INDIVIDUAL PROJECT 4 .docx

INDIVIDUAL PROJECT 4
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INDIVIDUAL PROJECT 4 Introduction
This is a human resource competitive analysis of Wal-Mart
retail store. An industry human resource competitive position is
elaborated alongside other competitors. Also given are the
human resource risks that companies can face in the operations
and the opportunities that exist in the market that they can seize
to remain competitive in al dimensions. The paper finally gives
an overall assessment of human resource competitiveness in
retail industry. Industry Competitive Position
The retail industry is in the United States and generally
depends on the level of competitiveness of its staff. This ranges
from the way its staff deals with customers, suppliers, and other
stakeholders. The key skills required are customer relations
skills, marketing and promotion skills, and the general human
resource management skills (American International University,
2016). Often, success in the industry depends on the skills of
the employees and how they can seize the opportunities arising
in the market to get an edge above the other players. It is thus
important to train employees on these core skills and on
innovativeness (American International University, 2016).
Many players in the industry are paying key employees
efficiency wages plus a couple of non-pecuniary benefits to
retain them. Heavy expenditure on training of employees
especially on courses related customer relations and promotion
and marketing define the success in the industry (American
International University, 2016). Another key approach to human
resource management in the retail industry is that of employee
training. In order to enhance employee competiveness, regular
trainings are necessary. Training refreshes the minds of the
subjects and also exposes them to changes in the market to
enhance their astuteness in handling new tasks. Comparator

Group Competitive Position
A core competitor to Wal-Mart in the retail industry is
Target Inc. Target has had rougher experiences with its
employees. It has recorded unprecedented employee turnover
between 2010 and 2014 and this makes its human resource
sustainability unstable (SHRM Foundation, 2010). Even though
it has not lost key staff members such as the CFO and
Marketing managers, the company has lost a number of
personnel working under them. This makes them quite exposed
and less competitive. Some of the risks that Target could
experience dealing with less experienced staff members include
the fact that there may be lagged activity as they familiarizes
themselves with the market (American International University,
2016). Human Resources Risks Description
Human resource risks also referred to as human capital
risks refer to the exposure of a group to losses as a result of
drain or loss of key personnel, inadequate human resource
development strategies, and deterioration of staff morale,
inappropriate working schedule, inequity or inequality in human
resource management, inappropriate industrial safety, and or
discriminatory conducts against the employees (SHRM
Foundation, 2010). Some of these risks expose the business in
ways that can have bearing on its productivity as well as the
way the key business stakeholders relate with the company. For
Wal-Mart, it is exposed to a number human resource risks.
These include the risk of employee sabotage of operations, risks
of losing key personnel, risk of losing out to litigations due to
court cases against the company, and the risks of reputational
deterioration due to the perception they hold of the company as
a result of its failure to comply with regulations (SHRM
Foundation, 2010).
The risk of employee sabotage of operations could result
from the dissatisfaction of employees against the management.
Employees have a number of ways of addressing their
grievances. First, they could opt for a go-slow or pilferage as a
way of exercise vengeance against a management that they

disapprove of. When this occurs, the operations of the company
can be sabotaged and the organization will only be using the
human resource sub-optimally (SHRM Foundation, 2010). The
risks of losing key personnel refers to the risk that employees
will seek pastures they deem greener based on the disapproval
they hold against the company. This can be a consequence of
poaching of key staff members who are already very familiar
with the organization’s operational processes. This can plague
the organization as it would have to incur training costs or have
to pay efficiency wages to retain them (SHRM Foundation,
2010).
The risk of losing out to litigations due to court cases
against the company refers to the exposure of an organization to
court cases filed by disgruntled employees as a result of the
organization’s non-compliance with basic regulations
(American International University, 2016). These regulations
could take the form of industrial and occupational safety
standards observance by the organization, health and security
compliance by the organization, and compliance with the labor
and employment laws and regulations as well as labor union
requirements (American International University, 2016). All
these activities when they get to a level in which they must be
pursued in courts of law, they will have cost implications such
as on legal consultancy fees and the possible payment for
damages and costs in case the ruling of the court turns to the
disfavor of the organization (SHRM Foundation, 2010).
The fourth risk is the risks of reputational deterioration due
to the perception they hold of the company as a result of its
failure to comply with regulations (SHRM Foundation, 2010).
Stakeholders are very sensitive to the safety of the company
they are dealing with in all aspects and this is not limited to
human resource policy management. Some suppliers and
creditors insist on some bear minimum conditions that should be
met before they can contract with the company for any form of
dealing (SHRM Foundation, 2010). These could include
observance and compliance with employment and labor relations

laws. If the reputation of the company is damaged, say due to
noncompliance with any regulations, the stakeholders may seize
their dealings with the company and this may not only hurt the
company’s operational dealings but also financial dealings and
thus liquidity (American International University, 2016).
Analysis
Wal-Mart is exposed to all these categories of human
resource risks. There have been dissents among the members of
its workforce both in the United States and in its offshore
subsidiaries (Walmart Inc., 2015). One case is when the Ottawa
workers carried out demonstrations against the organization’s
decision not to implement the minimum wage laws and refusal
to accede to the unionization calls by employees (Walmart Inc.,
2015). Employees require good working conditions and a means
of airing their grievances and this can be best achieved through
unions. Denying them the right to unionize could only make
them seek alternative employments elsewhere and this could be
detrimental to the organization’s operational flows. Wal-Mart is
utterly exposed to this kind of risk (Walmart Inc., 2015).
Wal-Mart is exposed to the risk of incurring high costs
resulting from litigations that have been filed against it by the
employees and employee unions. In 2014 alone, the company
registered an average of 17 cases per day including the domestic
branches and the offshore from its subsidiaries. This figure is
utterly catastrophic given that it is 10 cases per day above the
Fortune 500 cases (Fortune 500 , 2015). Costs that could be
associated with litigations include legal consultancy fees and
fees incurred in form of settlement of damages and costs
(Fortune 500 , 2015). The continued payments of these costs
could not only affect its liquidity but also affect its operational
stability (Walmart Inc., 2015).
Wal-Mart is exposed to the risks of sabotaged operations
by its disgruntled employees. Employees whose morale is
deteriorated cannot be as productive as those with higher
morale. They can do anything to satiate and compensate the
shortfall in the morale boost. They can opt for go-slows and

