Strategies for Improving Operational Management at Wal-Mart

This report examines the operational management challenges faced by Wal-Mart, including issues related to employee turnover, business model complexity, data security, and quality concerns. The analysis explores the impact of these challenges and proposes potential solutions, such as implementing rewards and benefits programs and addressing employee demands. The report evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of each solution, ultimately recommending financial rewards and bonuses based on employee performance as the most appropriate strategy for improving employee retention. The report also provides recommendations for the performance management system and other areas to improve overall operational efficiency at Wal-Mart.

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Wal-Mart’s problems that may arise due to operation management
Operation management in the Wal-Mart is given higher importance still certain issues arise
due to the way they manages their different operations. Some of them are:
 Continuous training: Since the company is making changes in fields of operation
hence their employees must be ready for these changes. Providing training to such a
large workforce is a problem for human resource management team (Kramer &
Pfitzer, 2016).
 Business model Complexity: The amount of flexibility that company has provided in
its operations management has resulted in making the business model highly complex.
The changes are very fast hence problems become much bigger.
 Higher turnover: Due to reasons such as low wages given to the employees as
compared to other companies in the industry, there is very high employee turnover.
Due to this company has to invest a lot of time in recruiting new employees and
training them.
 Data security: Wal-Mart is using information Technology in various operations. With
such a large amount of data being gathered from different sources, the problems
related to data security increases especially when large amount of cyber-attacks are
going on.
 Quality concerns: Most of the products that are manufactured by Wal-Mart are of
lower quality. The three tier quality can reduce their chances of achieving higher
employee satisfaction.
Alternatives to solve one of the above mentioned issues
Wal-Mart is facing issues in retaining their staffs. High employee turnover has led to many
kinds of challenges for the company. Due to this they have to spend high amount of money in
their training and development programs. Some of the alternatives that can be chosen by the
Wal-Mart are as follows:
 Rewards and Benefits: In a state when the company cannot increase their pay scale so
as to reduce the cost of operations, it is essential that company gives rewards and
incentives to the employees. This must be based on the performance of the employees

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(Roberts & Berg, 2012). The criteria for earning the rewards must be on the lower
side so that most of employees could earn it.
 Reacting towards other demands: Apart from the financial needs of the employees,
there are certain other needs of the employees. It is possible to retain the employees
by fulfilling their other demands. This must be done by taking the feedbacks from the
employees (Wakamatsu & Wakamatsu, 2017). Some of these needs are higher pay on
the occasions such as Christmas or Sundays, Flexibility in working hours and shifts in
which employees works.
Advantages and Disadvantages of both the solutions
Both the solution has different kinds of advantages and disadvantages attached with it. Some
of these are mentioned below.
Rewards and benefits: They advantages and disadvantages attached with each of the solution
are as follows:
Advantages
 Rewards and Benefits do increases the spending of the company to a much larger
extent hence will not have impact on the cost leadership strategy of the Wal-Mart
(Pearson, 2017).
 Financial rewards are excellent motivators which is very much required in the modern
day business. It also has a very positive impact on the employee relations.
Disadvantage
 If the employee does receive bonus or rewards for the longer period of time then it
may act as a demotivation and the problem gets worse when one employee receives
the benefits while other fails due to any reason (Bonanno & Goetz, 2012).
 Performance evaluation is not easy in the companies like Wal-Mart which is having
large workforce. This must be done appropriately so as to reduce the chances of
anxiety in the minds of employees.
Reacting towards other demands: For this alternative the advantages and disadvantages are as
follows:
Advantages

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 It will not affect the company’s strategy of giving products and services at lower cost.
 Employees feel that company cares for them and for their different types of needs.
Disadvantage
 It is not a motivator for longer period of time. This is because non-financial rewards
affect the morale of the employees for limited period of time (Shi, Zhang & Ru,
2013).
 It creates situation where managing employee’s strength could be a problem for the
company.
Most Appropriate solution
In the two above mentioned solutions, the most appropriate solution is giving financial
rewards and bonuses based on the performance of the employees. This is more appropriate as
it is capable of motivating the employees for longer period of time when compared with
fulfilling non-financial needs.
Recommendations
For retaining employees for longer period of time, it is crucial that company increases their
salaries and reduces the expenses of the company in other areas of operations. Performance
management system must be supported by the use of technology.

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REFERENCES
Bonanno, A., & Goetz, S. J. (2012). Walmart and local economic development: A
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Kramer, M. R., & Pfitzer, M. W. (2016). The ecosystem of shared value. Harvard business
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Pearson, B. (2017) Wal-Mart's Employment Deployment And 6 Ways To Curb Retail
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpearson/2017/01/24/wal-marts-employment-
deployment-and-6-ways-to-curb-retail-turnover/#6b2b5e271008
Roberts, B., & Berg, N. (2012). Walmart: Key insights and practical lessons from the world's
largest retailer. Kogan Page Publishers.
Shi, R., Zhang, J., & Ru, J. (2013). Impacts of power structure on supply chains with
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Wakamatsu, M., & Wakamatsu, H. (2017). The certification of small-scale fisheries. Marine
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