Human Resource Management Strategies at Walmart: A Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of human resource management (HRM) practices at Walmart, a multinational retail corporation. It begins with a company background, highlighting Walmart's global presence and its emphasis on HRM as a key competitive advantage. The report then focuses on the specific job background of an Assistant Manager for Sales in the Virginia region, detailing the job's responsibilities and the importance of external recruitment to fill the vacancy. The analysis includes job design and analysis, outlining the key duties of the assistant sales manager. The report explores Walmart's human resource planning, emphasizing external recruitment strategies such as employee referrals, employment exchanges, and job portals. The selection process is discussed, including the establishment of a recruitment team, job description preparation, advertising, screening, interviews (with examples of behavioral and situational questions), and job offer. Furthermore, the report covers employee orientation, training, and development, including the use of mentors and training programs. Finally, the report addresses Walmart's rewards and recognition system, highlighting competitive salaries and performance-based incentives. The report concludes with a bibliography of sources used.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT – 878585
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Company Background.................................................................................................................3
Job Background...........................................................................................................................3
Job design and analysis....................................................................................................................4
Human resource planning................................................................................................................5
Selection..........................................................................................................................................6
Orientation, Training and Development..........................................................................................7
Rewards and Recognition................................................................................................................7
Bibliography....................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
Company Background
Walmart Inc. is a multinational company that is based in America and has its hypermarkets,
departmental stores and grocery stores spread throughout the world. The company has its
headquarters located in Bentonville, Arkansas and was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton. The
global presence of the company can be judged from the fact that as of 2018, it has 11,277 stores
and clubs spread across 27 countries under 55 different names.
Human resource management at Walmart has been one of its strongest divisions since the very
beginning and has been adding a lot of competitive advantage to the company. The importance
that Walmart associates to its human resource management division can be judged from the fact
that the founder of the company, Sam Walton, called Walmart’s HR department as The People
Division. The company has a global workforce of more than two million employees, which
obviously makes it important for the company to take its human resource management very
seriously.
Job Background
As discussed above, Walmart has a very dominating global presence and high human resource
requirement to keep its stores and clubs adequately staffed. Even though the company takes its
human resource planning very seriously, there are certain instances when the company is
required to externally recruit a new candidate to fulfill a vacant job position. Of late, the job
position of an Assistant Manager for Sales has been vacated in one of the stores in the Virginia
region of United States of America.
Virginia has a total of 153 Walmart retail units and each unit has its separate assistant managers
for sale and is required to directly report to the head sales manager, who is responsible for the all
over sales of the Virginia region (Walmart). The company has an exceptional workplace culture
where all the employees have a stake in the success of the company and are empowered to look
for business opportunities that would help in eliminating business risks. The company also offers
competitive compensation plans to its employees. The average salary of an Assistant Manager
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working at Walmart is $48,500 (Glassdoor). Therefore, Walmart outlets are one of the best
places to work for potential candidates.
Job design and analysis
The assistance manager of sales is one of the most appealing job positions to consider at
Walmart. The job position could offer a wide range of responsibilities and career development
opportunities to someone who already has some experience in the retail business. The job
description for the position of an assistant sales manager at Walmart is discussed below:
- Developing and implementing strategies to attract a greater pool of customers in order to
boost sales for the company and help the company in meeting its expected sales
performance (Moster.com).
- Analyze performance levels of the sales department and identifying at least 1 training and
development need of the employees every six months.
- Management of day-to-day customer service operations related to sales, orders and
payments.
- Look after the recruitment and training of all the sales associates working in his or her
retail outlet (Workable).
- Keep a thorough check on the inventory present in the retail outlet and order products
that have gone out of stock and are in a greater demand.
- To minimize the cost of inventory that the retail outlet has to bear.
- To keep a check on the sale strategies, which are being implemented by Walmart’s
competitors
- Analyze customer buying behavior and positioning products in a way that would be
helpful in boosting sales of the retail outlet.
- Formulate sale targets and performance standards for the employees working in the sales
team and also ensuring that they perform according to the expectations of the company.
- To constantly be in touch with various brands and manufacturers to design offers and
discounts on their products , which would help in boosting sales and attract customers
- Collect, analyze and compile sales data of his or her retail outlet and reporting it to the
head sales manager (Totaljobs)
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Human resource planning
Human resource planning is another core function of human resource management that aims at
forecasting future human resource requirements and identifying ways to fulfill the requirement.
Human resource planning is important because without human resources, an organization cannot
function whereas unwanted human resources can become a burden on a company’s finances.
Sales department is the backbone of Walmart Company and all employees working in the sales
department are required to be highly competitive. In the given case, it has been found by the
human resource managers that no junior level employee, working in the Virginia region, is
qualified or trained enough to handle the job of a sales manager. As a result, the company has
decided to go for an external recruitment strategy to fulfill the vacancy. An external recruitment
method would help the outlets in hiring a person that would be highly qualified and would have
an experience of working in the retail sector. Further, it would also increase the pool of
candidates out of which a sales manager would be selected. The external recruitment strategies
that will be used by the human resource managers are given below:
- Employee referrals  one of the best ways to recruit employees externally is through
employee referrals. Employees that are already working in Walmart can refer their
friends or family members, who can fulfill the job specifications and person
specifications, and the company can screen through them to find the best candidate for
the job (Compton, 2009). The best thing about this strategy is that it requires less
investment and is quick.