shirking which could affect the company adversely (American
International University, 2016). The wide dissent among the
employees especially as a result of the catastrophic reports of
industrial injuries can make employees avoid undertaking
certain tasks that are core to the operational sustainability of the
company (SHRM Foundation, 2010). Some of the ways they
could sabotage the operations of the company include diverting
customers to other stores, selling the company’s operational
plans to competitors, and even inciting customers and other
stakeholders from dealing with the company (Walmart Inc.,
2015).
Wal-Mart is exposed to the risk of reputational deterioration as
a result of the bulging number of cases surrounding it. These
cases cast doubts as to its commitments to comply with basic
regulations such as employment and labor relation regulations,
industrial safety, and minimum wage legislations (Walmart Inc.,
2015). In 2014, Jodec Inc., a key consultant on marketing issues
in Canada, threatened to strain its relations with and services to
the company unless and until it complies with employee
unionization calls in Ottawa (Walmart Inc., 2015). Its position
was that the blatant declining by the company to accede to it
was hurting marketing (SHRM Foundation, 2010). Human
Resources Opportunities Description
There a number of human resource opportunities that a
company can use to address matters relating to its human
resource and to enhance its operational efficiency (SHRM
Foundation, 2010). These include internally recruiting of staff
members to different positions, automating operations to cut
down on the reliance on labor inputs, and outsourcing human
resource recruitment to human resource companies (SHRM
Foundation, 2010).
Instead of spending fortunes advertising for positions such
as vacancies in the management positions, the company can
make use of its available stock of employees who are not only
experienced working in their various departments, but who are
also aware of the organization’s mission, visions, and values.

This will save the organization of training costs and the risks
resulting from trial and error due to the engagement of new
members to the workforce (SHRM Foundation, 2010).
Automating operations is another opportunity that
companies have at disposal in the face of growing wages which
attract dissenting perspectives with the employees (SHRM
Foundation, 2010). Companies can substitute human resource
services such as inventory updates with modern inventory
management software and this can help it keep a lean number of
personnel that can support the organization and which it can,
with ease, pay decent amounts in compensation and thus get
motivated. The other human resource opportunity is to
outsource recruitment and training services to other firms so
that the organization can only focus on its central roles (SHRM
Foundation, 2010). Analysis
Wal-Mart’s position in terms of utilizing these human
resource opportunities is quite impressive apart from a few
areas that require improvement. In terms of internal
recruitment, the company has preset standards in internal
recruitment (Walmart Inc., 2015). 60 percent of internal
recruitment is affirmatively reserved for the internal personnel.
The remaining 40 percent is a reserve of the non-members of
the compan (Walmart Inc., 2015)y. In terms of automating
operations, Wal-Mart is one of the leading discount retail stores
that have embraced the most modern human resource
technologies in its management (American International
University, 2016). These include robot-operated units; human
resource information services (HRIS) which enhances its ability
to manage employees, and automating its point of sales
terminals to reduce its reliance on expensive labor services.
HRIS has enabled the company to identify internal skills and
respond to highs and lows in human resource supplies in its
stores (SHRM Foundation, 2010).
Wal-Mart carries out major human resource services such as
recruitment, selection, interviewing, deployment, appraisal,
reviews, transfers, disciplining, and termination. There exist a

number of firms and human resource consultancy firms that can
undertake many of these tasks (Walmart Inc., 2015). They can
save the organization the time and hustle of having to take part
in each and every detail of these tasks. This can enable an
organization to concentrate on core duties that can enhance its
operational efficiency (SHRM Foundation, 2010). Overall
Assessment of the Company’s Human Resources Competitive
Position
Wal-Mart’s human resource competitiveness depends on
two key items: the nature of tasks that the discount store
undertakes and its ability to retain its core employees from
poaching by competitors (SHRM Foundation, 2010). The
discount retail stores industry is one that does not require
technical end specialty in skills of human resource. Core
functions that are sensitive and which the organization needs to
put emphasis on and to ensure that its competitive strategy is
not watered down include financial and tax accountancy
services, market research, and legal expertise. Wal-Mart has
permanent employees dealing with these core functions. The
chief accountant and the CFO have stayed in the company for
well over 6 years which means that they are now very
conversant with the ins and outs of the company dealings and
this has enhanced the organization’s human resource
competitiveness in this key area. Marketing planning and
strategy functions are partly outsourced and partly done
internally (SHRM Foundation, 2010). This is another core
determinant of a company’s success in the retail industry. Wal-
Mart has remain competitive in this aspect given is growing
sales and expansion into foreign markets (SHRM Foundation,
2010).Conclusion
The paper has focused on a number of issues relating to the
competitiveness of human resources in the retail industry and
with specific attention to Wal-Mart. The retail industry requires
a lot of efficiency and effectiveness in the way human resource
matters are handled because that is the only way in which the
firm can be guaranteed of sustainability in operations. All the

risks mentioned should be managed by the organization by
taking appropriate steps to shield it from the adverse effects in
case they come to be.
References
American International University. (2016). Hoover's Pro at
AIU: Home. Retrieved from
http://careered.libguides.com/university_AIUOnline/HooversPro
.
Fortune 500 . (2015). Fortune. Retrieved from
http://fortune.com/fortune500/.
SHRM Foundation. (2010). Retrieved from
http://www.shrm.org/foundation.
Walmart Inc. (2015). Investor Relations. Retrieved from:
http://www.walmart.com/.
HSCI 2001 Introduction to Health
Assignment #2
Your second assignment is an annotated bibliography. This
assignment will be submitted in 2 parts.
Part 1: The first part is worth 5 marks and consists of a
description of your topic as well as the 4 sources you will be
writing about for the actual annotated bibliography. Two of
your four sources MUST be from peer reviewed journals. Your
remaining two sources can come from news articles, reports, or
trade journals. Your sources must be presented as references
using proper APA format. Please note that your description of
your topic should be about ½ page in length typed and double
spaced.
Part 2: This is your actual annotated bibliography and is worth
25 marks. You will include both an introduction (where you

