Satisfaction

The development of an employee should be a key driver for an organization to improve the skills of the employee. Investing in developing employee skills that not only allow them to build skills to make them more marketable in other areas but also allows employees to be more autonomous and competent. Autonomy the employee has the freedom to plan and perform his or her own work; The employees have discretion about their work and are not intensely supervised (Scandura, 2019). Employees being able to work mostly unsupervised allows builds the level of trust between employees and the organization.

Future of a Walmart Employee

Future employees can be better prepared to perform their required roles by improving the climate of the organization. With work from home or remote work is being more adopted by companies to perform necessary work but also to support employees. This type of shift requires investments to be made to improve the work process but more importantly takes care of the needs of employees. By investing in the employee, we can not only get more satisfied employees but also more productive ones.

New Training

            Traditional training methods are great for employee development but are time consuming and could leave employees without the needed experience of dealing with positive and negative interactions with customers. This why Walmart has begun to add virtual training class to its employee training and development process. A program that has helped employees get experiences that they need for contact development of the most common situation, and it feels like real life and not a “imagine this situation”. Along with the training, the VR system that is operated through a company called Strive give the employee an opportunity to receive feedback on a hypothetical situation that they might experience before they have a truly bad experience with a customer. Currently, Walmart has 17,000 VR headsets in operation. Looking at statistics, that would be one headset for every 130 employees of their 2.2 employees that support 10,593 store location. This VR training session takes about 2 to 6 weeks depending on the position that is being filled and currently there are only 31 locations have simulators (n.d.). This means out of the 150,000 new hires that Walmart have annually, possible 11.3 percent of the new employee pool will get to experience the use of VR training (Murphy, 2021). This program is great for development but needs to be spread on a much larger scale with new site locations and an increase in employee academies. This can be done by implementing the following action plan.

Employee

            Why is this training important to the employees of Walmart? To prevent those embarrassing moments that we have all experienced or observed in a Walmart. The moment a frustrated customer yells at an employee about their dissatisfaction of an issue they are having with the sales, payment, or an ad that doesn’t match what is on the shelf.  To make improvements in leadership, Walmart has focused on its organizational culture. A process that is built on actions and examples that are improved on and reenforced over time. This allows employees to contribute to the team and feel as though they have a voice in what is happening with the operations of such a large company. That is the basis of the Walmart leadership plan.

Walmart Employee Well-being

Walmart, the world's largest retailer, places a high value on its workers and provides them with various opportunities. For this organization, it is crucial to create a stimulating atmosphere for its workers; therefore, one of the techniques used is to raise employee salaries while also making it easier to promote people to new roles and give smaller groups greater responsibility, which then turns into training. Efforts are made to push staff to improve their stores, and Walmart aims to constantly strive for excellence, working together as a team and leveraging new technologies to do so. Training at all levels is critical to developing critical skills like leadership, negotiation, collaboration, and development, in the same way as there are dynamics to drive a sales team for improved outcomes (Crowley & Stainback, 2019). Paying their workers more for their labor and retraining management to adopt the mentality of "We won't ask our staff to do anything that we won't do ourselves and stay by it" will transform Walmart's employee mindset and enhance employee happiness.

To effectively deal with workplace conflict, MZ et al. (2018) say one must first understand the types of conflicts the company is now dealing with, as well as those it has experienced in the past and those it may encounter in the future. The exploitation of resources has been a long-standing problem for the organization. There have been allegations that Walmart employees are often required to work longer shifts than agreed upon by their managers. Walmart's internal control system has also gone awry. Everyone associated with Walmart is expected to adhere to a guideline outlining three essential criteria. Following these rules and treating everyone with respect are required of all employees. In other words, both internal and external stakeholders are subject to this legislation (Yocum & Lawson, 2019). Rule No. 2 states that the client at Wal-Mart is king and should be treated as such. Finally, the corporation is determined to preserve its position as a preferred brand in the retail sector. Everything that the firm undertakes is a priority. Workers were being exploited when the corporation asked them to stay behind regularly and work extra hours without further compensation. Thus, the first rule was broken. The organization's code of conduct, processes and other regulations must be followed to resolve any disputes within it (MZ et al., 2018).

