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Annual Human Resources Operating Plan

WalMart

Abstract

Today with increased challenges in the external environment, it is found that the role of the Human Resources (HR) department has become vital for all the organizations. It will help the top-level management in formulating the strategic approach as well as ensure in overcoming the internal working issues of the employees in the organization. This report will highlight the major aspects of the HR department for WalMart, will include HR SWOT analysis, will also determine the current gaps, and according will provide recommendations for future improvement.

Introduction

Today, with advent of new technologies and with increased globalization, the organizations are looking for expansion plans in different parts of the world. However, the top-level management needs to analyze different regions and other territories and also simultaneously analyze the key strengths pertaining to their organization (McKenna & Richardson, 2014). 

They need to even focus on the new Human Resources (HR) trends changing in a given environment and accordingly need to focus on those new frameworks. It will thereby help the respective HR team of the organization to overcome the workplace challenges, improve motivation levels of the employees, and also strengthen the core competencies of the organization in a given environment (McKenna & Richardson, 2014). 

It is thereby the responsibility of the top-level management of the organization to focus on such aspects and thereby suggest necessary recommendations to improve the future outcomes. In this report, the focus will be on the current HR strategies of WalMart. It will include how the HR department of WalMart through their effective HR strategies is utilizing different resources for the purpose of enhancing work morale of the employees in a given working environment. 

Also, it will highlight the HR vision, mission, will conduct HR environmental analysis, and accordingly will suggest the new HR framework and strategies for the future (McKenna & Richardson, 2014). It will thereby allow the HR team and the entire department to perform as per the expectations of the top-level management in a given organization. 

The top-level management on the other hand needs to deploy performance analysis mechanisms that will allow them to monitor the different strategies implemented, determine the gaps if any and accordingly suggest recommendations to improve the outcomes. It will also allow the employees to remain satisfied while working in a given organization. 

1. Organization's Mission and Vision

WalMart Inc. is one of the leading multinational retail corporations that are into chain of hypermarkets, grocery stores, and also discount department stores. The headquarters of the company are located in Bentonville, US. The company was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton and since then the company has grown multifold in the recent times. 

It is into the retail industry and the major products offered by WalMart include - electronic products, home and furniture, craft supplies, grocery products, party supplies, footwear, jewelry, and other health and beauty products. As per the financial reports of the company of 2017, the total revenues of the organization were around US $500.34 billion. 

The total number of employees working in the organization is around 2.3 million around the world. Also, the vision of the company is to become the destination of the customers that will allow them to save more irrespective of their shopping. The mission of the organization is not only to save the money of the customers but also provide them with the best experience that will help them improve the retention rates of the customers in a given environment (Jackson, 2016). 

The key objective of the organization is to develop a work culture that will not only increase the overall motivation levels of the employees but will also allow them to share their working experience in the organization (Jackson, 2016). It will thereby allow the HR team to review their current HR process in the organizing. 

Also, it will allow the employees to share their issues of their workplace and the top-level management of the organization will be required to deploy new strategies that will help them overcome the major issues prevailing in a given working environment. Subsequently, the HR team is also planning to deploy new tools and frameworks that will improve the overall productivity levels of the employees in a given challenging work environment (Jackson, 2016). 

The HR department also ensures providing of all the resources to the employees so that they can focus on improving their working approach in a given environment. However, the HR team still needs to address some of the major issues and accordingly change the working style of employees in the organization.

1.1. Key Organization Objectives 

WalMart is a completely different organization compared to other firms operating in a given environment. Also, the top-level management of WalMart believes in expanding the firm in other parts of the world. 

They believe in protecting their price advantage, focus on people's needs, develop a culture that will remain committed to their business, focus on talent-driven strategies, reduce the HR expenses in the organization, and also connect technology with their products to improve the shopping experience and simultaneously reduce the workload for the employees in a given environment. It is due to these reasons that the HR team of the organization is working with the senior management and accordingly designing the HR policies for the firm (Akingbola, 2013). 

The HR tem of the organization first analyzes the current working environment, analyzes the competitive advantage, understands the needs of the employees, and also determines the major challenges present in the organization form the HR perspective. It is due to these reasons that they have developed a three-pillar HR strategy for the organization. As per the first pillar, they need to create a work environment that will stimulate passion, engagement and achievement in the organization. 

