HRM Analysis: Retail Industry Employer Branding and Training Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of human resource management (HRM) practices within the retail industry, focusing on three major companies: Zara, H&M, and Walmart. The report examines each company's employer branding strategies, including how they position themselves to attract and retain talent. It then delves into the training and development offerings provided to employees, highlighting the key areas of focus and methodologies employed. Furthermore, the report explores the onboarding processes of each company, detailing how they integrate new employees into their organizational culture and operations. An analysis and assessment section follows, comparing the industry practices to textbook recommendations, identifying strengths and weaknesses of the industry. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and offering insights into the effectiveness of HRM practices in the context of the retail sector.

RUNNING HEAD: HRM ANALYSIS
Title:
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Organizations chosen:
Zara- Fashion Retail
H&M- Fashion retail
Wal-Mart- consumer goods retail.

1HRM ANALYSIS
Introduction:
Human resource practices like the training and development and the onboarding is a
crucial factor as it is closely related to the strategic mission of the company. Moreover, the
success of a company is also related to the performance of the employer to promote their brand.
The report will discuss the employer branding process and the training and development
offerings of the three companies of the retail sector namely Zara and H&M from the fashion
industry and Walmart from the goods retail industry.
Employer brands of the companies:
The employer branding refers to the reputation of the employer at the place of the work
and the employee value proposition. Zara has the strategy of putting its customer brand into the
employer brand. The company does put a lot of effort into listening to their customer and in turn
make their fashion a first fashion one. The company notes down the inputs by the customers and
made the brand a customer co-creation. This has helped the company to earn the tag of
“favorite”. Being one of the most reputed names in the fashion retail store, the company had
been spreading the idea that Zara is a fantastic place to work in. in giving independence and
recognition to the staff, the company allows its staff to draw decisions based on the data gained.
In the process of communication, Zara, however, does not carry on the process through much of
advertising (https://www.hm.com/entrance.ahtml?orguri=%2F). It puts more effort into the word
of mouth technique and thus, the shaping of the perceptions towards the customers are formed
mainly through social media and from friends or families.
H&M is a familiar name in the fashion retail industry that has made the campaign to
feature H&M employees from all around the U.S., reinforcing the company's "we are one team"

2HRM ANALYSIS
core value and promoting the community among H&M employees. H&M said in a statement that
people play the biggest role in the company's success, as they have allowed it to grow its U.S.
brand and e-commerce business. It has also aimed at branding the employer as the company that
attracts the best talents in the industry.
Wal-Mart is arguably the largest company of retail corporations with the maximum
number of employees working in it. The company maintains its employer branding using
providing career direction and career development to its employees. in the process of carrying
the brand to the customers, the company has set up its Instagram page that shares fun facts and
updates about life ad not merely on their products (Walmart.com). They also recognize different
employees and teams for a job well done. This ensures potential job seekers to generate interest
in the company.
Training and Development Offerings:
The company of Zara offers training and development programs for its employees to
minimize the risks associated with the extreme dependencies on the key personnel and providing
career opportunities. With this aim, the company delivers training to its employees that includes
in-store pieces of training, personalized pieces of training and personality development training.
Since one of the most important factors for the employees is to interact with the customers, the
employees are given training on the enhancement of the interactions with the customers. Since
the company does not advertise, creating a good image for the customers is their way of
promotion. Moreover, the company gives training for carrying on teamwork.
In H&M, the employers believe that the employees of the company are the secret sauces
to success. The company thus, puts considerable stress on the training and development of their

3HRM ANALYSIS
employees, that includes the interaction training, the on the job training what they called “just
inline” and focuses largely on the place-based training and using the training as the learning
opportunities (Jaiswal, & Dhar, 2017).
The training and development offerings in Walmart focus on enabling the employees to be
efficient in their daily jobs and the enhancement of the capabilities of the employees to adjust to
the emerging needs of the retail industry. The quality of service is put in the highest priority in
the training process. For the sales personnel, the company advocates on job training and result-
oriented training. The process-oriented training is mainly aimed at managers. The main process
that the company structures the training programs are by the means of discussions, coaching and
the on job training (Jacobs, Renard, & Snelgar,2014).
It is thus identified from the discussions of the training processes of the three companies
are more or less the same since all three of them belong to the retail industry. However, based on
their products, marketing strategies, and styles and the customer base, there are some basic
differences.
Onboarding process:
The onboarding process at Zara and H&M includes the interactions with the old
employees and the supervisors with the newly inducted employees. The company introduces the
culture and the hierarchical structure to the employees who have joined. The onboarding process
does not mean the team joining process. It ensures the understanding of the employees to the
work that is to be done and to the culture of the organization.
The onboarding process of Walmart follows a detailed step where the employees are first
required to meet the managers. The process is followed by the process of being acclimated. The