introduce your topic) as well as a conclusion. Each paper or
article must be discussed. You will start with a very BRIEF
summary of your article or paper followed by an explanation as
to why this particular paper is useful for a discussion of your
proposed topic. Your annotated bibliography should be 3-4
pages in length, typed and double spaced.
Topics can be anything related to course material.
This assignment is worth 15% of your final grade.
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From the study conducted, it is evident that each and every
organization needs a human resource team. This team will aid in
stabilization of the organization's departments and also the
creation of better relationships within and externally. Amit
Bhagria, a chief manager HR & TQM at SRF Limited says that
proper implementation of human resource practices brings about
a lot of changes in the organization (Mustafa, 2008). Amongst
these amendments is enhancing the employees productivity.
Amongst the most crucial roles of human resource is the
hiring and training of the organization's workforce. The
managers will come up with different hiring strategies for them
to be able to identify the best employees for their organization.
After that, they devise the best job descriptions for each person
in regards to the goals of the organization. Finally, after hiring,
there is an employee orientation and training plan for them to be
able to adapt well to the organization and its strategies.
Also, it's upon the human resource to ensure that
performance management systems are always in check. In this
case, the team ensures that all the employees within the
organization are motivated, or they feel motivated for the work
they do. It can be achieved by first, identifying each and every

individual's role (Mondy, 2005). Next is the creation of a
feedback mechanism that helps the employees in improving
their skills. In this case, each and every individual will greatly
be able to fulfill their personal goals and the organizational
objectives.
This department also assists in the generation of
organizational values and culture. It helps in improving the
employees' performance by creating a great environment with
very conducive conditions. For example, cleanliness in the
workplace is a step towards achieving this. On the other hand,
they should ensure that the employees feel safe at the
workplace. Safety, in this case, would be in the terms of
security through the use of qualified guards, properly defined
emergency exits and an alarm system and also in job security.
Also, there is what human resource is substantially known
for, development of good relations within the workplace. It is
mostly achieved by holding seminars, meetings, and any other
official gathering within the organization. Also, it is upon the
human resource team to give a helping hand to the decision-
making process of the marketing and business plans for the
organization (Hersey, 2002). By doing so, they act as the voice
of the employees thus representing them in what they need.
Human resource significantly integrates with the
employees. It is due to this integration that the department can
sole nay conflicts that may emerge amidst the employees. Since
you can never prevent conflicts from arising, this department
acts as the mediator between the two parties. It is not
necessarily for the conflict to be between employees but also, it
can be between the employees and the organization.
Whenever most people hear about compensation within an
organization, they think of salaries. However, there are many
other means of compensation within an organization. These are
commissions from a sale of a commodity, life insurance,
pensions, medical insurance, bonuses, vouchers, reimbursement,
reward schemes, sharing of profits amongst others.
From what you can see above, this department does more

than evaluation all the employees' salaries. In general, we can
say that the department ensures that the correct individuals are
awarded in a just manner. The action will in return motivates
employees to put more effort in their work looking forward to
better compensation. It also improve the performance within the
organization and also in the production of quality goods with
less lead time (Small Business, 2016).
Each organization has its very own and unique strategies
and its leaders. Integration of human resource management in
both will assist the organization in achieving greater goals. That
is, it helps mostly in getting the support of the executives.
Human resource plays a vital role in leadership since it looks
into each employees needs and fulfills them. Therefore, it is
necessary for the same department to be integrated into the
organization strategies and also in business leadership since
they know a lot of each and every employee.
From a survey conducted between December 2009 to
August 2015 shows that integration of the strategies with the
human resource provided most senior executives of 4200
companies with training that enabled them concentrate and play
a part or participate equally in their organization's decision-
making processes. It empowered most leaders with significant
strategic concepts that were frequently used by CEOs on how
they could achieve their initiatives globally.
In business leadership, the human resource will aid the
individuals in attaining confidence that will in return help them
in influencing any decisions that are made in the boardrooms in
regards to the organization. This will help all the executives
feel that their voices are heard, and all that they contribute is
considered and valued. Their participation will aid in the
creation of the long-term and short-term goals for the
organization (Hersey, 2002).
Also, it will assist in focusing on strategies that are more
important for management change and also in the integration
thus increasing the overall performance of the organization. The
action will in return have a direct impact on the success of the

organization. For this to be achieved, they focus on frameworks
that will aid in the implementation of the most valuable
resources of the organization thus formulating the business
strategies. All the leaders within the organization should focus
on understanding this for it to run smoothly.
Human resource plays a significant role in ensuring that
there is diversity within the workplace that is achieved from the
very first step of recruiting. In the current world, we can see
that women are leading in most positions that the men. Earlier,
this case was the opposite. This department will aid in coming
up with a recruitment strategy that helps in focusing that they
ensure to gain a diverse group or team of qualified applicants.
Also, to ensure that there is diversity in the organization,
the human resource team will take upon itself to ensure that
they have enforced the employment roles within the
organization. This will be achieved by putting up notices in all
the areas that the employees are likely to gather up together.
For example, break rooms. These posters will contain
information that educates the employees on their rights and also
the federal laws (Mustafa, 2008).
To ensure diversity, the human resource team will also
come up with new methods of diversity training to the
employees. It can be done by using diversity trainers or even
internal diversity training. These trainers will evaluate the
organization's current diversity objectives and determine
whether they are suitable or whether they need to come up with
newer objectives. Also, it is up to this team to decide whether
diversity training will be mandatory.
It is upon the HR department to decide whether to put up a
diverse candidate in the organization so that they can come up
with other valuable contributions. By doing so, it will aid the
organization to become globally competitive since they can be
able to target parts that require diverse perspectives. Bringing
together a group of different individuals will enhance greater
work performance and also coming up with unique ideas for the
organization or even the product that they are working on.

