Analysis Of Walmart Grocery Retail Chain

Wal-Mart is engaged in the retail and wholesale operation around the world. The company is known for offering assortments of merchandises and other services at an everyday lower rate. In the recent time, the retail giant has more than 11,600 stores worldwide and deals with products ranging from electronics, clothing, foot wear, health and beauty along with grocery products. It is the world’s largest company by revenue that is approximately $480 billion as well as the largest private employer hiring more than 2.3 million employees (Anselmsson et al., 2016). The retail company undertakes many business strategies in its business activities including generic strategy and competitive strategy that has actually contributed to the success of the business. The successful business strategies of the organisation include product differentiation and the cost effective measure against the products. The study below consists of the analysis of Walmart grocery retail chain on the issues that the human resources department undergoes. Many big warehouses and stores are run by Wal-Mart stores. Walmart store was founded almost fifty years ago by Walton and his brother Bud in Bentonville USA hence named after their names. Yearly it sells over 300$ billion, hence considering it to be one of the most valuable companies in the world. In many times it has been considered to be one of the biggest employer with more than one and half million workers globally. It is estimated to have more than 11600 stores globally of which 80% are in USA. Studying the economic environment of Wal-Mart will be a key in addressing the analysis of the business. Also the macro and micro analysis due to its running worldwide will also be necessary. Furthermore, strategies which are operational will be necessary in knowing how Wal-Mart is run. Another area is the marketing mix with the four factors being the 4Ps that is the price, product, place and the promotion factors which will help in explaining both the successes and failures of Wal-Mart. Next, is the study of how the human resources of Walmart is managed. The main idea here being to understand the exact area because criticism has been brought about that Wal-Mart doesn’t do well with its employees. Later, before i recommend on the case study, a SWOT analysis is done which will help in looking into Wal-Mart failures and the critics. The last step in the case study will be the conclusion, where there is a summary of all the issues studied and in existence in Wal-Mart company. The below highlighted objectives will be illustrated in our study. How importance each sector is to economy? Operations of Walmart and its Processes analysis Management of human resource and job quality analysis   Weakness studies and how to handle them PESTEL analysis will need to be made that is the Political, Economic, Social and technology factors that influences Wal-Mart directly or indirectly. In real world there exist so many forces that make a company to be more or less appealing in terms of industrial gains. This will be approached with use of five porter’s forces. Many retail companies such as Wal-Mart act within a macro-environment meaning that the scope of what happens in the outside depends on how the company runs. Unlike in micro environments the company with the retail store cannot change as these change occurs but in macro environment they adapt to the change as they occur and according to business rules and objectives. The following below is a PEST analysis explanation. Law enforcement in USA is in charge of local police, while the police of the states provides services at the border. In our case regarding the legal and political laws that affect the retail industry we consider such  (Jonathan, 2016): America is mostly occupied by the white as the majority, followed by the blacks and the rest take the other percentage. The makes the US consumer to be determined and characterized for it being so powerful or even having greater demand. The launching of products depends on the fashionable style it is created upon and products consumer centric, hence creating an engagement with the customers. Walmart is facing a lot of competition from many different countries who have different types of competition. With the use of specialization strategies stores like Target, Kmart, ShopKo will compete successfully against Walmart  (Shelly, 2014). This will be explained in to details using the porters five forces. One of the problem faced by Walmart is that it has very big retail stores but physically small in terms of size. Other retails have been competing with Walmart in Way that they specialize with one product with a motive 0f covering a wide range. This means that what one retails offer is likely to be found in other stores. This bring to an understanding that the retailers offering goods that are unique have an added advantage compared to their rivals. Walmart should be aware that the E-commerce and M-commerce has competition that’s high as we have very many new entrants. Entrance of new companies to the market may threaten the existence of those companies that have been there for a while. The expansion in the whole world is making Walmart to face a lot of competitors from countries that are different. When it comes to individual they have very little bargaining power with the retail stores. Force involved here makes buyers to put Walmart under pressure making it to relate to the laws within those specific territories in which Walmart operates.   Walmart size can break a small supplier. This is because many companies depend on Walmart in buying their product and this makes the suppliers to have very little power against Walmart. The workforce of Walmart is about 2.2M globally. Walmart has encountered many issues and lawsuits with its employees overall. The issues appointed and raised ranges from conditions which are poor for workers, Union that are have policies that are against Walmart, Little amount of money is paid as wage to its employees and lack of enough health care being just some of the bigger issues with relations to how Walmart relates to its employees. In addition to this, it has also been found that Wal-Mart does not pay the farmers well and in fact exploit them in terms of making payment to them (Sparrow, Brewster & Chung, 2016). All these issues have led to massive rebellion among the employees and have questioned the HR policies of the organisation. Thus, it can be said that Wal-Mart is facing human resource issues related to the employees of the organisation that needs to be sorted out. High employee turnover rate of about 70% indicates that many employees employed by Walmart leaves the retail one year after employment, hence explaining the above mentioned issues to being experienced in Walmart by the employees. Wage issue is a very big concern as many are employees are connected by the employer through the salary they receive from the work done. The main issues affecting Walmart is wages rates. When compared to other companies working as retail such as Shopko, Target and others their wage rate is very good and appealing when working with them unlike in Walmart where there is greater workforce but with less employee wage hence many workers are not able work for long. The working conditions in Walmart has also been described as an issue in human resource as , it has been described