Employees must be able to work and function in accordance with the company's requirements, but they must also have a positive approach and perform well. As a result, Evanthi (2021) says leadership should not be seen as a substitute for management but rather as an essential management component. For example, Wal-training Mart's development program emphasizes the principle that "people come first" in all interactions with the company. Online sessions are supplemented by face-to-face reinforcement from department supervisors in pathways training. For front-line workers, it covers job basics and strategic concerns like Walmart's place in the economy. Department managers are getting more training, responsibility, and freedom to govern their departments. It's also easier to hold people accountable for their actions and outcomes. Rather than relying just on advertising to gain consumers' confidence, Walmart has found success by studying and comprehending the worldwide market trends of its rivals and putting more emphasis on customer wants and needs than its competitors have done (Evanthi, 2021).

Conclusion

           Walmart is established in the world as providing goods and services and with so many different locations present finding what you need has never been easier. Behind that success is hard-working employees that are vital to the success and operation of the company and without their contribution would not be possible. It is with that mindset that Walmart will support its employees and make them as successful as they can be. COVID has changed the way companies operate and showed us, vital employees, to continue operations. Remote and work from home are more frequent occurrences and it is up to the company to ensure that employee needs are being met as we adapt to the changing market. Walmart will begin implementing employee help and success services, along with new training incentives for new and current employees to maximize success for every employee. Walmart is here to stay, and employees will be there to make the success of the company a reality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Joan Peters. (2019). Employee Engagement: Creating High Positive Energy at Work. KR Publishing.

McIlroy, T. D., Parker, S. L., & McKimmie, B. M. (2021). The effects of unanswered supervisor support on employees’ well-being, performance, and relational outcomes. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 26(1), 49–68. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000270

Meyersohn, N. (2019, June 4). Walmart will recruit high school students with free SAT prep and $1 a day college tuition. In CNN Business. https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/04/business/walmart-college-tuition-benefit-high-school-students/index.html

HINES, N. (2020, October 21). Workers Reveal What It's Really Like To Work At Walmart Read More: https://www.mashed.com/265058/workers-reveal-what-its-really-like-to-work-at-walmart/?utm_campaign=clip. In Mashed. https://www.mashed.com/265058/workers-reveal-what-its-really-like-to-work-at-walmart/

Walmart's New VR Training Strategy for In-Store Associates. (n.d.). In eTail. https://etaileast.wbresearch.com/blog/walmart-training-associates-with-vr

Murphy, J. (2021, September 29). Walmart to Hire 150,000 Associates to Serve Customers for Holidays (and Beyond). In Walmart. Retrieved from https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2021/09/29/walmart-to-hire-150-000-associates-to-serve-customers-for-holidays-and-beyond

Scandura, T. (2019). Essentials of Organizational Behavior (Second). Sage Publications.

Vogel, R. M., Rodell, J. B., & Agolli, A. (2021). Daily engagement and productivity: The importance of the speed of engagement. Journal of Applied Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000958.supp (Supplemental)

Crowley, M., & Stainback, K. (2019). Retail sector concentration, local economic structure, and community well-being. Annual Review of Sociology, 45, 321-343.

Evanthi, A. (2021). The Effects of Organizational Design and Decision-Making Process on Organizational Performance. Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Studies, 04(11). https://doi.org/10.47191/jefms/v4-i11-17

MZ, N. A., Azman, I., Norlaila Mazura, M., Ahmad Azan, R., & HL, J. O. (2018). An Impact of Leadership Development Program on Training Transfer: The Roles of Training Motivation. The Journal of Social Sciences Research, 238-241.

Yocum, S., & Lawson, K. (2019). Health Coaching Case Report: Optimizing Employee Health and Wellbeing in Organizations. Journal of Values-Based Leadership. 

https://doi.org/10.22543/0733.122.1266