Employee relations are the organization's efforts to bring
together and better the relationships between the workers and
the employer which in most cases is the organization. In this
case, we see human resource coming in handy since they know
both the organization and the employees in a finer detail thus
making it easier for them to mend and better their relationship.
It enables the organization to treat their employees better thus
motivating the employees to be more committed to their work.
The human resource will be able to enforce greater
employee relations by improving the workplace quality. That is
the employee’s safety and comfort within the organization. The
department will not make the abrupt changes like bringing in of
new infrastructure, but it is capable of influencing the
management in making those decisions (Hersey, 2002). The
action will mainly improve the effectiveness of all the
employees within the organization.
Also, they can achieve employee relations by making sure
that they receive the employee’s complaints and forward them
to the management and where possible amend the ways
themselves. The complaints can be received through the use of
suggestion boxes, meetings, other workers, supervisors or even
choosing of a representative to aid them. This will in return
make the employees feel that they are being listened o thus
making them comfortable in the organization.
Ethics in the workplace determines the success of the
organization. Ethics can be achieved through the use of a moral
dressing code or even use of sound and precise language. The
human resource team sets up the rules through which employees
are supposed to abide with. Some of these will include
punctuality, cleanliness, and discipline (Mondy, 2005).
On the other hand, corporate social responsibility is
achieved by ensuring that the organization participates in all the
functions within the society when called upon to. Also, paying
of taxes, production of quality products, development of
infrastructure, fair remuneration to the employees, provision of
jobs amongst others are proper ways through which the

organization can fulfill its role of corporate social
responsibility.
Human resources will be significantly involved in this
section since they will focus on how the society will view the
organization. They are the one who will come up with strategies
that will satisfy the community and also prove that the
organization cares for them too. The culture includes both the
internal and external parties. The employees are a part of the
community and so is the government.
Internally, corporate social responsibility can be made
aware to the employees via communication. That is, the HR
team should lay down the objectives, progress, and plans or
CSR to the employees and by doing this they can raise
awareness by maintaining regular communication channels with
the employees.
HR also plays a vital role in organizational development.
This will be achieved by effective performance of the
employees towards the goals of the organization. Ensuring that
the employees focus on achieving the mission of the
organization are one of the many steps towards organizational
development that can be accomplished through how well they
are organized and how they perform their work to achieve
effectiveness (Mustafa, 2008).
Also, another means to attain the development is by
ensuring that the organization has a competitive advantage
obtained by providing that the goods of the organization are
unique, and they are of high quality as desired by the customers.
The human resource team will come in handy since it will be
used to motivate the employees towards attaining this goal.
On the other hand, it is crucial that the employees are
developed. Mostly, this will be achieved by motivating the
employees to play a part in their development activities. HR
department makes sure that they understand that they carry the
future of the organization on their backs thus in return will
making them feel important to the organization.
Also, when the HR department is conducting training, they

should put into consideration of all the contents of the training
process and also ensure that there are no boring or meaningless
speeches and presentations. Also, they should make sure that
two-way communication is encouraged to the employees for
them to be able to provide feedback.
Each and every individual within the organization has their
talents or what they are better at. It is up to HR team to identify
this and help them major or become better at it. They will be
able to determine this by recruiting the right people. That is,
after describing the jobs, an employee will be assigned to what
they are best at thus providing them with the chance to better
their talents.
Also, the HR department can come up with in-house
competitions. Be they running, playing football, rugby or any
other game. Here, the employees are relieved of their duties,
and they are free to participate in what they enjoy (Small
Business, 2016). This is where they can be able to handpick
their best employees who are also good athletes. They can be
used later in any competitions to represent the organization.
The human resource management has many duties within
the organization. Amongst these functions is ensuring that the
organization has the best technologies best suited for their
goals. The most amazing thing about technology is ever
changing, and no organization can be able to keep up with it. So
the human resources team will test and determine which
technologies are suitable for their operations and by doing so,
they can be able to upgrade once the technology changes.
In conclusion, we can see that HR plays a vital role within
the organization. From its benefits and how it helps in coming
up with the organizational strategies. It is a very large
department that should be taken care of since this is where most
of the organizations employees are based.
Proper integration of all these HR practices will ensure that
the organization will always maintain a competitive advantage
and also that their workers will always be satisfied with their
jobs. However, once in a while, it is necessary to review these

practices to ensure the growth of the organization.
Amongst the best practices of HR is the provision of equal
opportunity. That is, whenever there are any recruitment tasks
within the organization, the people who play a part in the
process will always be held responsible for participating in fair
practices of employment. Equality should be fulfilled by
ensuring that the hire people without regarding some factors
like age, gender, race, economic background amongst others
(Mondy, 2005).
On the other hand, employee retention is another of HRs
best practices. They can fulfill this by ensuring that all the staff
are fairly rewarded and also that they are comfortable with the
organization. Since they are the crucial detail in the
organization, their well-being should be well catered for or else
they could lead to a downfall of the organization.
Also, when conducting the recruitment and selection
process, it is crucial that they provide the employee with an
excellent image for them to fell that they have also made a good
decision in applying for the job. That is, the employee should
feel that they chose their employer of choice.
References
Hersey, P., & Blanchard, K. (2002). Management of
organizational behavior. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
Mondy, R., Noe, R., & Gowan, M. (2005). Human resource
management. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Mustafa, A. (2008). Organizational behaviour. Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
Small Business - Chron.com, (2016). The Best Practices for
Human Resources. , from
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/practices-human-resources-
15953.html
Small Business - Chron.com, (2016). The Role of Human
Resource Management in Organizations., from
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/role-human-resource-
management-organizations-21077.html

