HR 5

Table of Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Benefits and Compensation 3 3. Business Leadership and Strategy 3 4. Diversity 4 5. Employee Relations 5 6. Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility 7 7. Organizational and Employee Development 8 8. Talent Management 8 9. Technology 10 10. Conclusion 10 References 12

This report is a professional summary of the assessment Walmart Inc.’s current human resource posture. In this respect, the assessment explores the company’s human resource posture in relation to benefits and compensation, business leadership and strategy, diversity, employee relations, ethics and corporate social responsibility, organizational and employee development, talent management, and technology.

In terms of benefits, Walmart has been fairing well. It has an elaborate benefits and compensations scheme through which its employees save their funds for use after retirement. Walmart Benefits and Compensation Scheme keeps 2 percent of the employee’s annual earnings for a variety of benefits in the future. Upon retirement or any case that occasions termination of employee service, it takes the Scheme 4 months to process the dues to the outgoing employee. This is considerably faster than Fortune 500 average of 6-8 months of Corporate Benefits and Compensation Schemes processing time (Fortune 500 , 2015).

Wal-Mart’s strategy for business leadership is quite wanting. Even though the company scores high in terms of diversity, corporate social responsibility, and employee development among other aspects, it is noteworthy that the discount store has been able to command high gross and net profit margins due to unscrupulous human resource practices (Fortune 500 , 2015). It pays employee below the Fortune 500 average to remain profitable. It had blatantly opposed unionization calls in its Quebec stores because it was conscious of the implication that an ascent to such calls would have on its business (Fortune 500 , 2015).

The other business leadership strategy for Walmart is that of diversification. Selling household goods, utensils, apparels, foodstuff, electronics, electrical accessories, and construction tools make the company remain above the industry levels. Through selling differentiated products, the company been able to go through low cycles and high cycles (SHRM Foundation, 2010).

Diversity in a corporate context refers to the way opportunities are distributed among special groups such as across gender, color, trans-generational divide, and country of origin. Walmart can be classified as one of the best observers of diversity. It provides a diverse work environment and fair opportunities as well as access to jobs. In February 2015, the company invested $1 billion in workforce training (Walmart Inc., 2016).

The company through its Office of the Diversity Manager came up with a raft of programs to enhance diversity in the hiring and other practices. These programs include Field Management Placement goals for women and people of color, Good Faith Efforts aimed at incentivizing members of the organization to embrace diversity, Active Coaching Reviews which are centered on harassment and discrimination, and Customized Diversity which is meant to train senior management on issues relating to diversity and how it can be applied (Walmart Inc., 2016).

In terms of hiring and promotion practices, the company has also scored quite high compared to the industry players. The composition of the workforce shows that women comprise 57 percent of the total workforce, 42 percent of the management team, and 32 percent of corporate officers. Compare this with Fortune 500 averages of 15 percent women representation in the total workforce, 22 percent in the management, and 11 percent corporate officers (Fortune 500 , 2015).

New hiring for Walmart for 2012, 2013, and 2014 comprised 50 percent, 51 percent, and 53 percent women respectively. Compare this to the people of a color representation of 45 percent, 49 percent, and 51 percent respectively for the three years (Walmart Inc., 2016). Again, these compositions of hiring sets exceed the Fortune 500 average of 45 percent, 38 percent, and 41 percent for women in the three years respectively and 44 percent, 42 percent, and 46 percent for people of color for the respective three years (Fortune 500 , 2015).

The company is also implementing diversity in terms of the way it manages its supplies. It has established a Supplier Diversity Summit which advises, advocates, advances dialogue between internal business stakeholders and the entire business community, creates an opportunity for suppliers to exhibit their products to the company’s buyers, and perpetuates the interests of diversity among the community that it serves.

Walmart Inc.’s approach to employee relations is utterly wanting. This is based on its employment and human rights policies. Despite being a leading profit earner in the retail industry, the company in 2015 alone the company had about 4873 law suits averaging to about 14 law suits per year. This is far above the industry average of 3 cases per day. This rate reflects a drop from 2014 and 2013 in which lawsuits averaged 17 per day (SHRM Foundation, 2010).

Walmart has in many occasions regarded as phobic to employee unionization. The closure of Quebec stores was prompted by the unionization of the Canada-based Walmart workers. The Quebec Labor Relations Court in January 2015 handed the company’s employees victory after declaring that the closure of Quebec stores was a prompt of the threat of its labor force to unionize (SHRM Foundation, 2010). The same lowness with which the company’s management treats the workforce triggered the resignation of company’s head of Working Families for Wal-Mart advocacy group citing at the loath with which the company treated affairs relating to labor relations (Fortune 500 , 2015).

The failure to implement minimum wage laws by Walmart is an additional testimony to the company’s lack of commitment in observing employee relations issues. In September 2014, for instance, the International labor Rights Fund brought a case against the company for its failure to implement human rights. The other accusations that have been brought against the company include a decision in which the company’s management punished employees for union activities and to decline to pay employees the required overtime (American International University, 2016). 72 cases are pending before the company’s human resource disciplinary committee in which physical assaults by supervisors were reported. Other accusations that have been brought against the company by the employees’ trade union include accusations based on the reports that industrial injury has been on the rise with workers getting avoidable injuries.

The company is on record having been accused by a number of employees for flouting California employment regulations. 116,000 employees had complained that they had not been allowed to enjoy the half-hour compulsory lunch break for at least 6 worked hours a day (American International University, 2016).

