Impact of Environmental Factors on Culture and HR Plan of Walmart (Coursework Sample)

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
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Table of contents
Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Table of contents PAGEREF _Toc83561408 \h 2Executive summary PAGEREF _Toc83561409 \h 3Introduction PAGEREF _Toc83561410 \h 3Ways in which HR strategies had been modified or changed in response to the crisis at Walmart PAGEREF _Toc83561411 \h 3Impact of environmental factors on culture and HR plan of Walmart PAGEREF _Toc83561412 \h 5HR model and how the firm creates value PAGEREF _Toc83561413 \h 7Storey's 27 points of difference between HRM and Personnel Management practised by the firm. PAGEREF _Toc83561414 \h 8Job design strategies of Walmart PAGEREF _Toc83561415 \h 9Hiring and firing strategies of Walmart during the pandemic PAGEREF _Toc83561416 \h 11Corporate examples of firms using good HR practices PAGEREF _Toc83561417 \h 12Recommendations on HRM practices maintain organizational performance. PAGEREF _Toc83561418 \h 13Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc83561419 \h 14References PAGEREF _Toc83561420 \h 15
Executive summary
The Covid-19 pandemic led to new trends in HR practices. Walmart demonstrated the importance of HR in improving company performance. The company changed recruitment strategies and utilized technology to ensure the worker was productive such as remote working. The HR models show that HR practices are directly related to the financial performance of the company. The company management should align the HR strategies to the business strategies to realize the maximum benefit of the HR department. It only identifies the core outcomes from the HR strategies and aligns them to the financial performance metrics.
Introduction
The economic crisis, a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, adversely affected businesses and economies across the globe. According to the PwC, many companies struggle, but human resource management plays a crucial role in ensuring the sustainability of business activities. As the economy reopens and companies undergo recovery, the HR department is becoming very important. Walmart, a multinational retail company, based in the United States, managed to stay afloat amid the crisis due to the exemplary Human resource practices. The company recorded an upsurge of sales by 75% as many companies recorded historical low revenues. The company was hiring more than 200000 associates despite the crisis. The article seeks to unravel the creative and innovative HR practices that contributed to Walmart's growth amid the economic crisis.
Ways in which HR strategies had been modified or changed in response to the crisis at Walmart
Walmart opted to use applicant tracking system enhanced talent acquisition at the company. According to Josh Allen, the director of global selection and assessment strategy, Walmart has the objective of hiring about 500000 associates and fulfil promotions of about 200000 team members. The company employs the modern vendor hire to manage the overflow of the applications (Smith, 2020). The technology enables the company to identify and attract the right talent to fill up the positions at the company amid the pandemic. The director of global selection and assessment strategy note that Walmart invests a lot in the job simulation, which has enabled the company to appropriately predict the performance of the recruits and retain the right talent. The company won the 2019-2020 human resource management impact award from the society of human resource management. The award-winning was attributed to the creative and impactful HR practices (Nilufer, 2020).
The threat of infection in the company pushed the management to implement health care protection strategies. The company integrates remote working. Some of the employees were allowed to work from their homes. The company also hired a chief medical officer to oversee the health care of its workers. De la Garza, senior vice president of Walmart Mexico and Central America, notes that the company has changed its recruiting and managing its workforce to fit the economic crisis. The talent acquisition department used the Application tracking systems and candidate relationship management to resolve the company's issues. The company used the application tracking systems to balance the company shortage and surplus of team members. The procedure includes establishing the signup page that would identify the team members with the necessary skill to fill up the gaps. The method creates balance since the team members from the surplus areas would sign up to assist in the size of the deficit (Sulaiman et al., 2020).
The recruitment team improved scope to include the internet, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, to increase the pool of potential team members. The technology feature also enables the company to create an internal talent mobility process through building a connection between the employee profiles and the Human resource information system. The relationship was enhanced by the badging and credentialing program, which plays a role in validating frontline workers' skills. The system also automates the end dates of the extraordinary responsibilities of the team members. The managers would automate the days that the workforce was allocated. The changes in the systems provided more significant insights and new development in Walmart’s human resource management (Kaur and Shah, 2021).
Impact of environmental factors on culture and HR plan of Walmart
Competition
Walmart's culture and HR plan have been affected by the stiff competition in the retail industry. The well-established firms do not need to spend so much searching for qualified candidates compared to the small firms. Walmart is an international company with a good reputation. Many applications stream into its websites every month to search for vacant positions; such recognition gives the company an upper hand in accessing a qualified pool of team members. The small companies in the retail industry will have to spend money to attract a talented pool of applicants due to the lack of branding and recognition by most applicants. However, the large firms will not only review the applications. The significant rate of applications poses a challenge in evaluation and recruitment. The company will only spend on developing the recruitment of materials and continuation of Branding through sponsoring seminars and job fairs that attract more qualified applicants. Other strategies will be developing the most competitive compensation package and retention strategies for the talented pool of team members, which eventually cuts the high turnover rates (Barney and Wright, 1998).
The labour supply
Supply and demand are critical forces affecting HR strategies and planning. The labour supply has a negative correlation with the wages offered in the markets. When there is a high unemployment rate, there is a high labour supply of highly qualified candidates; thus, the company offers lower wages. At the same time, when the labour supply is low, there is an inadequate number of candidates qualified to handle the job. The company offers high wages to attract workers. The rise and fall of wages are due to stiff competition among the firms. The change affects Walmart's HR strategies and planning. The firm often evaluates the salaries through surveys on the industry and location-specific compensation structure. The survey findings will inform the company of the prevailing wage rates thus remain afloat during the low and high unemployment rates (Davidson, and Wang, 2011).
Legislations and employee relations
Walmart's HR strategies and planning are influenced by the legislation and employee relations policies. In the United States, the company is controlled by the Health insurance portability and accountability act and the genetic information nondiscrimination. The policies affect how they treat their workforce. They determine how that company keeps the records of the employee. The company is obliged to have all the information regarding the team members in secure databases. The team members have the right to employment regardless of their race, gender and any affiliations. The legislation guides the company's Human resource management by ensuring a better working environment. Many team members at Walmart belong to unions. Unionization of an employee means that HR must strike collective bargaining agreement, which includes the employees' compensation structure and working environment (Gennard, and Judge, 2005).
HR model and how the firm creates value
SCM's human resource model begins with the derivation of HR practices for HR strategies. According to the standard causal model of HRM, the firm's value is derived along the causal chain, which comprises the alignment of the HR strategies and the company's overall business strategies. As a result, HR practices influence financial performance indirectly. Alignment of the HRM strategies to the business strategy is a concept applied by Walmart to derive the company's economic performance (McClean, and Collins, 2011).
Some of the fundamental practices are Hiring, training and compensation of the team members. The talent acquisition approach improves the value of Walmart. The company invests in the identification and attracting the right talent to the company. The company targets more than 100 colleges to fetch the right talent to fill up vacancies at the company. Walmart hires the best and offers the best training to drive the value of the company (Christiansen, and Higgs, 2008). The company management has inspired every team member to think as the company belongs to them. They are trained to assume they are the merchants at the company. Such mindsets have seen the company derivi...