As per the second pillar, the HR team needs to deploy ways through which they will be expanding performance culture based on strong leadership model. Further, as per the third pillar, they will be focusing on the needs of the employees and accordingly will be motivating them in a given working environment (Akingbola, 2013). 

It will thereby make sure of overcoming the major challenges present in the external environed of WalMart. Also, the HR department has highlighted three following objectives to be achieved from the aspects of Human Resources Management in the organization: 

1. Organizational objectives - the HR team of WalMart needs to achieve HR efficiency in the key functional areas of the organization. 

2. The HR team also needs to design strategies that will allow the employees to achieve their personal objectives such as growth, promotion, increment in salaries, and family benefits etc. 

3. The HR department also needs to formulate ways through which they will be able to achieve the societal objectives in a given working environment. It includes addressing the legal, ethical and social issues of the organization and accordingly addressing them through their strategic approach in a given environment.

1.2. Key Organization Strategies 

WalMart is one of the leading retail chains around the world and also the largest company in terms of volume of sales and total revenues in the retail sector. Hence, the role of the HR department becomes all the more important as they will be required to address global issues of the company in a given working environment (Jain, Kamble, & Kamble, 2013). 

The role of the HR department is to formulate the HR strategies, addressing the employee issues, focus on organizational development, monitor the current compensation and benefits program, provide employee assistance wherever required, deploy ways to improve the recruitment and selection strategies and finally develop training programs that will assist the employees in increasing their knowledge in today's challenging environment (Jain, Kamble, & Kamble, 2013). Based on that the HR department has formulated three major strategies for the firm that include: 

1. Deploying change capability and techniques in the organization 

2. Formulating ways for continuing professional and personal development of the employees and 

3. Deploying techniques that will improve the current organization, design and overall structure in a given environment. It will thereby allow the employees to remain satisfied and at the same time deliver as per the expectations of the organization. 

However, the role of the top-level management is equally important as they need to monitor these strategies of the HR department, determine any gaps, and subsequently suggest recommendations that will improvise the overall outcomes. 

Also, the senior management needs to deploy techniques that will allow the team to perform as per the requirements and expectations of the organization. The new coaching programs need to address the needs of the employees from the perspective of knowledge management so that they can upgrade their skill-set and other required abilities (Jain, Kamble, & Kamble, 2013). 

They will thereby be able to complete the assigned tasks as per the expectations of the senior management and also within the given timeframe in the organization. It will thereby improvise their confidence and inner working morale in the organization.

2. HR Department Vision

The role of the HR department within WalMart includes - recruitment and selection of new employees, personnel administration, maintaining labor relations, HR planning for the future, career planning of the existing employees, looking after performance and reward management, training and development, and also talent management for the employees in the organization (Jain, Kamble, & Kamble, 2013). 

Further, they are also required to adhere to the different norms and legal requirements of the different nations. It will thereby allow them to address the societal objectives of the organization. Further, considering the expansion needs and the globalization trend, the HR department of the organization needs to first develop a proper HR management framework that will assist them in fulfilling the different needs of the organization (Jain, Kamble, & Kamble, 2013). 

The vision of WalMart from the HR perspective is to design an organizational structure that will address the major concerns of not only the employees but also of the different departments of the organization. Second, they need to design competency framework that will guide the employees on the skill-set required for the employees to perform their routine activities in the organization. 

Further, they need to design on the performance management tools and techniques that will allow and also motivate employees to perform as per the expectations of the organization. They further need to focus on the training programs through which they will be training the employees on the new technological modules and new leadership frameworks in a given environment (Greenwood, 2013). 

It might happen that they will face employees' resistance to accept the new changes in the organization. Hence, for this purpose, they need to implement change management model that will not only overcome such issues of the employees but will also help them accept the required change in the organization. 

Finally, the HR team is required to monitor the performance of the employees across all the departments so that they will be able to modify the current gaps in the organization. Also, they need to make sure of developing relationships with all the concerned stakeholders of the organization. It will allow the employees to build better relations with the customers and thereby exceed their expectations in a given case of WalMart in this report.

