Human Resource Management

Human Resource Management Diagnosing change It is obvious that for Wal-Mart to excel in employees performance and therefore the performance of the whole organization, the human resource planning, policies, recruitment, training and other employee programs need to be centralized .This way, uniform policies and procedures in human resource will be enacted by the top management and thereafter distributed to all its stores. The human resource manager in each store will therefore be tasked with ensuring that these policies, procedures and programs are followed to the later. As much as decentralization of the human resource function in Wal-Mart is a source of flexibility and speed as far as the management of employees and employee-related matters, it is also a huge source of inconsistency as a result of different interpretations by different store personnel. In order for such a charge to take place, the Company needs to be ready for it[ CITATION Cat14 \l 1033 ]. To start with, Wal-Mart is the largest world retailer and a merchandiser operating over 11,000 stores in over 27 different countries around the world[ CITATION Ber101 \l 1033 ]. The Company runs supermarkets, hypermarkets, department and grocery stores in these countries attracting revenue of close $483 billion in 2015 an amount which is very much higher compared to other top businesses in the retail industry. These include the Costco Company whose revenue in the same year amounted to $114.5 billion[ CITATION Ber101 \l 1033 ]. Others in the industry include Kroger and Tesco whose revenue ranged at $106.5 and 102.6 respectively. Looking at its history, the Company started as a Franchise store founded by Sam Walton in 1945 in New Port, Arkansas town. In 1969,the store was fully incorporated starting its overseas operations in Mexico in the 1990s.From there the Company spread to other different parts of the world HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENGT 3 including China, UK, Japan, Canada etc making up to 11,000 stores in over 27 different countries around the world. Currently, the company employs over 2.2 million employees from across different countries and nationalities[ CITATION Ber101 \l 1033 ]. Change The Wal-Mart human resource management is one which is characterized by stratification where by the policies, planning, procedures and strategies of hiring, recruiting, performance appraisal ,compensation and any other activity related to the workforce is done at different levels of the Company administration. As much as the Company top management is involved in the formulation process, each one of the stores has a human resource manager who is responsible for formulating the human resource programs, policies and procedures. In such an arrangement, each one of these stores may come up with different interpretations of the aspects of human resource management, that is, the recruitment process for instance may differ greatly between these stores and therefore bringing about inconsistencies in performance[ CITATION Rod15 \l 1033 ]. Some stores may produce the best employees through effective selection process and training programs while another store may perform poorly in terms of employee performance. At the end of the day, the performance of these stores is brought together to give the overall company performance .Consequently, the poorly performing stores drag down overall performance and so as the profits. Therefore, in order to ensure consistency in the performance of employees as well as that of the organization as a whole, centralization of the human resource function is necessary. This change entails a situation where the top management assisted by the stores human resource managers come up with uniform procedures, programs ,policies and strategies for the processes HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENGT 4 of selection, training, appraisal, compensation, firing, retirement etc in order to bring about consistency. Theories of change management There are various reasons which necessitated the proposed change in the Wal-Mart human resource management. First of all is to bring uniformity or consistency in the performance of the human resource docket in the organization. According to Lewin’s change management theory, people always want to operate in a certain degree of safety and that’s why at first resistance is inevitable, Thus there is need to unfreeze through the transition period where the lower management are derived the role to make their own policies and procedures as far as human resource is concerned[ CITATION Vak13 \l 1033 ]. Secondly, it is costly to decentralize any function of the organization. Currently .Wal-Mart spends more on human resource management as more personnel and equipments are needed at each store. With this change, the spending will reduce since the policies and procedures will be formulated once by the management and then spread to all the stores. McKinsey 7-S change model emphasizes the role of shred values in managing change; therefore, people will be more likely to accept change in the human resource policy formulation when a common ground is shared among them. Thus, the centralization of the formulation process will make change easier to enact. Diagnostic tools Previous studies have focused on one best outcome of a change initiative t without focusing on the other side where the initiative might fail. Therefore diagnostic tools which analyze the potential success of the suggested change. There are various tools which can be used for diagnosing the readiness of Wal-Mart to the proposed change. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENGT 5 Clear consent and central leadership Wal-Mart Company needs to have a clear evaluation of the need for change accompanied by a central leadership. In this case where central leadership is not available in some functions of the organizations, the change is likely to fail. Common goals and objectives The organization will be able to administer the change when all the departments and personnel are on the same page as far as far the objectives and goals are concerned. Separate goals and objectives create different interests which may make the change more difficult o administer. Effective structure and systems Even with a clear mandate, the change may fail due to poor structure and system where it is not clear who reports to whom. The general chain of command need to be clear and effective for change to take place. Staff turnover The effectiveness of the desired change is determined by the ability of key employees to stay in the organization long enough to effect the change. If the turnover of key individuals is high, the desired change may not be administered effectively. To analyze the readiness of Wal-Mart Company to the proposed change, the level of staff turnover as well as a central leadership remains important. For one, stuff turnover determines who comes and stays in the organization long enough to effect the change. Wal-Mart has employees all over the world and in order to change the human resource policies formulation, key personnel who are experienced should be in place as long as the change takes. Additionally, HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENGT 6 the management should be centralized with common goals in order to ensure success of the change proposal. Stuff turn over in Wal-Mart is relatively low ranging at 20% per annum. This means that out of every 100 employees of the Company; only 20% of the employees leave each year to join other organizations while others retire. This according to the Wal-Mart boss, Doug McMillan, is due to the increased pay for its employees from the year 2015.Therefore according to this analysis, the Company is ready for the change since the vital employees stay in the organization long enough to effect the needed change. This because according to the McKinsey 7-S change management theory, skills is one of the key determiners of the success of change. Therefore with a low turnover, the Wal-Mart staff is skilled to handle any additional responsibilities brought about by the change.