Human Resource Management: Walmart Case Study, Issues, and Solutions

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Walmart's human resource management (HRM) practices. It begins with an executive summary, followed by a background on Walmart and the significance of HRM. The report identifies and analyzes key issues, including inappropriate wage and work time characteristics, inadequate staff training, insufficient rewards and motivation, declining corporate culture, and workplace safety concerns. The analysis draws on disciplinary knowledge and skills related to HRM. The report offers recommendations for improving Walmart's HR practices, addressing issues such as employee dissatisfaction, job insecurity, and the need for a more professional approach to staff handling. The report concludes with a discussion of the author's future study plans, reflecting on the insights gained from the analysis and the relevance of HRM in the retail industry.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary:..................................................................................................................2
Background of the business group and the topic:......................................................................2
Issues / Problems that being analysed:.......................................................................................3
Detailed analysis of the identified issues by referring to disciplinary knowledge and skills
learnt from your degree:.............................................................................................................3
Recommend solution / Suggestions:..........................................................................................5
Plan of your career or future study:............................................................................................5
References:.................................................................................................................................6

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Executive Summary:
The professional handling of human resources is observed to achieve significant
amount of preferences amongst the business houses working in the modern trade world. The
senior management of the business groups are able to achieve the importance of integrating
systematic human resource handling techniques in the business activities of their business
groups. As the priority for them is the efficient usage of their human resource or more
specifically the achievement of the large profit with the consumption of the least possible
resources, the application of the cost controlling techniques and the professional people
handling becomes obvious. The efficient people handling covers various aspects such as the
training and development of the staffs, wage and work time characteristics, rewards and
recognition of the staffs, workplace health and safety along with the efficient handling of the
employment relations. However, the inappropriate people handling inside the business groups
have the capability to pose considerable amount of challenges to the smooth conduct of the
HR activities and the business activities.
The paper discusses regarding one such business case of a global retail giant named as
Walmart. The paper delivers a brief summary of the business group and discusses regarding
the regarding the topic of staff handling. Along with this, the paper also identifies the issues
or the challenges that the business group faced in recent times such as the inappropriate wage
and work time characteristics, inappropriate handling of the training of the staffs, inefficient
rewards and motivation plan for the staffs of the business group, declining corporate culture
of the business group and inappropriate workplace health and safety policies nad practices.
The paper analyses the impact of the mentioned aspects on the handling of the human
resources in the business group and with a precise understanding of the issues, the paper

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delivers an effective set of recommendations for the improvement of the HR practices of the
business group. In addition to this, the paper informs regarding my own future study as well.
Background of the business group and the topic:
The people handling is observed to gain considerable amount of significance in the
modern world of trade. The effective handling of the human resources is observed to be one
of the main criteria for the business groups in gaining the much required sustainability
(Cascio 2015). The appropriate handling of the employment relations has greater significance
for the business groups working in the modern world of business. Along with this, the
accomplishment of the business groups in conducting sustainable commercial activities is
perceived to be largely dependent on the ability of the business groups in handling their
human resources. The importance of recruiting competent persons is also experiencing a
notable enhancement. Along with this, the business groups working in the modern world of
business, are observed to face the need of maintaining their service excellence and under such
situation the necessity of retaining the talented staffs is significantly high (Church and Rotolo
2013). Hence the impact of the rewards and motivation for influencing the staffs in
maintaining their involvement with the organizations, is observed to be pretty high.
Considering the chosen organization, Walmart, it is understandable that the business group is
one of the market leading organization working in the global retail industry. The public
limited business group was founded by Sam Walton in the year 1945 in Arkansas
(Walmart.com. 2019).
The current headquarter of the business group is observed to be placed in Bentonville.
The business group is observed to gain significant reputation in selling the products of
different genres such as Electronics, Home and Furniture, Clothing, Footwear, Jewellery,
Health and Beauty products, sporting goods and fitness products along with grocery products.

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Other than the products, the business group has the capability to provide their clients with the
services such as the Walmart MoneyCard, Walmart Pay, Walmart.com and Walmart-2-
Walmart. The Walton family owned business group has the capability to serve the clients
across the globe (Walmart.com. 2019).
The business group is one of the retail organizations that has the capability to expand
their business in an efficient manner and under such situation, the excellence of the handling
team of the business group which includes Doug McMillon, the President and Chief
Executive Officer of the business group and Greg Penner, the chairman of the business group,
is pretty prominent (Walmart.com. 2019). The business group currently has the ability to
employ 2.2 million staffs across the globe for the operative handling of the commercial
activities in 11,389 number of store locations along with the online business handling
(Walmart.com. 2019). Apart from this, the skills of the staffs and the idealistic leadership
from the part of the handling team of the business group are considered to be crucial for the
generation of 514.405 billion US dollars in the year 2019 and at the same time, the working
income of the business group is able to reach 21.957 billion US dollars in 2019
(Walmart.com. 2019). Apart from this, the urge of the leadership team of the business group
in efficient handling of the business activities of the business group is pretty noticeable with
the development of the subsidiaries such as Walmart International, Global eCommerce, Sam's
Club and Walmart U.S (Walmart.com. 2019).