3. HR Environmental Analysis

The role of the HR department is to analyze and scan both the internal and external environment that will allow them to determine their strengths, weaknesses, identify opportunities and threats in a given working environment. In this case of WalMart, they need to analyze the physical capacities, culture, infrastructure, HR capacities, leadership model followed, objectives and strategies implemented, processes, systems, and other resources that will allow them to perform their functions in a better way (Greenwood, 2013). 

They need to merge functions with organizational strategies so that they can address major concerns of the organization and also ensure organizational development from a holistic approach. Further, there is a need to conduct SWOT analysis of WalMart from the HR perspective to determine how the organization is performing in the external environment. It is also shown in the Appendix-B: HR SWOT Analysis

From the strengths' perspective, the major ones include - highly trained staff, strong and committed employees, good reputation in the market, good rapport with other departments, following all the legal norms, and also having desired technical competence to address the external challenge in a given environment (Haruna & Kannae, 2013). 

From the weaknesses' perspective, it is found that the major ones include - poor communication, compensation design and benefit program not as per the standards of the organization, lack of HR metrics in the organization, and also vagueness of role for certain departments (Haruna & Kannae, 2013). 

On the other hand, the major opportunities available for the HR department include - deploying transformational leadership model, expansion of service centers, integrating talent management systems, and finally addressing the needs of change management in the organization. 

However, they need to overcome the threats of - budgetary constraints, internal conflicts of the different departments and also of overworked employees, leadership changes, and rising healthcare costs (Haruna & Kannae, 2013). Only then they will be able to address the major HR needs of the organization and simultaneously capture the new opportunities in a given working environment.

4. Annual HR Objectives and Strategies

One of the major objectives of the HR department of WalMart is to increase employee engagement, deploy new performance management frameworks, develop new leadership model that will guide the different teams of the organization, focus on talent management, and also ensure successful HR planning in a given environment. For this purpose, they need to first conduct an internal survey from where they will be receiving inputs from the employees and will subsequently identify the major needs of the employees in the organization (Arnaud & Wasieleski, 2014). 

Second, they need to focus on the organizational structure and thereby devise strategies that will help them achieve desired HR objectives of WalMart in a given working environment. They however need to deploy other mechanisms for the purpose of monitoring and coaching the employees as and when required. 

It will thereby allow them to focus on the other aspects such as health and safety of the employees, resourcing, performance management, data metrics and analytics, culture and HR business management in the organization (Arnaud & Wasieleski, 2014).

4.1 Annual HR Objectives

4.1.1 Objective-1

The first objective of the HR department in WalMart is to restructure the organizational structure and processes so that it becomes easy for all the employees to communicate with each other, coordinate on the assigned tasks, and thereby complete them as per the expectations and also within the given timeframe in the organization (Knoll & Van Dick, 2013). 

For this purpose, they need to train the staff on the different technical and management aspects so that they can improve their communication skills, leadership skills, and even management skills at the respective workplace in the organization. 

They will even able to address the globalization needs as well as ensure overcoming the diversity issues in a given working environment (Bieling, Stock, & Dorozalla, 2015). Further, the HR department needs to provide them with required resources to complete the allocated tasks within the given timeframe. They however need to monitor their performance and accordingly suggest recommendations wherever required. 

4.1.2 Objective-2

The second major objective of the HR department of WalMart is to motivate the employees by recognizing the individual differences and overcoming them focus on the growth aspects of the employees, rewarding them for their contribution in the organization, ensuring job satisfaction levels are met, and also training them on the different technical and management aspects in a given environment. 

The role of the HR manager will be important as they need to discuss with the employees about their work approach, provide them with alternatives for improvement, also gather feedbacks and thereby carry out discussion with them. It is also important to listen to the complaints of the employees and provide them with necessary support at the respective workplace of the organization (Montes-Guerra et al., 2015). 

Further, the HR team also needs to make them feel secure by overcoming the problems such as physical abuse, discrimination, gender bias, and other such problems faced by employees in the organization. Through regular communication and providing them with new opportunities for improvement, it will not only improve their career prospects but will also increase their overall morale in the organization.

