Wal-Mart's Recruitment Strategy Essay - Analysis And Current Approach.

Analysis: Culture

Discuss about the Recruitment Strategy in Wal-Mart.

In terms of multi-national companies, recruitment process has the important role for recruiting right employees in the organization. So, the stages of recruitment and selection in those companies are much scrutinized. Recruitment process can be considered as the complete process to manage the personnel force in the organization. It is also a compl.ete cycle of the recruitment including planning, advertising, induction, selecting staff, providing training, performance appraisal and moving on. This essay is focusing on the recruitment process of the company along with some issues which can be faced by the company at the time of recruitment process. For the discussion, the famous retail company Wal-Mart has taken (Arvinen-Muondo & Perkins, 2013).

Wal-Mart was established in the year of 1962 and it’s headquarter is in Bentonville. The company is operating from more than 50 years and in 27 countries with 11,000 outlets. Wal-Mart is the popular company in the retail industry having the cost leadership strategy in the business operations. The aim of the company is to be the low-cost leader in the retail industry. The company has maintained its competitive advantage by the satellite based distribution system and skilled and experienced employees. By the effective recruitment process, Wal-Mart tries its best to reduce the various costs. From the recruitment, the aim of the company is to provide more effective services to the customers (Robbins, Campbell & Judge, 2010). Wal-Mart is the famous retail company in the world which uses the most effective method of recruiting the employees and sales person in the company. Company believes in hiring the employees who will be dedicated towards their job, quality assurance, and great working ability. So, the recruitment is done in Wal-Mart with the world class standard so that each and every employee in the company feels unique fill, challenged and able to complete day to day operations of the company.

There is the hyper centralized management in the Wal-Mart because of various problems which affect the recruitment process of the company. It is found that Wal-Mart has developed authoritarian culture in its business. In such type of culture, power is centralized for operational activities and the leader is the authorized person for the decision making process. Due to this system, employees are not able to share their views and ideas related to the work conditions. Along with this, Wal-Mart is an anti-union organization in which the employees are punished by the company for violating the rules and policies. This can be the reason that the recruitment process can be affected by the various culture and diversity in the company. The authoritarian culture of the company is affecting the motivation level of the employees which has negative impact on the financial performance of the organization (Thoo, 2013).

Organization image

Wal-Mart has the slogan ‘Save More, Live Better’. So, it has the strong image among the customers because of the low cost products. But, it is observed that the company applying the concept with the employees also. The company has large employee base of 2.2 million in the 9,000 stores. Wal-Mart has low wages rates for the employees as compared to the competitors. Although cost cutting by managing the labor cost is the effective way in the business but Wal-Mart has not implemented this effectively. It is estimated that the annual salary of the employees in Wal-Mart is $15,500. It is the cause of dissatisfaction among the employees. Low wage rate in the company can affect the recruitment process as due to low wages, candidates can back out at the time of interview. The main purpose of the employment is to satisfy the needs of the employees in their job roles. Lower wages rates in the Wal-Mart are not enough to meet the needs of the employees in the company. The employees are satisfied in the company so it will affect the on the upcoming recruitment process (Spriggs, 2014).

In Wal-Mart, it is founded that there are hygiene factors including policy, procedures, working conditions, interpersonal relation and job security are absent. So, the old employees of the company are dissatisfied with the company and its procedures. It is affecting their performance and they are not able to cooperate with the innovations and technologies. It is also observed that old employees of the company are calling out for the strikes in many stores which affect the recruitment process of the company. Due to low level of motivation among the old employees, new employees can quit from their job. The disorganized workforce in the Wal-Mart is not motivated enough to motivate new employees. The poor organizational culture has dissatisfied the old employees which have also impacted on the financial performance of the company. Thus, there is the need of motivating old employees in the company so that they can do their work effectively and can motivate the new comers towards their job (Marquez, 2006).

Now, the supply or demand of the labor also affects the recruitment process of the Wal-Mart. The flexibility in the labor market and the skills and demand of the labors impacts on the working practices of the company. The function of the labor market is to adjust the supply and demand of the market. The supply and demand of the labor are affected by the recession and inflation of the market which are the cause of unemployment in the companies. Along with this, low rate of wage is also the factor which impact on the supply of the labors. Wal-Mart is affected by this factor as it has low rate of wages for the working employees. Further, there is job uncertainty in the market which is the cause of instability in the supply and demand of the labors in retail industry. Apart from this, flexible timing in the market also affects recruitment process of the company and the supply and demand of the labor in the retail industry. Thus, there is the need of man aging supply and demand of the labor for the growth of the company in future (Lopez & Bonanno, 2008).

Ageing workforce

The recruitment process in Wal-Mart has world class standard in the retail industry. In the initial stage of the process, company analyzes the long term as well as short term goals of the business and identifies the legislative requirements in the jobs. In simple words, company matches the current job requirements and upcoming job requirements to create the need of recruitment policies and procedures. In the second stage of recruitment process, company advertises the job description over the wide geographical area so that the huge pool of candidates can be attracted easily. The advertisements are done by the newspapers, job portals, existing networks such as magazines, employee references, internet marketing, recruitment agency and television. The procedure of selecting the candidates from the interviewed people after matching the skills, knowledge, ability and other characteristics with the goals and need of the company. Basically, selection can be considered as the negative process within the company because the aspiring candidates are rejected in finding the appropriate match for the company (Johari & Yahya, 2009). There are many screening methods which are used by the company while selecting right candidate such as resume review, scoring the interview, reference validation etc. In Wal-Mart, reference is the most crucial process to analyze the ability of the individual for the job role. Wal-Mart does the process of reference check by the mail marketing and telephone coordination. The company starts with the name, identity, address, the accuracy of commitment and the legal background to ensure the professionalism and relevance. In the process of background checking, company does employee verification. The aim is to verify the educational background and work experience of the candidates. The recruitment process of Wal-Mart is divided into two parts i.e. internal retention and external recruitment (Johansson & Lichtenstein, 2011).