and reported that Walmart has very small physical stores but very large stores of goods being squeezed in those stores. The mixing of different products and commodities within the same store has made the working condition unconducive in such a manner that the space is small but a lot need to be done within the small space. Third issue is the violation of child labor whereby there has been cases of Walmart being sued for employing children’s who are under 18 to work in their retails. Globally in most countries one is considered mature and ready to work after an age of 18 years. Globally attempt to exploit the young children through employment at tender change is violation on children and this termed as child labor. Fourth issue brought about by Walmart is employing workers who are illegally not allowed to work in those departments in different retails national wide or globally. By illegal workers we mean those workers who doesn’t the specific skills to handle such outlets. This has been experienced in Walmart as many strives to make their end meets. Employing illegal workers put the lives of the customers or consumers of their goods, products or commodities at risk for the lack of knowledge might lead to misunderstanding between them and hence tarnishing the business name. Fifth issue is the opposition from the labor union. Walmart has been on the frontline to be criticised by Labor union in USA. The opposition from labor Union which is mostly due to results of Unsatisfied employees reporting them to the trade union for labor. Gender discrimination in Walmart is also another issue. This has led to day to day rebellion within its employees as women are paid less as their work entails much of sales associates. This highest level of discrimination has led to Walmart being one of the largest discriminatory retail in terms of gender. Last issue and not least is the health insurance issue. Insurance cover for the employee working with Walmart has been an issue for a very long time. Retail is not a secure job because sometimes the materials or products handled might be toxic, flammable, poisonous, fragile etc. and this might need some cover as it is a risk one is taking to be part of the organisation that provides this services. Walmart failure to cover some of its employees and many issue arising when need for cover arises has been termed as a major issue in human resource. The graft for clients appreciative is its solicitation to developing a strategy and implementing it. Once the client understands the process completely then the team that takes part in organizing the strategy will need to receive, then digesting it and then apply what they found in their analysis. Strategic planning context understanding through which a customer or client may think is through understanding the one way or of conducting the SWOT Analysis  (Goodstein, 1993). This is client or customer way of understanding, as this analysis will provide the uniqueness in viewing Walmart retail store through its Strengths, weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats – from mostly the client’s point of view. Maintaining and solidifying current customer value and developing tactics for meeting unanticipated emerging needs provides the basis for either developing or modifying an organization’s strategic plan. It is this application that makes the customer understanding The issues brought about above are clear and evident that there is necessity of undertaking severe action in order to improve the human resource strategy in the organisation. As it has been found that the organisation has faced law suit for its ill behaviour and treatment against the employees, it is highly recommended that the HR policies should be developed keeping the employee guidelines of salary and their welfare. The human resource strategy should also include the training of the workers in order to increase their efficiency at work  (Ravi.S.P, 2015) (Ravi, 2015). If there remains the opportunity, the management needs to consider the transfer of knowledge as well that would eventually help to improve the performance of the employees in the organisation. In addition to this, the company should also consider the importance of gender equality in the organisation that would help to overcome the blames that Wal-Mart is facing in the recent time. Walmart should address and adapt a corporate attitude that is friendly, because it has damaged its image because of its laborsuits towards their suppliers  (Walmart, 2016). Another recommendation that should be considered is participating in charitable events as this will show some kind and make the world to be better. Lastly just like any other organization no matter how small or big it may be either nationally or globally, safety and health of the employee should be given priority. The priority here should be updating their health and medical insurance cover at all times as they might have issues that may arise during working hours and this covers will be highly needed. The working conditions of the employees should be large such that the stores and office have enough room for movement within as this will reduce the congestion that has been experienced in the already existing stores of Walmart globally. Walmart should have initiated its business at a scale that is lower. This mistake led to the situation that it could not cope up with the benefits of economies of scale. Walmart by the name and looks have been seen as one of the best retailers in the world but in real sense it has led to many quitting jobs in other sectors so that they can be employed by them, to end up jobless as their needs and expectations are not met after being employed by them. In conclusion with regards to the issues studied and researched that seems to be experienced by Walmart human resource department, Walmart should take in to considerations of the above recommended solutions to issues brought about and this will eliminate most problems and make Walmart a better retail chain store. Jonathan. (2016). Government Laws affecting retails. Retrieved from small business: www.smallbusiness.chron.com/government-regulations-affect-marketing-retail LLP, T. R. (2013). Punitive Damage and When to Seek Them. JDSUPRA. Ravi.S.P. (2015). Technology Solutions for Sustainable Business Practices. Stakeholder perception in Walmart, 106-108. Shelly, B. (2014). Walmart notches against its rivals. wall street journal. Walmart. (2016). suppliers standards. Retrieved from walmart: https://corporate.walmart.com/global-response/ethical.htm Whaples.Robert. (2007). Modern Hr Economic issues. Walmart growth and Prodctivity. Gorze?-Mitka, I., & Okr?glicka, M. (2014). Improving Decision Making in Complexity Environment.  Procedia Economics And Finance,  16, 402-409.   https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(14)00819-3 Sparrow, P., Brewster, C., & Chung, C. (2016).  Globalizing human resource management. Routledge. Kumar, N. P. (2014). Human resource management in future an obstacle of champion of globalization.  Human Resource Management,  1(1), 49-57. Anselmsson, J., Anselmsson, J., Bondesson, N., Bondesson, N., Melin, F., & Melin, F. (2016). Customer based brand equity and human resource management image: Do retail customers really care about HRM and the employer brand?  European Journal of Marketing,  50(7/8), 1185-1208.

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