4.1.3 Objective-3

The third objective of the HR department is to train the staff as it will help them with learning new skills and acquired new knowledge in this challenging market environment. Further, it will improve the productivity levels of the employees by addressing the major gaps as shown in the Appendix-A: HR Gap Analysis 

Also, for the purpose of increasing the motivation levels, training is necessary for the employees of the organization (Chang et al., 2014). It will also encourage development across all the departments of the organization. 

Further, it will provide employees with their performance review so that they can improve on their weaknesses in the present working environment. The new training programs will also provide them with a learning opportunity to learn new frameworks and new working approaches that will ensure achieving desired objectives of the organization in a given operational environment.

4.2 Annual HR Strategies

The purpose of designing the annual HR strategies is to first align them with the organizational objectives. The top-level management of WalMart is focusing on the different expansion plans and hence it is the responsibility of the HR department to decide on how they will be looking after the staffing plans, how they will be managing the international work departments, how they will be channelizing the different work processes, and how they will overcome the communication gaps, diversity challenges, and other workplace problems in the organization (Chang et al., 2014). It is thereby advised to devise these strategies that will help them solve majority of the problems in a given organization. 

4.2.1 Strategy

Action Step

The first action step to work on the desired HR functions and also to address the needs of the organization will be to focus on the communication aspects of the employees. There is a need to improve both the verbal and non-verbal communication skills as it will allow the employees to complete their tasks, conduct the meetings, and also attend other conferences in a better way (Chang et al., 2014). 

Today, to address the needs of globalization, the employees need to be trained on these skill-set that will allow them to communicate in a seamless way. Further, it will also overcome the workplace challenges, monitor the final outcomes, and thereby assist the employees in increasing the productivity levels in the organization (Chang et al., 2014).

4.2.2 Strategy

Action Step

The second action step is to focus on operational planning of the HR functions as they need to address the different needs of the organization. They need to revise the corporate philosophy, overcome the weaknesses identified, deploy monitoring controls, and accordingly achieve the required objectives of the organization from the HR perspective (Chang et al., 2014). 

However, the role of the HR team will be vital as they need to boost the inner working morale of all the employees and simultaneously focus on the daily work aspects of the organization. Only then they will be able to motivate the employees to perform the daily functions and other activities of the organization (Chang et al., 2014).

4.2.3 Strategy

Action Step

The third action step is to resolve the different internal conflicts among the employees in the organization. Today, with increasing workplace challenges, it is observed that the internal conflicts among the employees have increased in the recent times. Hence, it is necessary for the HR Team to deploy conflict resolution techniques that will assist in solving the internal problems of employees in WalMart. 

The four major techniques include - forcing, collaboration, avoiding, and accommodation. The purpose of resolving the conflict is to resolve the disputes at the workplace and simultaneously allow the employees to focus on their daily tasks in the organization. It will also improve their work coordination levels and thereby assist them in achieving desired objectives of the organization (Kalogerou & White, 2014).

4.2.4 Strategy

Action Step

One of the major functions of the HR department is to adhere to the rules and regulations of the different nations. However, it is found that due to unethical practices or due to breach of the Code of Conduct, these laws are not followed by the senior management in the organization. Hence, the action step required to be followed by the senior management will be to first learn about the legal norms and other regulations that need to be followed from the legal perspective (Kalogerou & White, 2014). 

Second, all the employees need to be trained on the aspects of ethical values and integrity so that they avoid breaching the Code of Conduct in the organization. It will also ensure achieving of the societal objectives as discussed before in this report. However, the top-level management of WalMart needs to deploy performance analysis mechanisms and accordingly suggest recommendations wherever required.

5. Implementation

There will be different constraints for the HR department while implementing these strategies, action steps to achieve desired objectives in the organization. These include - issues of the employees regarding adapting to the skill-set, unable to follow the daily work schedules, unable to communicate on the process strategies, gaps created among different individuals due to internal conflicts, and also issues with the organization structure of the organization (Loftin, 2014). 

It is thereby the responsibility of the HR team to address these major constraints and instead focus on achieving desired objectives of the organization. Also, they need to make sure of strengthening collaboration among all the employees so that they can perform as per the needs of the organisation. 

5.1 Constraints

As mentioned earlier, there will be several constraints faced by the HR team in the organization. Hence, to overcome them they need to first train the departmental leaders of WalMart. They need to be trained on the aspects of transformational leadership, improvised communication, and effective collaboration. 