- Employment exchange  finding suitable candidates through employment exchange,
which are government run organizations, to fulfill the job position will also prove to be a
quicker and less expensive strategy for recruitment.
- Job portals  job portals are online websites that have a huge database of aspiring
candidates that are looking for a job. Human resource managers at Walmart can sort these
candidates on the basis of their requirements and would be able to access their resumes as
well.
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Selection
Selection, in human resource management, is a process that involves screening of the candidates
and hiring the best person suitable for a job opening (Lievens & Chapman). The selection
process that will be used for fulfilling the position of a sales manager is given below:
Firstly, a recruitment and selection team will be established out of the employees working in the
human resource department, who would govern the recruitment process. Secondly, they will
prepare thorough job descriptions and specifications for the post that has to be fulfilled. Thirdly,
they would work on advertising the job opening on different external recruitment modes and
invite applications from potential candidates (Kumari & Malhotra, 2013). Fourthly, the team
would conduct screening on the internet or in person using different tests, which it deems to be
fit for assessing the candidates. Fifthly, the team would conduct personal interviews with the
chosen candidates. Lastly, the team would finalize a candidate and make a job offer to the chosen
candidate.
The BDI interview questions that would be used in the interview are:
- Have a handled a challenge in the past? If yes, then how? (DOYLE, 2018)
- Have you ever made a mistake at workplace? If yes, then how did you handle it?
- Provide an example of how you set goals.
The situational interview questions that would be used in the interview are:
- Imagine your team is resisting a new idea that you have introduced. How would you
tackle the situation? (Forsey, 2018)
- How would you handle a situation where you senior is criticizing you?
- What will you do if your sales team fails to meet your performance expectations?
All these questions will provide a lot of in-depth information about a candidate. Not only will
they help in predicting his or her behavior but will also help in assessing their ability to deal with
difficult situations.
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Orientation, Training and Development
Orientation is a type of training program that is aimed at introducing a new recruit to the
workplace and the work processes. It allows new employees to get familiar with their work
environment and culture, which ultimately helps them in performing their job duties and
responsibilities.
For the orientation of the selected candidate, the human resource management team has decided
to provide a mentor, who would introduce him or her to the retail outlet. Along with assigning a
mentor, the team has also decided to make the new employee undergo a training program that
would introduce the fresh recruit to the working of the retail outlet and how sales are managed.
Further, the candidate will also be able to reach out to his or her mentor in case they have a
problem or find it difficult to perform their roles or responsibilities smoothly.
The orientation program would ensure that the new recruit gets properly settles in his or her job
as soon as possible, which could otherwise lead to job dissatisfaction and employee turnover. To
assess the effectiveness of the orientation program, the human resource management team will
conduct regular in person interviews with the new recruit and ask him or her questions about the
ease with which they are settling down in the workplace.
Rewards and Recognition
Walmart, as discussed in the above sections, is a company that offers competitive salaries to its
employees. The compensation that would be offered to the assistant manager of sales will be
above the market average and the assistance manager would also be given specific sales targets
to achieve, the completion of which would earn him or her rewards and recognition.
If the assistance sales manager is able to achieve the sale targets set up by the senior level
management, he or she would also earn indirect compensation in the form of extra annual leaves
or overtime allowance. This would not just help in keeping the employee motivated but would
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also ensure that they are satisfied with their jobs and are able to maintain a healthy balance
between his or her work life and personal life.
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Bibliography
Bergdahl, M. (2010, September 21). How the HR division at Wal-Mart drives the company's
success through people. Retrieved November 27, 2018, from www.hrmagazine.co.uk:
http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/how-the-hr-division-at-wal-mart-drives-the-
companys-success-through-people
Compton, R. L. (2009). Effective recruitment and selection practices. CCH Australia Limited.
DOYLE, A. (2018, October 9). Top 10 Behavioral Interview Questions and Answers. Retrieved
November 29, 2018, from Thebalancecareers: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/top-
behavioral-interview-questions-2059618
Forsey, C. (2018, May 29). 7 of the Best Situational Interview Questions. Retrieved November
29, 2018, from HubSpot : https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/situational-interview-
questions
Glassdoor. (n.d.). Assistant Manager Salaries. Retrieved November 27, 2018, from
www.glassdoor.co.in: https://www.glassdoor.co.in/Salary/Walmart-Assistant-Manager-
Salaries-E715_D_KO8,25.htm?countryRedirect=true
Kumari, N., & Malhotra, R. (2013). A Study of the Recruitment and Selection process: SMC
Global. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 3(2), 244-254.
Lievens, F., & Chapman, D. (n.d.). Recruitment and selection. The SAGE handbook of human
resource management, 135-154.
Moster.com. (n.d.). Sales Assistant Job Description Sample. Retrieved November 27, 2018, from
monster.com: https://hiring.monster.com/hr/hr-best-practices/recruiting-hiring-advice/
job-descriptions/sales-assistant-job-description-sample.aspx
Totaljobs. (n.d.). Area sales manager job description. Retrieved November 28, 2018, from
www.totaljobs.com:
https://www.totaljobs.com/careers-advice/job-profile/sales-jobs/area-sales-manager-job-
description
Walmart. (n.d.). Location Facts. Retrieved November 27, 2018, from corporate.walmart.com:
https://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/locations/united-states/virginia#/united-states/
virginia
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Workable. (n.d.). Assistant Manager job description. Retrieved November 27, 2018, from
Workable.com: https://resources.workable.com/assistant-manager-job-description
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