Walmart - case study of wall mart PDF

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Introduction: Walmart is one of the biggest companies in the world in terms of organizational size, business value, and financial performance. However, the firm must ensure that its human resources are supported in satisfying business needs and expectations. Walmart must consider how its activities, such as internal organizational processes, support its human resources. For instance, the company must address its human resource planning and job design, and how these aspects contribute to high performance of employees.

“Associates” When Walmart, Walton decide to call all employees ‘Associates” its symbolize their importance to the company that treating them with respect seemed to the reap dividends in the form of high employee productivity.

Respect for the Individual Every associate's opinion is respected. Managers are considered "servant leaders" who help new associates realize their potential

through training, praise and

constructive feedback. An

"open door" management philosophy

encourages associates to raise

questions and concerns in an open

atmosphere.

Decentralized Organization Decentralized Organization is one in which most decisions are made by mid-level or lower-level managers, rather than being made centrally by the head of the company. It's the opposite of a centralized organization, in which all decisions are made at the top .Service to the Customer The customer is the boss. Everything possible is done to make shopping at Wal-Mart and SAM'S CLUB a friendly, pleasant experience. The "Ten-Foot Attitude" means that associates are to greet each person they see. The "Satisfaction Guaranteed" refund and exchange policy allows customers to be fully confident of Wal-Mart and SAM'S CLUB's merchandise and quality. Open-door Policy Open door Policy Management practice whereby all employees have direct access to the senior executives without going through several gatekeepers or layers of bureaucracy. Consistent with the open door policy ,waltaon continually emphasized that management needed to listen to associates and their ideas. Unionization The process of organizing the employees of a company into a labor union which will act as an intermediary between the employees and company management. In most cases it requires a majority vote of the employees to authorize a union. If a union is established the company is said to be unionized. But Walmart directly opposed Unionization to fear that it would lead to higher pay and restrictive work rules that would sap productivity .

The Sundown Rule One Sunday morning, Jeff, a pharmacist at a Wal-Mart store in Harrison, Ark., received a call from his store. A store associate informed him that one of his pharmacy customers, a diabetic, had accidentally dropped her insulin down her garbage disposal. Knowing that a diabetic without insulin could be in grave danger, Jeff immediately rushed to the store, opened the pharmacy and filled the customer's insulin prescription. This is just one of many ways your local Wal-Mart store might honor what is known by our associates as the Sundown Rule. It's a rule we take seriously at Wal-Mart. In this busy place, where our jobs depend on one another, it's our standard to get things done today - before the sun goes down. Whether it's a request from a store across the country or a call from down the hall, every request gets same-day service. These are our working principles. The Sundown Rule was our founder, Sam Walton's twist on that old adage "why put off until tomorrow what you can do today." It is still an important part of our Wal-Mart culture and is one reason our associates are so well known for their customer service. The observation of the Sundown Rule means we strive to answer requests by sundown on the day we receive them. It supports Mr. Sam's three basic beliefs: respect for the individual, customer service and striving for excellence. At Wal-Mart, our associates understand that our customers live in a busy world. The Sundown Rule is just one way we try to demonstrate to our customers that we care.

Strive for Excellence Wal-Mart and SAM'S CLUB associates share an exceptional commitment to customer satisfaction. At the start of each day, store associates gather for the Wal-Mart or SAM'S CLUB cheer and review sales from the previous day, as well as discuss their daily goals. "The Sundown Rule" requires a continual sense of urgency, with questions asked in the morning answered before the end of the day. Profit Sharing a scheme employing profit-sharing a system in which a portion of the net profit of a business is distributed to its employees usually in proportion to their wages or their length of service Stock- ownership scheme a benefits plan in which employees own a percentage of their company’s shares, which are bought and managed for them by a trust(= separate organization).

Satisfaction Guaranteed Simply stated, this means doing everything we can to please you. Repair, exchange, or refund with a thank-you and a smile. You are our livelihood. Our job is to make you feel like you are the most important part of our business by meeting your needs and exceeding your expectations. "Exceed your customers' expectations. If you do, they'll come back over and over. Give them what they want, and a little more." ---- Sam Walton The Founder of Wal-Mart

Sexual Discrimination Sex discrimination involves treating someone (an applicant or employee) unfavorably because of that person's sex. An employment policy or practice that applies to everyone, regardless of sex, can be illegal if it has a negative impact on the employment of people of a certain sex and is not jobrelated or necessary to the operation of the business Discrimination against an individual because of gender identity, including transgender status, or because of sexual orientation is discrimination because of sex in violation of Title VII.