It will thereby allow them to first guide the staff in the right direction and make them perform the routine tasks as per the daily requirements. Second, it will also resolve the internal conflicts and instead strengthen work collaboration approach that will ensure fulfilling of the objectives of the organization on time (Hodgson & Briand, 2013).

5.2 Collaboration

It is necessary for the HR team to inform the employees about the key objectives of the organization. They need to be provided with the strategic roadmap that will assist the employee in the daily work tasks in the organization. Second, there is a need to motivate the employees and train them on the collaborative working approach that will save time and efforts in the organization. 

The e-learning module will also allow employees to adhere to the rules and regulations and accordingly follow the Code of Conduct in the organization. It will thereby make them avoid all types of unethical practices in the organization.

5.3 Communications

To improve communication, it is first necessary to assess the current internal communication strategy at WalMart. WalMart is already having intranet software for the purpose of internal communication. However, they still need to allow more flexibility to the employees so that they can communicate freely and without any hassles in a given working environment. 

Further, they need to encourage feedback mechanisms so that employees will be able to identify their mistakes and other errors and subsequently will be working on them. Also, they need to inform leaders about the different communication channels available in the organization (Hodgson & Briand, 2013). 

It will thereby allow the employees to communicate with their leaders, follow the instructions, carry out the assigned tasks, and thereby improve the working experience in the organization. It will also assist the HR department in increasing the retention ratio of the employees in the organization.

6. Measurement and Assessment

There are different ways to measure the performance of the employees, of the current HR process, and also of other operational functions of the organization. The different measurement mechanism such as Balance Scorecard will provide information to the HR team such as - absence rate of the employees, training inefficiency levels, training expenses per employee, training effectiveness index, overtime expense, absence rates for the leaders and managers, motivation level index, employee productivity levels, employee satisfaction levels, and also employee turnover rate (Arena et al., 2013). This is as shown in the Appendix-C: Balance Scorecard.

Hence, it is the responsibility of the HR team at WalMart to deploy these metrics and other performance analysis mechanisms that will provide them with an overview about the entire HR functioning in the organization. 

6.1 HR Metrics

The key HR metric that the HR team at WalMart needs to use is the HR Measurement Model. As per this model, the HR team will be able to track the different dimensions of employees and will accordingly determine the net Returns-on-Investment to the organization on a per employee basis. It will include - training costs, new hiring costs, and also turnover ratio of the organization (Sebt & Alipouri, 2013). On the other hand, it will determine the customer satisfaction index and accordingly can make changes in the current HR Strategies of the organization.

6.1.1 Routine HR Metrics

The routine HR metrics that should be deployed should measure whether employees are responding to the changes suggested in the organisation. It should also determine whether there is any correlation between motivation factors of the employees and the employee retention ratio of the organization. 

Further, it should also allow the HR team to determine the different demands of the employees in the organization. They can accordingly formulate the new HR strategies that will help the organisation achieve desired objectives in a given working environment (Sebt & Alipouri, 2013).

6.1.2 HR Strategy Metrics

The purpose of deploying strategy metrics is to determine whether the current HR strategies are aligned to the organizational objectives or not. Further, it also needs to measure how the different HR functions are performed and how they are assisting in completing the daily tasks in the organization. The HR department will thereby be able to take the decision in this direction for future improvement (Degirmenci & Azizoglu, 2013).

6.1.3 Organizational Oversight Metrics

It is necessary for the HR team to also deploy organizational oversight metrics that will allow the HR team to determine how the different HR strategies are turning out to be helpful for achieving the organizational objectives in a given environment. Simultaneously, they also need to determine the work satisfaction levels of the employees so that they can make necessary modifications wherever required (Degirmenci & Azizoglu, 2013).

6.2 Reports Metrics to the Organization

The report metrics will be used to the HR team when they will be required to submit different reports on the different HR measures in the organization. It can be related to - employee satisfaction levels, employee motivation factors, performance of the different HR functions, addressing the needs of globalization from the HR perspective, determining the HR challenges in the near future, identification of the key constraints, and also recommendations of new strategies to achieve desired outcomes of the future (Bar & Gordon, 2014).

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