Internal retention:

The aim of Wal-Mart is to involve the people in various levels of operations. So, The Company has developed various learning programs to connect the employees with their jobs. Having more than three quarters, store managers have started hourly association. There are many training programs i.e. financial management training, team management, field management etc. Internal promotions are also very effective in this manner (Thompson, 2017).

External recruitment:

Wal-Mart recruits the high level managers and associates for the growth of the company. Those are important for the company because they have managerial characteristics and cultures such as penny savings. Further, the company is focused on recruiting the people who are good in the field of business management. But still, there is the issue of employee retention in the Wal-Mart as the company does not know how to keep the employees in the business for long term basis. It is easy to hire good employees for the business operations but is the most difficult task to keep them connected for the long term basis. In the recruitment process of Wal-Mart, company uses local newspaper, radio and different agents to inform the candidates about the vacancy (Nankervis, Compton & Morrissey, 2009). Company also takes recommendations from the present employees. The selection process of the Wal-Mart is quite hard because the company uses the process of employee delight. Candidates give the telephonic interview and after that they are called for the round of personal interview. In the process of hiring of Wal-Mart, candidates are required to face the group discussion in the first round and after that personal interview in the second round. There is the efficient training provided by the company to the selected employees in order to get them trained and skilled for the job role as the skilled employees work better and improve the performance of the company in the market (Klerck, 2009).

Labor supply/demand

The above part of the report has discussed the issues in the Wal-Mart which affect t the recruitment process in the company. The discussion shows that the culture of the company is not effective in developing the positive work environment for the employees. In Wal-Mart, the leadership style and various organizational policies are not so much useful in motivating the present employees for improving the performance. There are some recommendations for Wal-Mart which will be helpful in addressing the recruitment issues and solving current problem.

• First of all, the management of the Wal-Mart should focus on the level of wages provided to the employees. The wages must be on the standard level which can satisfy the psychological needs of the employees. The salary of the employees should be improved based on the economic status of the various nations.
• There should be the two way communication system in the company. it will be helpful fire the employees to express their viewpoints and ideas for the growth and success.
• There is the need to develop the culture of the company. This will be effective to support the innovation and providing many ways of the growth opportunities.
• To motivate the employees and to improve their moral, there must not be gender discrimination in the company. Further, there should be reward and recognition policy in the company and that should be redesigned on time to time to encourage the employees and workforce for the excellence and growth.
• To attract and retain the skilled and talented workforce in the company, there should be career opportunities provided by the company to the employees (Johnason, 2009).

Conclusion

This report is focused on the recruitment process in the company Wal-Mart. For the above discussion, it is observed that there are some organizational issues in the Wal-Mart which affect the recruitment process of the skilled and experienced candidates. The issues are related to the low wages for the employees and lack of motivation among the old employees. So, there is the need of employee motivation and career opportunities for the employees. To cooperate with the new technology and innovations, company should provide proper training to the employees.

References

Arvinen-Muondo, R. & Perkins, S. (2013). Organizational behaviour. London: Kogan Page

Johansson, E. & Lichtenstein, N. (2011). Creating Hourly Careers: A New Vision for Walmart and the Country. Retrieved on 29^th May 2017 from https://www.jwj.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/110119creatinghourlycareers_jan2011.pdf

Johari, J. & Yahya, K. (2009). Linking Organizational Structure, Job Characteristics, and Job Performance Constructs: a Proposed Framework. IJBM, 4(3)

Johnason, P. (2009). HRM in changing organizational contexts: Human resource management: A critical approach. pp. 19-37. London: Routledge

Klerck, G. (2009). Industrial relations and human resource management: Human resource management: A critical approach pp. 238-259. London: Routledge

Lopez, R. A. & Bonanno, A. (2008). Wal-Mart’s Monopsony Power in Local Labor Markets. Retrieved on 29^th May 2017 from https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/6219/2/469304.pdf

Marquez, J. (2006). More HR in Store at Wal-Mart: A Q&A With Sue Oliver. Retrieved on 29^th May 2017 from https://www.workforce.com/section/09/feature/24/47/65/index.html

Nankervis, A., Compton, R. & Morrissey, B. (2009). Effective Recruitment and Selection Practices. Australia: CCH Australia Limited

Robbins, S., Campbell, T. & Judge, T. (2010). Organizational behaviour. Prentice Hall.

Spriggs, W. (2014). Why Walmart Should Follow Gap's Lead And Raise Its Minimum Wage. Retrieved on 29^th May 2017 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/beltway/2014/06/04/why-walmart-should-follow-gaps-example-and-raise-its-minimum-wage/#23887c01517a

Thompson, A. (2017). Walmart’s HRM: Recruitment, Selection, Employee Retention. Retrieved on 29^th May 2017 from https://panmore.com/walmart-human-resource-management-recruitment-selection-employee-retention

Thoo, L. (2013). International HR Assignment in Recruiting and Selecting: Challenges, Failures and Best Practices: International Journal of Human Resource Studies. 3(4)