4HRM ANALYSIS
staffs make an effort to create an interactive bond with the new employees at the 1-hour lunch
break. The company then deals with the discussion of various career development opportunities
and learning programs.
Analysis and Assessment:
1. The training and development and the employer branding process of the three companies
discussed more or less the textbook mentioned tactics. In the fashion retail industry like the Zara
or the H&M, the company must employ a sophisticated practice that would fit the luxury of the
fashion world. The employees are rightly trained to give the customers an idea of the value-
added services and the sense of appreciation and comfort.
In Walmart, the training process is however more practical based and focuses only on
production and daily target meeting. However, it is understandable that in a company like
Walmart that has its core in retail marketing the core has to be very much production oriented.
The branding strategy through promotion by Walmart is highly innovative and fun-oriented that
includes the interactions through Instagram (Madison, Daspit, Turner & Kellermanns,2018)).
2. The practices of the companies closely follow the recommendations of the textbooks in the
training and development and employer branding process, the textbook suggests the following:
a. the enhancement of interpersonal and technical skills of the employees through training.
b. a proactive employer who will dedicate himself in the building up of brand awareness through
his practices, interactions with the customer base as well as the employees.
c. motivating the employees in taking up newer responsibilities.
d. make the employees understand and examine the KPIs of their skills and tactics used.

5HRM ANALYSIS
e. make the employees aware of the culture of the organization. ( Imna & Hassan,2015)
The training and development of the three companies discussed makes an effective use of
these recommendations. They use the organization as a learning center for the newly joined
employees. All three of the organization are active in social media that enhances their branding
tactics. It is, however, in the practical scenario not always possible to stick as it is to the textbook
theories. Depending on the situations and the environment, the companies do change or modify
their policies.
3. The industry discussed in the project is the retail industry. While Zara and H&M are the
fashion retails, Walmart is the consumer goods retail company. From the analysis, the following
strengths and weaknesses of the industry can be highlighted:
Strengths:
1. The hr management helps in improving the growth rates in the new markets.
2. The innovative HR practices will help employee engagement.
3. the training will make the employees more capable of taking up new responsibilities.
Weakness:
1 sticking just to one process of training or one approach of employer branding can be a
weakness since the retail industry is a constantly changing one.
2. the amount of turnover is greater in the retail industry that requires a repetitive process of the
same training.
Conclusion:

6HRM ANALYSIS
Thus, it is to be concluded that the three companies follow a relatively traditional model
of human resource practices, with minor modifications to cope up with the practical world. This
ensures their human management with its strategic vision that results in better productivity.

7HRM ANALYSIS
Reference List:
H&M offers fashion and quality at the best price. (2020). Retrieved 3rd March 2020, from
https://www.hm.com/entrance.ahtml?orguri=%2F
Imna, M., & Hassan, Z. (2015). Influence of human resource management practices on employee
retention in Maldives retail industry. International Journal of Accounting, Business and
Management, 1(1), 1-28.
Jacobs, S., Renard, M., & Snelgar, R. J. (2014). Intrinsic rewards and work engagement in the
South African retail industry. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 40(2), 1-13.
Jaiswal, D., & Dhar, R. L. (2017). Impact of human resources practices on employee creativity in
the hotel industry: The impact of job autonomy. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality &
Tourism, 16(1), 1-21.
Madison, K., Daspit, J. J., Turner, K., & Kellermanns, F. W. (2018). Family firm human
resource practices: Investigating the effects of professionalization and bifurcation bias on
performance. Journal of Business Research, 84, 327-336
Walmart.com | Save Money. Live Better. (2020). Retrieved 23 January 2020, from
https://www.walmart.com/