Running head: Human Resource Management
11
Human Resource Management
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 3
2. Benefits and Compensation 3
3. Business Leadership and Strategy 3
4. Diversity 4
5. Employee Relations 5
6. Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility 7
7. Organizational and Employee Development 8
8. Talent Management 8
9. Technology 10
10. Conclusion 10
References 12
1. Introduction
This report is a professional summary of the assessment
Walmart Inc.’s current human resource posture. In this respect,
the assessment explores the company’s human resource posture
in relation to benefits and compensation, business leadership
and strategy, diversity, employee relations, ethics and corporate
social responsibility, organizational and employee development,
talent management, and technology.2. Benefits and
Compensation
In terms of benefits, Walmart has been fairing well. It has an
elaborate benefits and compensations scheme through which its
employees save their funds for use after retirement. Walmart
Benefits and Compensation Scheme keeps 2 percent of the
employee’s annual earnings for a variety of benefits in the
future. Upon retirement or any case that occasions termination
of employee service, it takes the Scheme 4 months to process
the dues to the outgoing employee. This is considerably faster

than Fortune 500 average of 6-8 months of Corporate Benefits
and Compensation Schemes processing time (Fortune 500 ,
2015). 3. Business Leadership and Strategy
Wal-Mart’s strategy for business leadership is quite wanting.
Even though the company scores high in terms of diversity,
corporate social responsibility, and employee development
among other aspects, it is noteworthy that the discount store has
been able to command high gross and net profit margins due to
unscrupulous human resource practices (Fortune 500 , 2015). It
pays employee below the Fortune 500 average to remain
profitable. It had blatantly opposed unionization calls in its
Quebec stores because it was conscious of the implication that
an ascent to such calls would have on its business (Fortune 500
, 2015).
The other business leadership strategy for Walmart is that of
diversification. Selling household goods, utensils, apparels,
foodstuff, electronics, electrical accessories, and construction
tools make the company remain above the industry levels.
Through selling differentiated products, the company been able
to go through low cycles and high cycles (SHRM Foundation,
2010).4. Diversity
Diversity in a corporate context refers to the way opportunities
are distributed among special groups such as across gender,
color, trans-generational divide, and country of origin. Walmart
can be classified as one of the best observers of diversity. It
provides a diverse work environment and fair opportunities as
well as access to jobs. In February 2015, the company invested
$1 billion in workforce training (Walmart Inc., 2016).
The company through its Office of the Diversity Manager came
up with a raft of programs to enhance diversity in the hiring and
other practices. These programs include Field Management
Placement goals for women and people of color, Good Faith
Efforts aimed at incentivizing members of the organization to
embrace diversity, Active Coaching Reviews which are centered
on harassment and discrimination, and Customized Diversity
which is meant to train senior management on issues relating to

diversity and how it can be applied (Walmart Inc., 2016).
In terms of hiring and promotion practices, the company has
also scored quite high compared to the industry players. The
composition of the workforce shows that women comprise 57
percent of the total workforce, 42 percent of the management
team, and 32 percent of corporate officers. Compare this with
Fortune 500 averages of 15 percent women representation in the
total workforce, 22 percent in the management, and 11 percent
corporate officers (Fortune 500 , 2015).
New hiring for Walmart for 2012, 2013, and 2014 comprised 50
percent, 51 percent, and 53 percent women respectively.
Compare this to the people of a color representation of 45
percent, 49 percent, and 51 percent respectively for the three
years (Walmart Inc., 2016). Again, these compositions of hiring
sets exceed the Fortune 500 average of 45 percent, 38 percent,
and 41 percent for women in the three years respectively and 44
percent, 42 percent, and 46 percent for people of color for the
respective three years (Fortune 500 , 2015).
The company is also implementing diversity in terms of the way
it manages its supplies. It has established a Supplier Diversity
Summit which advises, advocates, advances dialogue between
internal business stakeholders and the entire business
community, creates an opportunity for suppliers to exhibit their
products to the company’s buyers, and perpetuates the interests
of diversity among the community that it serves. 5. Employee
Relations
Walmart Inc.’s approach to employee relations is utterly
wanting. This is based on its employment and human rights
policies. Despite being a leading profit earner in the retail
industry, the company in 2015 alone the company had about
4873 law suits averaging to about 14 law suits per year. This is
far above the industry average of 3 cases per day. This rate
reflects a drop from 2014 and 2013 in which lawsuits averaged
17 per day (SHRM Foundation, 2010).
Walmart has in many occasions regarded as phobic to employee
unionization. The closure of Quebec stores was prompted by

the unionization of the Canada-based Walmart workers. The
Quebec Labor Relations Court in January 2015 handed the
company’s employees victory after declaring that the closure of
Quebec stores was a prompt of the threat of its labor force to
unionize (SHRM Foundation, 2010). The same lowness with
which the company’s management treats the workforce triggered
the resignation of company’s head of Working Families for
Wal-Mart advocacy group citing at the loath with which the
company treated affairs relating to labor relations (Fortune 500
, 2015).
The failure to implement minimum wage laws by Walmart is an
additional testimony to the company’s lack of commitment in
observing employee relations issues. In September 2014, for
instance, the International labor Rights Fund brought a case
against the company for its failure to implement human rights.
The other accusations that have been brought against the
company include a decision in which the company’s
management punished employees for union activities and to
decline to pay employees the required overtime (American
International University, 2016). 72 cases are pending before the
company’s human resource disciplinary committee in which
physical assaults by supervisors were reported. Other
accusations that have been brought against the company by the
employees’ trade union include accusations based on the reports
that industrial injury has been on the rise with workers getting
avoidable injuries.
The company is on record having been accused by a number of
employees for flouting California employment regulations.
116,000 employees had complained that they had not been
allowed to enjoy the half-hour compulsory lunch break for at
least 6 worked hours a day (American International University,
2016). 6. Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
Walmart has since 2005 been on the forefront in addressing its
global impact through the adoption of the Sustainability
program. This saw the company began the process of revamping
building materials as well as electric appliances in its stores.