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(Information: Total revenue of Walmart worldwide from 2012 to 2019 (in billion U.S.
dollars))
(Information Courtesy: Statista.com. 2019)
Statistics:
Number of
Employees
Store locations Total revenue of
Walmart in 2019
Operating income in
2019
2.2 million 11,389 514.405 billion US
dollars
21.957 billion US
dollars
Issues / Problems that being analysed:
With a thorough emphasis on the business activities and the human resource actions
of the business group, it is visible that the public relations of the business group faced
considerable number of negative reviews owing to the human resource problems. As the

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staffs are one of the prime stakeholder of any business organizations, it becomes important to
manage them in an efficient manner (Korschun 2015). However, Walmart faced considerable
number of challenges in handling their human resource in a professional method and that was
pretty obvious with the employment unrest in the business group (Forbes.com. 2019). The
staffs of the business group were observed to be significantly dissatisfied with majority of the
HR policies of the business group. The lack of motivation amongst the staffs was pretty
prominent. The inappropriate pay policies of the business group in the American region was a
major menace for the business group in integrating the staffs. Majority of the staffs of the
business group raised their concern regarding the incapability of the business group in
providing the basic pay in accordance to the industry standards (Youtube.com 2019). Hence,
the inappropriate pay policies of the business group were observed to affect the smooth
execution of the business activities of the business group. Other than this, a large number of
the staffs of the business group working in the American region, were seen to be anxious
regarding their job insecurity which even influenced them in undertaking terrible decisions
such as the employment strikes (Youtube.com 2019). The American workforce of the
business group went to strike due to unethical HR practices conducted by the human resource
department of the business group. Majority of the staffs of the American workforce were
observed to be concerned regarding the inappropriate pay policies and the inefficient
workplace safety of the business group.
However, the concern of the staffs regarding the mentioned aspects were
acknowledged by the senior management of the business group in an inappropriate manner
and that was evident with the fact that the higher authority of the business group has
undertaken strict actions against those staffs. This increased the frustration of the staffs and
the sense of job insecurity was pretty prominent amongst them (Forbes.com. 2019). Hence,
the impact of the job insecurity amongst the staffs of the business group affected the

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motivation of the staffs of the business group in a significant manner. In addition to this, the
human resource department of the business group were seen to function in an unprofessional
manner when they penalized their staffs for taking sick leaves. The mentioned act from the
part of the human resource handling of the business group violated the human rights of the
staffs of the business group and at the same time, it was a violation of their own value
proposition as well. Being one of the largest business group working in the global trade
industry and one of the reputed employer working across the globe, the above mentioned
action had the potential to provide notable amount of detrimental impact on the reputation of
the business group. Hence, the ability of the business group in attracting efficient and talented
staffs were observed to be at risk (Hrdive.com 2019).
Along with that, the business group was facing the threat of higher turnover owing to
the above mentioned inappropriate HR policies undertaken from the part of the business
group. In addition to this, the business group had certain amount of impurities in their
training infrastructure which increased the difficulty of the human resource handling
department of the business group in handling the developmental requirements of the staffs in
a professional manner. Other than this the business group was observed to face the effects of
declining organizational culture which was prominent with the blame game between the
various workforces of the business group and the repetitive occurrences of the strikes in
various workforces of the business group across the globe (Youtube.com 2019).
Detailed analysis of the identified issues by referring to disciplinary
knowledge and skills learnt from your degree:
Being a student of human resource handling or the human resource practitioner, one
of my primary responsibility is to effectively manage staffs of the business group with a exact
focus on the grief and happiness of the students. Having said that, the appropriate handling of

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the employment relations in the organizations, is an integral part of my job profile.
Considering the study of the human resource handling, I developed the skills of identifying
the progressive requirements of the staffs in order to design appropriate training activities for
the staffs. Thinking of the increasing demands of the quality products and services in the
modern world of business, the business groups are observed to be more inclined towards the
handling of the developmental needs of the staffs. As the improvement in the skills and
competencies of the staffs is directly linked with the improved competence of the business
groups in providing quality products for the effective retention of the clients, the
responsibility of the human resource managers in handling the training and developmental
activities of the staffs is observed to be significantly high (Noe et al. 2017). Having said that,
the necessity of designing quality products and services influences the business groups in
efficient retention of the talented staffs inside the organizations. Hence, for the talent
acquisition aspect, the human resource managers of the business groups are observed to have
the necessity of designing the wage and work time characteristics of the business groups in an
efficient manner (Alfes et al. 2013). Other than this, the ability of the business groups in
providing the additional benefits to their staffs has the capability to improve the value
proposition of the business groups which effectively improves the ability of the business
group in retaining their talented staffs.
With a precise focus on the employment and staff handling in the business group over
the years, it was evident that the business group was suffering from inappropriate
employment relations. Being one of the largest business group working in the global retail
industry, the business group had to implement an appropriate wage and work time
characteristics inside the business group which have the capability to motivate the staffs of
the business group. However, the business group failed in the mentioned aspect in such a
significant manner that a considerable section of the HR staffs at the American workforce