Customer Service Rules Rule # 1: The customer is always right! Rule # 2: If the customer happens to be wrong, refer to Rule # 1.

How to Be a Wal-Mart Supplier Wal-Mart Supercenter/SAM'S CLUB are looking for partners to grow together. If you would like to work with Wal-Mart (China), please download the documents below and fill out it , and then send them to the email address corresponding to your sector activity, or fax your material to Wal-Mart China Home Office.

Thank You! Thank you for shopping our stores. We appreciate the opportunity to serve you. We are

continuously working to improve our business to meet your needs, and exceed your expectations. Be sure and let us know how we can improve. If you have not been able to visit our stores, please be our guest. We look forward to seeing you soon! Here’s my opinion on how they do it:

Strategy 1: How does HR help protect Wal-Mart’s price advantage?

Wal-Mart’s pricing strategy is simply put: ‘to provide value for its customer’s hard earned money’. The HR strategy is to focus Wal-Mart’s employees to do everything they possibly can to hold down cost, and, they do. Whenever Wal-Mart is successful in lowering its expenses, it passes those savings along to its customers in the form of lower prices putting even more pressure on its competitors.

Strategy 2: How does HR focus people to insure operational success? HR’s role is to focus Wal-Mart’s leaders and employees on continuous learning, continuous improvement, superior execution, employee empowerment, and employee ownership all designed to create synergistic teamwork. Wal-Mart teams are highly productive but at the same time the staffing levels are lean. HR insures employees are held operationally accountable for keeping a balanced focus on customer service, expense control (theft prevention) and keeping products in stock.

Strategy 3: How does HR foster a culture committed to business success? At some point early on in their career managers attend a week of cultural training at The

Walton Institute at the University of Arkansas. The Wal-Mart culture, carefully maintained by HR, is a diverse collection of entrepreneurial-minded people who by design all have a stake in the success of the company. Acting like business owners they look for opportunities to solve problems that help eliminate business risk.

Strategy 4: How does HR connect Wal-Mart’s people to productivity ? At Wal-Mart Sam Walton expected everyone to think and act like retail merchants. Everyone in the headquarters, no matter what job they held or what department they worked in, was expected to focus on how to help the stores improve service to customers. Walton pushed the decision-making process downward, empowering local managers and associates to make business decisions on behalf of customers as quickly as possible. Strategy 5: How does HR focus employees to reduce expenses at Wal-Mart’s? The philosophy on expense control at Wal-Mart is quite simple: as sales go up expenses as a percentage of sales must always go down. At many companies, once an expense budget is set, expenses rise as sales rise. The risk with this approach is that if sales fall a weak expense structure is exposed immediately. Wal-Mart’s approach protects the company, if sales were to fall, and allows it to drop expenses savings to the bottom line as sales rise.

Strategy 6: How does HR’s talent strategy drive results at Wal-Mart? Simply having the right talent in place to match the growth of the company may be the biggest risk Wal-Mart faces. Wal-Mart hires aggressively from more than 100 colleges and targets the colleges with Retail Institutes. People have always been the company’s greatest asset. Their self-professed talent goal at Wal-Mart is to hire the best, provide the best training and to be the place to work.

Strategy 7: How does HR align every functional area with service? Sam Walton always said the biggest risk to his business was that his customers would stop shopping at his stores. That fear translated into customer fanaticism is reinforced by HR to this day. Culturally, everyone is focused on improving every aspect of customer service, because they know the biggest risk of all may depend on it… their own job

Conclusion: With regard to human resources, the tone was set by Sam Walton. He had a strong belief that employees should be respected and rewarded for helping to improve the profitability of the company. Underpinning this belief, Walton referred to employees as associates .The successful management of business risks at Wal-Mart is reliant upon the success of people. Wal-Mart’s leaders credit their employees around the world who make the difference every day by achieving sales goals, serving customers, controlling expenses, and by doing so they help to eliminate business risks....