The company has proved its commitment towards eco-
friendliness by designing more of its stores so as to make them
more energy efficient and also to produce minimum volumes of
greenhouse gases (SHRM Foundation, 2010). Further, the
company has a equipped many of its stores with solar panels,
optimized its routing system so as to reduce its reliance on fuel
as a source of energy, and established fuel-saving technologies
in a good fleet of its vans. The company has also intensively
embraced wind energy use in a number of its stores (SHRM
Foundation, 2010).
The company’s Global Responsibility Report of 2013 stated
clearly that it is its responsibility, given the growing scale of
global operations, to ensure that its makes the world a better
place to live. To achieve this determination, the company has
put in a place a number of initiatives which targets social
responsibility, environmental responsibility, local
responsibility, and company responsibility (Fortune 500 , 2015).
The social aspect focuses on promoting the economic
empowerment of the womenfolk and to raise the living
standards of the ordinary American so as to lead a life without
hunger and to get access foodstuff that is not only healthy but
also life sustaining. The local aspect focuses on making small
loans and promotion of local farming activities, assisting people
with relief supplies in case of major disasters, and overseeing
the implementation of nutritional programs in schools (SHRM
Foundation, 2010).
The environmental aspect was aimed at reducing energy
consumption and getting rid of landfill waste as well as
eliminating plastic bag waste. It also emphasized the
commitment of the company in terms of imposing stringent
measures in terms of product sustainability. The company
corporate responsibility aspect emphasized stakeholder
engagement, promotion of basic values, industrial safety
corporate governance, and compliance.
The company has succeeded in a number of these areas. It has,
for instance, through its Walmart Foundation contributed over

$1 billion to charities across the globe. The company is
sponsoring more than 1 million women and youth training all
over the globe. It, through its pursuit for efficient use energy,
implemented the use of renewable sources of energy in 21
percent of its energy consumption centers (Walmart Inc., 2016).
7. Organizational and Employee Development
The company has a human resource policy in place which it
uses in its staff development. It offers annual training for its
employees both in-job and through vacations. Senior staffs
members of the company are give a month per year during
which he or she is expected to attend training. In 2015, the
employee training budget was $1 billion (Walmart Inc., 2016).
136 members of the management team were trained in the
financial year 2014/2015. Junior members of staff are advised
to take additional courses which boost their chance of
promotion in the company. In terms of promotions and
appointment to senior positions, the company gives the internal
workforce a 60 percent reservation so as to boost the staff
morale and enable them toward advancing in career (Walmart
Inc., 2016). 8. Talent Management
Walmart has a number of talent management programs in place.
In its annual budget for 2014 and 2015, the company spent $1
billion per year for education and training of its staff both
within the United States and in its talents abroad. Through its
programs such as Business Leadership Series, Leadership
Academy, and Mentor Me, the company has been able to impact
its global associates. The learning Management team of the
company is charged with delivery and assessment and reporting
on issues relating to its training program and learning activities
both at home and offshore. This enhances the ability of the
organization through its management to respond promptly and
duly to matters relating to its talent management (Walmart Inc.,
2016).
Through Walmart Executive Development Session, the company
succeeds in exposing its officers to a couple of speakers as well
as thought leaders and opinion holders such as business leaders,

professors, authors, and public speakers and this enables them
to get enlightened on issues relating to innovation, business
ethics, technology, and collaboration which are fundamental
premises in the global business today. Also, through its Mentor
Me program, Walmart empowers associates to actively take part
in the development as well as in the provision of resources in
order to increases effective mentorships and connectivity among
its stocks of skills (Walmart Inc., 2016).
Mentor Me program aims at enabling persons around the globe
to share diverse skills for the purpose of skill and talent
development. Thirdly, the company has in place a program
dubbed Summer Internship whose core mandate as per the
corporate talent development policy is to bring on board
students from colleges and universities from across the world
for the purpose of providing them with experience and to also
enhance skill-career compatibility. Skills mismatch is a
challenge facing students today as they realize that the
expectations from the textbook model are different from the
reality on the ground (SHRM Foundation, 2010). The program
thus exposes them to the real world situation so as to rationalize
their expectations and to broaden their career choice. The other
talent management programs that Walmart has in place include
Walmart International Academy, Global Leadership, and the
High-potential programs which attract skills and talents and
enhance their growth both within America and offshore. 9.
Technology
Wal-Mart’s human resource management system can be
described as state-of-the-art. It runs an integrated Human
Resource Information System (H.R.I.S.) through which it is able
to capture all the information needed relating to its human
resources. H.R.I.S. bears information on employee age,
experience, work station, competence, immediate supervisor,
leave time, and health conditions among other relevant human
resource information that the use may want to get. The
information can be classified as per queried and this enables the
company to respond to human resource supply vibrations

promptly (Fortune 500 , 2015). It further hastens the process of
deployment and redeployment as well as raising skills from
within the organizational departments.
H.R.I.S. for Walmart is developed as a bridge from the old
manual human resource database management systems to a high
technology one. The H.R.I.S. is under the management of the
ICT staff which keeps it running and in service to users all the
time. Employees can get information relating to their payment
and their employment information as profiled by the employer
(Fortune 500 , 2015). 10. Conclusion
The discussion was based on an assessment of the human
resource posture of Walmart. This was based on benefits and
compensation, business leadership and strategy, diversity,
employee relations, ethics and corporate social responsibility,
organizational and employee development, talent management,
and technology. Even though the company scores high in a
number of these aspects, it should improve on employee
relations policies and benefits and compensations.
References
American International University. (2016). Hoover's Pro at
AIU: Home. Retrieved from
http://careered.libguides.com/university_AIUOnline/HooversPro
.
SHRM Foundation. (2010). Retrieved from