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went to strike (Businessinsider.in 2019). The formation of the wage characteristic inside the
business group was a major point of concern as the minimum wage of the business group was
significantly lesser than that of the industry standards. On the other hand, the business group
was highlighted for certain unlawful human resource practices which was evident with the
allegation that the business group faced for penalizing their workers for taking sick days
(Hrdive.com 2019). Other than this, the business group’s culture was also at a terrible
situation in several store locations of it. There was several cases where the staffs of one
workforce were observed to highlight the lack of competency of others for the decreasing
sales of the business group or for the decreasing quality of the products of the business group.
Hence, the blame game was significantly detrimental for the success of the business group
going forward.
Recommend solution / Suggestions:
From the above analysis it is evident that there are various issues that are being faced
by Walmart while they are working in the Market of the United States. To sun it up the
business group has been facing issues in terms of unfavourable training and development of
the staffs associated to the organisation, inappropriate wage structures and unfavourably long
working hours. Apart from the latter the business group has had issues regarding the safety of
the workplace. The basic hygiene needs of the staffs are not being addressed. Issues such as
no benefits in terms of the sick leaves and similar benefits were not being provided to the
staffs as a result of which it was found that there were abundance in grievances from the part
of the staffs of the organisation and lack of employee engagement. This resulted in the lack of
motivation of the staffs which resulted in frequent strikes which highly affected the
production, value proposition and the service quality of the business group. Thus, the said
issues have had considerable impact on the culture within the organisation thus affecting all

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the stakeholders associated to the organisation. Hence, the following recommendations can
be made in order to overcome the situation that exists within the organisation;
 Inclusion of training and development policies: Regardless of the position and the
duration of the career of an employee, they might need scopes for training and
development (Kulkarni 2013). Thus, the latter should be incorporated by the human
resource handling department of the organisation. The latter should be included into the
activities of every functional department within the business group.
 Modification of the work-hours and wage rates: As humans, there are certain amounts of
stress that the body can take. The business group should realise the same and ensure that
the lengthy working hours are reduced or modified. According to the Equal Pay Act 1963,
it has been stated that there needs to be adequate remuneration that business groups have
to provide its staffs with (Sandberg 2016). Thus, Walmart has to abide by the same and
incorporate fair remuneration into the payroll of the business group.
 Development of employee benefit schemes: According to Herzberg’s hygiene theory,
there are basic benefits that must be satiated in order to avoid employee demotivation
(Alshmemri, Akl and Maude 2017). The absence of employee benefits schemes
especially the absence of sick leaves contribute to the demotivation of the staffs. Thus,
policies regarding the development of the same should be incorporated into the HR
policies of the business group.
 Effective grievance redressal systems: At any point of operation, there might be issues
that staffs might be subject as a result of which they might develop grievances (Rana et
al. 2016). This can be overcomes with clear and hindrance free communication. The latter
can be bolstered with the help of a grievance redressal framework within the organisation
through which the staffs can communicate their grievances and resolve the same to avoid
further grievances.

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 Employee engagement through motivation: It is the aim of every organisation to bolster
their competency through high-performance outcomes from the part of the staffs.
Motivation is the key to achievement of employee engagement (Robson et al. 2016).
Staffs might be satisfied, however, not necessarily engaged. There are various needs that
have been presented in the hierarchy of needs as presented by Abraham Maslow in the
hierarchy of needs (Kaur 2013). There might be different motivating factors that might
lead to motivation of the staffs. Thus, the same must be realised by the organisation. It is
suggested that there should be employee engagement activities such as interactive
sessions or team building exercises that not only bolster the aspect of employee
engagement, but also bolster the culture that is instated in an organisation.
Plan of your career or future study:
As an individual associated to human resource handling, it would be my role to
understand the issues that are needed to be dealt to develop favourable handling employee
relationships in the business group that I would be associated to in the future. In the future, I
see myself associated to the human resource role of a large scale organisation. Thus, I would
need to provide the best of my efforts for catering to the needs of the organisation associated
to the human resources handling department.
I would pay extensive attention to the needs of the staffs. The staffs of an organisation
are one of the key stakeholders associated to an organisation. Thus, it should be the
responsibility of the handling of organisations to cater to the needs of the staffs of the
business group. Once, I am in position of development of human resources policies, I would
need to ensure due attention is paid to the staffs. I would cater to the latter and ensure that the
value of the organisation that I am a part of is communicate to the staffs associated to the
organisation.