Walmart has since 2005 been on the forefront in addressing its global impact through the adoption of the Sustainability program. This saw the company began the process of revamping building materials as well as electric appliances in its stores. The company has proved its commitment towards eco-friendliness by designing more of its stores so as to make them more energy efficient and also to produce minimum volumes of greenhouse gases (SHRM Foundation, 2010). Further, the company has a equipped many of its stores with solar panels, optimized its routing system so as to reduce its reliance on fuel as a source of energy, and established fuel-saving technologies in a good fleet of its vans. The company has also intensively embraced wind energy use in a number of its stores (SHRM Foundation, 2010).

The company’s Global Responsibility Report of 2013 stated clearly that it is its responsibility, given the growing scale of global operations, to ensure that its makes the world a better place to live. To achieve this determination, the company has put in a place a number of initiatives which targets social responsibility, environmental responsibility, local responsibility, and company responsibility (Fortune 500 , 2015). The social aspect focuses on promoting the economic empowerment of the womenfolk and to raise the living standards of the ordinary American so as to lead a life without hunger and to get access foodstuff that is not only healthy but also life sustaining. The local aspect focuses on making small loans and promotion of local farming activities, assisting people with relief supplies in case of major disasters, and overseeing the implementation of nutritional programs in schools (SHRM Foundation, 2010).

The environmental aspect was aimed at reducing energy consumption and getting rid of landfill waste as well as eliminating plastic bag waste. It also emphasized the commitment of the company in terms of imposing stringent measures in terms of product sustainability. The company corporate responsibility aspect emphasized stakeholder engagement, promotion of basic values, industrial safety corporate governance, and compliance.

The company has succeeded in a number of these areas. It has, for instance, through its Walmart Foundation contributed over $1 billion to charities across the globe. The company is sponsoring more than 1 million women and youth training all over the globe. It, through its pursuit for efficient use energy, implemented the use of renewable sources of energy in 21 percent of its energy consumption centers (Walmart Inc., 2016).

The company has a human resource policy in place which it uses in its staff development. It offers annual training for its employees both in-job and through vacations. Senior staffs members of the company are give a month per year during which he or she is expected to attend training. In 2015, the employee training budget was $1 billion (Walmart Inc., 2016). 136 members of the management team were trained in the financial year 2014/2015. Junior members of staff are advised to take additional courses which boost their chance of promotion in the company. In terms of promotions and appointment to senior positions, the company gives the internal workforce a 60 percent reservation so as to boost the staff morale and enable them toward advancing in career (Walmart Inc., 2016).

Walmart has a number of talent management programs in place. In its annual budget for 2014 and 2015, the company spent $1 billion per year for education and training of its staff both within the United States and in its talents abroad. Through its programs such as Business Leadership Series, Leadership Academy, and Mentor Me, the company has been able to impact its global associates. The learning Management team of the company is charged with delivery and assessment and reporting on issues relating to its training program and learning activities both at home and offshore. This enhances the ability of the organization through its management to respond promptly and duly to matters relating to its talent management (Walmart Inc., 2016).

Through Walmart Executive Development Session, the company succeeds in exposing its officers to a couple of speakers as well as thought leaders and opinion holders such as business leaders, professors, authors, and public speakers and this enables them to get enlightened on issues relating to innovation, business ethics, technology, and collaboration which are fundamental premises in the global business today. Also, through its Mentor Me program, Walmart empowers associates to actively take part in the development as well as in the provision of resources in order to increases effective mentorships and connectivity among its stocks of skills (Walmart Inc., 2016).

Mentor Me program aims at enabling persons around the globe to share diverse skills for the purpose of skill and talent development. Thirdly, the company has in place a program dubbed Summer Internship whose core mandate as per the corporate talent development policy is to bring on board students from colleges and universities from across the world for the purpose of providing them with experience and to also enhance skill-career compatibility. Skills mismatch is a challenge facing students today as they realize that the expectations from the textbook model are different from the reality on the ground (SHRM Foundation, 2010). The program thus exposes them to the real world situation so as to rationalize their expectations and to broaden their career choice. The other talent management programs that Walmart has in place include Walmart International Academy, Global Leadership, and the High-potential programs which attract skills and talents and enhance their growth both within America and offshore.

Wal-Mart’s human resource management system can be described as state-of-the-art. It runs an integrated Human Resource Information System (H.R.I.S.) through which it is able to capture all the information needed relating to its human resources. H.R.I.S. bears information on employee age, experience, work station, competence, immediate supervisor, leave time, and health conditions among other relevant human resource information that the use may want to get. The information can be classified as per queried and this enables the company to respond to human resource supply vibrations promptly (Fortune 500 , 2015). It further hastens the process of deployment and redeployment as well as raising skills from within the organizational departments.

H.R.I.S. for Walmart is developed as a bridge from the old manual human resource database management systems to a high technology one. The H.R.I.S. is under the management of the ICT staff which keeps it running and in service to users all the time. Employees can get information relating to their payment and their employment information as profiled by the employer (Fortune 500 , 2015).

The discussion was based on an assessment of the human resource posture of Walmart. This was based on benefits and compensation, business leadership and strategy, diversity, employee relations, ethics and corporate social responsibility, organizational and employee development, talent management, and technology. Even though the company scores high in a number of these aspects, it should improve on employee relations policies and benefits and compensations.

References American International University. (2016). Hoover's Pro at AIU: Home. Retrieved from http://careered.libguides.com/university_AIUOnline/HooversPro. Fortune 500 . (2015). Fortune. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/fortune500/. SHRM Foundation. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.shrm.org/foundation. Walmart Inc. (2016). Investor Relations. Retrieved from: http://www.walmart.com/.