1
12
Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary 3
2. Employee Engagement Strategies 3
3. Global Talent Management 4
4. Corporate Social Responsibility 5
5. Human Resource Technology 6
6. Employment Law and Human Rights Issues 7
7. Emerging Trends in Human Resource Management 9
8. Human Capital Challenges in the 21st Century10
9. Best Practices in Human Resource Management 11
References 13
Executive Summary
This is a professional report based on the assessment of the
current human resource environment for Walmart Inc. Walmart
is a retail discount store operating a chain of hypermarkets,
grocery stores, and discount stores in America and Canada, and
United Kingdom and Japan and parts of India and Brazil.
Headquartered in Arkansas, Walmart operates more than 4,000
stores and employees more than a million workers. This
assessment is based on the employee engagement strategies that
Walmart adopts its global talent management programs and
corporate social responsibility. The human resource technology
that the company uses and issues relating to the employment
law and human rights that have in the past dogged the company
are assessed alongside the emerging trends in human resource
management and human capital challenges in the 21st century
and how the bearing they have on Walmart are assessed. The
assessment concludes by giving some of the best practices in
human resource management. Employee Engagement Strategies
The employee engagement strategy at Walmart can be
considered as affinity. Under this strategy, the employees lack

affinity and they put the physical effort at the workplace but
reserve their mental and psychological efforts. Workers of this
type seek comfort elsewhere (home or other social places like
church) (Fortune 500 , 2015). This is exhibited by the high
propensity of the non-unionized workforce to unionize
indicating that they are dissatisfied with the terms and
conditions of the workplace. The reported cases of industrial
injuries are a further testimony to the fact that the employee
engagement is wanting in terms of affinity (Fortune 500 , 2015).
Global Talent Management
Walmart has put in place a number of global talent
development programs. These programs entail education and
training in support of career advancement for its global
workforce talents. Walmart runs programs such as Mentor Me,
Leadership Academy, and Business Leadership Series all of
which impacts its global associates (Walmart Inc., 2016). The
company’s Global Learning Management System gives it
delivery and assessment as well as reporting on the wide scope
of its associates’ learning activities. Through its Executive
Development Session, the company’s officers get exposure to a
number of speakers and thought leaders such as authors,
business leaders and professors and they get enlightened on
topics such as collaboration, innovation, and business ethics
(Walmart Inc., 2016).
Walmart has a Mentor Me Program which empowers
associates to participate actively in the development and
provision of resources so as to increase the connectivity and to
promote effective mentorships. The program is aimed at
creating as well as sharing of diverse knowledge as well as
experience around the globe. In order to attract, develop, and
retain diverse talents across the globe, Walmart has in place the
Summer Internship Program which attracts students drawn from
a number of colleges and universities to provide an exceptional
experience and to discourage skills mismatch between talents
and workplace expectations. Other global talent
management programs are the Global Leadership Development,

Walmart International Academy, and the High-potential
programs all of which aim at raising skills across the globe
(Walmart Inc., 2016). Corporate Social Responsibility
From the year 2005, Walmart became active in addressing
its global impact by adopting a Sustainability Program which
saw it begin to revamp everything ranging from building
materials all the way to light bulbs. Walmart has, in its desire to
become more eco-friendly, designed more stores in order to
make it more energy efficient and also to produce reduced
volumes of greenhouse gases. On top of these efforts, the
company has equipped a good number of its stores with solar
panels, set up fuel-saving technologies in a good fleet of its
vehicles, optimized its routing system in order to cut down on
its fuel use, and also realigned its energy consumption
orientation towards wind energy (SHRM Foundation, n.d).
In the company’s Global Responsibility Report of 2013, it
was clearly stated that it is the company’s responsibility to
make the world a better place to live in the face of its growing
global operations. In this respect, Walmart has come up with
and implanted a couple of initiatives targeting four principal
areas: social responsibility, local responsibility, environment
responsibility, and company responsibility (Fortune 500 , 2015).
The social responsibility initiative of the company aimed at
promoting the economic empowerment of women and giving
more Americans lead hunger-free lives and to get access to
healthy foodstuff. The local responsibility initiative is aimed at
making microloans, promoting local farming activities and
assisting with reliefs in case of disasters, and implementing
nutritional programs in schools. The environmental
responsibility initiative is aimed at reducing energy
consumption as well as plastic bag waste, getting rid of landfill
waste, and imposing more stringent guidelines for product
sustainability. The company responsibility initiative comprised
stakeholder engagement, worker safety, promoting basic values,
and corporate compliance and governance (Walmart Inc., 2016).
Walmart has a number of successes in each of these areas.

For instance, Walmart Foundation and Walmart contributed in
excess of $1 billion to charities worldwide. Current the
company and its foundation are providing training as well as
career opportunities for more than 1 million women all over the
globe. In terms of its energy efficiency pursuit, the company’s
use of renewable energy sources for electricity stands at 21 per
cent. The company is planning to hire in excess of 10,000
United States veterans in the next five years (Fortune 500 ,
2015). In terms of diversity, the female members of the
workforce account for close to 28 per cent of the company’s
corporate officers which is close to twice the average of the
number for the Fortune 500 companies. Human Resource
Technology
The human resource technology at Walmart is modern and
state-of-the-art. The company runs an integrated human
resource information system (HRIS) which captures all the
necessary information about its human resources. The
information includes the areas of deployment, age and
experience, skills and competence, medical condition, and
contact information among others. HRIS enables the human
resource management to query the app based on the nature of
demand. This makes redeployment and realignment and raising
internal skill requirement easy because competent personnel can
be raised quickly to meet the labor deployment dynamics
(Walmart Inc., 2016).
The HRIS is developed to meet the technological requirement of
the stores and to keep the largest human resource data for its
stores across the United States. This has been boosted by its
competent ICT staff which is able to build better and faster as
well as more efficient programs to support all the human
resource management practice requirements of the company. At
the centre of Wal-Mart’s human resource technology success is
a sprightly, innovative culture which is backed by the Fortune 1
Support (Walmart Inc., 2016). Employment Law and Human
Rights Issues
Walmart is, like many other stores in the United States, has

