Human Resources Practices at Wal-Mart Analysis Human Resources Practices at Wal-Mart Analysis

Walmart is the largest discount retailer in the world. The company started out as a small chain of stores in rural towns. Walmart was founded by Samuel Walton in 1962. In the United States they employed the most workers. Walmart supply grocery store and automotive repair shop for customers. With this being one of the largest chain stores valUes and attitudes is very important in the workplace.

Wal-Mart Corporation is one of the largest retail stores in the world. They serve customers in meeting their needs with low cost saving items. On October 31, 1962, Wal-Mart was founded and incorporated by Sam Walton in Bentonville, Arkansas. Mr. Walton went into business because he felt that items sold were too high for the average customer to afford. His focus was to sell products at low prices to get higher volume sales at a lower profit margin. He bought bulk products from different suppliers so he could incorporate savings into his pricing to lower cost for customers. Under the savings cost concept, Wal-Mart grew rapidly and surpassed its competitors in sales and generating profits.

Wal-Mart was conceived and founded by Sam Walton in 1962, at Rogers, Arkansas. Sam Walton started with just a few small variety stores, funded with borrowed money. His goal

Wal-Mart, founded by Sam Walton in 1962, is the world’s largest retailer and public corporation. It operates over 6,500 stores worldwide, employs 1.9 million associates, and serves more

Walmart is known throughout the entire world as one of the most popular chain department stores. Actually, most have probably visited a Walmart store in the past week. Though Walmart stores seem to be a normal part of life the average person more than likely has little knowledge that pertains to Walmart’s success and business culture. This paper will guide one through the history of the organization, why Walmart is successful, what could threaten or open new opportunities, and how might they hold a competitive advantage.

Walmart is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores and grocery stores. Wal-Mart controls over 11,500 stores in 28 countries around the world. It was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton. Walmart’s CEO is Doug McMillon and the Chairperson of Board of Directors is Greg Penner. Walmart as we know it today evolved from Sam Walton’s goals for great value and great customer service. He

Wal-Mart, the largest private employer in the globe and the third among the largest corporations in the world, is known to apply a wide range of logistic and supply chain techniques in meeting the dynamic demands from their clients. Additionally, the need to stay at the top in the world of business has made this concept mandatory for the multinational organization. Wal-mart, in its drive to achieve these ends has presented a number of implications, not only to the organization but also to its clients and the society at large (Fishman, 2006). Various positive attributes, say the history of the corporation, its application of information technology and computerized systems and the culture of the organization has, to a great extent catapulted the organization to great heights (Keil & Spector, 2005). Other attributed that have been of help to the organization and its client base include the corporation's strong global marketing procedures, practical distribution networks and strategic geographical locations just to mention but a few. On the negative side of the corporations activities and performance include the likes of rapacious pricing, poor labour and employees relations and poor working conditions among others.

Sam Walton understood people and knew how to choose excellent employees. Walton successively acquired valuable managers and personnel to operate his new stores. “Of course, I needed somebody to run my new store, and I didn’t have much money, so I did something I would do for the rest of my run in the retail business without any shame or embarrassment whatsoever: nose around other people’s stores searching for good talent.” (Walton, 1992, pg. 35) Sam Walton knew acquiring employees with good teamwork skills and strong work ethics would decrease employee turnover. Low employee turnover ultimately equated to lower hiring costs and fewer instances of Wal-Mart employee termination requiring severance payments at financial loss to the company. Furthermore,

When Sam Walton founded the first Wal-Mart in 1962, the idea of bringing in a discount-shopping store into rural America was almost unheard of, except for the local five and dime stores. When Walton noticed that he had a lot of competition from regional discount chains, him and his wife Helen traveled the country to study other new retailing concepts, and were convinced that it was the wave of the future. With Walton's vision, Wal-Mart grew to be a multi-billion dollar, international company, operating about 4,600 stores around the world.

Wal-Mart was first opened in 1962 by Sam Walter as a retail store. It started out a five and dime store in Rogers, Arkansas and was called Walton’s. He opened this store with one goal in mind, to sale at the lowest prices possible, quality leadership and great customer services. He thought that his idea could change the retail industrial. Wal-Mart was built on a solid foundation that remains stable even after the death of Mr. Walton. Wal-Mart became the largest multinational retail store in America, with a grocery store and a pharmacy. There is a Wal-Mart in all fifty states and seventeen international states and has more than 2.3 million employees. This store

Wal-Mart was founded by businessman Sam Walton in 1962 as a small retail store in Arkansas, USA. From there it has grown to become the largest retail giant in the world. Ranked by Forbes 2000 list for 2011 as the 18th largest public corporation in the world, Wal-Mart is the highest revenue generating public entity in the world as of 31st January 2011, with gross revenue of 422 billion US Dollars (Walmart Annual Report, 2011). It is also noted for being the largest private employer in the world having just over 2 million employees serving in 8500 stores, in 15 different countries, under 55 different names, worldwide. (Daniel, 2010)

Walmart’s mission is to keep “everyday prices low” meaning labor costs must be kept at the lowest possible level. Walmart has always made every effort in keeping unions out of its company. The National Labor Relations Board has filed numerous complaints against Walmart. If a division decided to strike, Walmart would typically just fire the employees.

With every company there come strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and Wal-mart is no exception. Wal-mart sits at the number one spot when it comes to retail businesses but they have had many issues; in particular labor law violations because they did not allow their employees to take required lunch and meal breaks.

Performance management has been the one of the main issues for Wal-Mart associates and critics alike. The issue has come about the large and diverse pool of associates within Wal-Mart. There are a large of stores within the United States and they have a large amount of employees (an estimated 1.3 million in-store). The different types of qualifications for pay and benefits is in need of a makeover. Wal-Mart knows that it need to start a well detailed comprised list of options for its employees. Under the Career / Benefits section of its website, the company

Human Resources bear another competitive advantage of Wal-Mart. The retailer is eager to employ only people that agree totally with the philosophy of Wal-Mart and put all their effort to achieve the most possible success for their company. Furthermore, it is common to recruit graduates directly after education. The advantage of the company is the ability to influence the working behavior of the employees. In order to motivate the employees, they were involved into actively suggesting improvements in day to day operations, resulting in cost savings of 85 million US-$ in 1993. Additionally, it is possible for the employees to participate in shareholding and to obtain dividends of Wal-Marts profits. Looking at the top of the company, it is not important, which position every single management member takes in the