been criticized for its employment and human rights policies.
Many stories have been raised around the company’s minimum
wage violations a couple of questionable workplace practices
despite high net income reports of way above $10 billion in the
last two consecutive financial years. Similar concerns have been
raised on the adequacy of employee healthcare cover,
exploitation of workers, and the stance of the retail store on
anti-unionization of the workforce. Statistics has it that the
company is receiving, on average, 5,000 lawsuits per year being
an equivalent of 17 lawsuits per day. This rate is twice as high
as that average lawsuit reporting frequency in all the Fortune
500 companies (Walmart Inc., 2016).
A look back at the last two financial years gives an
unattractive picture of the company. The release of the film
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price points out that Walmart
can afford to give its clients the high discounts at the expense
of its workforce and ugly employment practices (Fortune 500 ,
2015). This saw the company’s head of Working Families for
Wal-Mart advocacy group resign due to his failure to get
satisfied by the practices of the company.
Walmart has in many occasions been marked as a loather of
unions. This is demonstrated by its decision to close Quebec
stores after the workers there had unionized. It however cited
economic reasons, a reason that was later rejected by the
Quebec labor relations. In January 2015, the Court of Appeals
(8th circuit), handed Walmart employees at Arkansas a victory
and this further reaffirmed that Walmart had engagements that
were considerable anti-union (Fortune 500 , 2015).
Walmart has also been accused on a number of occasions of
exploiting workers. For instance, in September 2014, the
International Labor Rights Fund filed a suit against Walmart
citing its failure to implement minimum wage in a number of
countries. Other accusations included the decision of the
company to punish union activities and to deny employees the
required overtime. It has been alleged that the workers have
reported physical assaults by supervisors (Fortune 500 , 2015).

In other cases the company has been accused of failing to
provide safe working environment for workers as a report had it
that the workers had recorded a number of industrial injuries
due to lack of gloves.
On wage law violations the company is on record being
accused by about 116,000 employees of flouting a California
law which requires employers to provide employees with an
unpaid half-hour lunch break for all employees working for at
least 6 hours a day. In terms of healthcare, Walmart is on record
not respecting the healthcare system (Walmart Inc., 2016). One
way is through discouraging unhealthy people from taking up
jobs at the store. To accomplish this, the company ensures that
all jobs entail an element of a physical activity, orienting its
hiring practices toward part-time workers, cutting down on
401(K) contributions, and setting up health clinics in its stores.
Emerging Trends in Human Resource Management
There are a number of emerging trends in the human
resource management practice. Among the changing trends is
the abolishment of performance reviews. Companies had in the
recent past spent time and money and other resources in
carrying out staff appraisal and reviews. Realization has it that
these are increasingly becoming outdated given the judgmental
bias with which the persons charged with the responsibility of
appraising have judged their subordinates (Walmart Inc., 2016).
Secondly, the organization chart is fading away fast given the
increasing complexity of the workforce. With organizations
going global and the workforce is increasingly getting complex
with companies hiring highly flexible workforce, the
organization chart is becoming increasing worthless.
The other trend is that privacy is increasingly becoming
less of an issue. Technological advancement has come up with a
new generation of ‘people trackers’. Some companies have
come up with gadgets that analyze tones and voices to
determine the callers who are disappointed and angry and to
switch such calls to the most capable centre staff. This means
that privacy is becoming less of an issue. Also, the workplace is

getting mobile, mobile, and mobile. Communication is almost
perfectly changing from the office landlines to hand-held
gadgets and the human resource managers at Walmart have to
change with the dynamics to adopt the apps (SHRM Foundation,
n.d). The other issue is that robots have entered the boardroom
and can perform exactly what the personnel can do. Human
Capital Challenges in the 21st Century
Among the leading human capital challenges in the 21st
century is the fact that the workforce is increasingly getting
perfect information on matters relating to the workforce
practices of the employers, economies are increasingly getting
integrated economically making labor mobility painless, the
increased unionization, and the enlightenment and
consciousness of the consumers to the human resource practices
of the employers (SHRM Foundation, n.d).
Employers and the human resource managers must act with
the knowledge that employees have in mind perfect information
about the practices of various employers across the globe. The
high level of technological development across the globe has
exposed the members of the workforce to a variety of employers
and they can easily shift their human resource services to
employers who offer considerably better employment terms.
Thus, human resource managers need to be conscious of this
fact. Secondly, world over, economies are increasingly getting
integrated as the globe is becoming one big village. In this
pursuit, countries are removing barriers to trade such as the
movement of human capital (SHRM Foundation, n.d). This
means that unsatisfactory human resource practices can easily
trigger exodus of key employees to areas they consider to offer
better terms.
The workforce in the 21st century is increasingly getting
unionized to get a better ground for advocacy on matters
affecting them. The response of the human resource managers to
this is not going to be like it was in the centuries before where
the employees could bulldoze workers and wedge them out of
unions. The employers will have to be cognizant of the role that

the unions play and pursue other avenues of increasing earnings
other than wage-based strategies (SHRM Foundation, n.d).
Lastly, consumers are increasingly getting conscious about the
human resource practices of various employers in terms of their
respect for employment rules and human rights. Companies
today ask for human resource practice compliance reports
before they can sign deals. This means that employers such as
Walmart will have to have compliance per excellence to remain
competitive in this era.Best Practices in Human Resource
Management
In the face of the dynamic human resource management
practices, it is essential that the managers embrace practices
relating to retention of employees in the workplace, equal
opportunity for all, and maintaining a robust performance
management. It is essential that workers are treated equally
right from the time of recruitment, selection, deployment, all
the way to the point of engagement breakup. This way, the
employer will win the motivation of the worker which is
essential for the achievement of human capital management
objectives. Employees’ retention should be the second center of
focus for Walmart (Fortune 500 , 2015).
Employees’ productivity increases with years of experience
because the employee gets more and more dearly to the
operational requirements of the organization with time. When
the engagement breakup frequency between the employer and
the employees is high, the employer incurs additional costs such
as hiring, firing (compensations), losing out core personnel, and
training of new workers (SHRM Foundation, n.d). The employer
should pursue policies that aim at the retention the available
workforce such as paying efficiency wages.
The human resource management should also focus on
strengthening the employee-employer relationship through
performance management. This can be achieved through
establishing and maintaining an effective and well-constructed
performance management by way of getting employee feedback.
Employees’ expectations should be understood and the

employers should provide the employees with tools that are
required in order to achieve the best of performance. High
standards of job descriptions, continuous feedback monitoring,
and a regular schedule of performance standards measurements
should always be kept by the employer (Fortune 500 , 2015).
References
SHRM Foundation. (n.d). Retrieved from

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