Session Long Project 1 - WalMart - SHRM - Essay Example

XXXXXXX Number: XXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXX of XXXXXXX Submission: XX – XX – 2011 Session Long Project 1 - WalMart - SHRM Chosen Company: The company chosen here is WalMart. The relation to this company is indirect. A few of my friends have worked for the company. WalMart is the world’s largest retail store. Over the past years the company has been able to gain the position of the world’s largest retail company and is thrice as big as its closest competitor. WalMart – HR Department: The company’s main values and beliefs are – respecting individuals, service to the customers and striving for excellence.

In terms of the employees it is seen that although the company promises and portrays being very employee friendly in reality there is little care for the employees. The human resources team is very effective in choosing the right people for the job, however in terms of the management of the employees there is a clear lack on the part of the team. The HR teams are meant to focus on the needs of the employees and to provide the employees with the necessities to keep them motivated. Here however the company focuses on the amount of work that can be extracted from the employees, with not much in return both in terms of pay as well as other benefits.

The HR team lacks a clear perspective on the priority and there is no attention given to the needs of the employees. SHRM and WalMart: The HRM team of the company does not contribute to the overall strategic growth of the company. It is important to note that although there is a strong strategy that the company adopts in terms of the recruitment process, there is little or no proper management post the recruitment (Dowling, Festing and Engle). The company clearly uses SHRM; however the main elements of SHRM are not taken into account here.

The lack of care and attention to the employee needs and development of the strategies based on these, leads the company’s overall employee attrition rate to be high. This clearly also impacts the business decisions and strategic planning. Reasons for Perspective: An excellent example which has been made public about the organization is that of the articles which show that the company pays employees a salary which is way below the poverty line and employees have confessed that they cannot live out of the pay received from WalMart alone.

The average hours worked by employees is around 40 hours a week. However the pay received is very low and for some of the employees it is just enough to live out of a Dodge truck (Greenhouse). Also, in terms of personal experience, a friend of mine worked for the company and she was forced to work almost twelve hour days, with no extra compensation, or even any other form of benefits. She was not provided any competitive pay, skills development and health benefits for the employee and family (WalMart).

My friend resigned the job within a year however this was not one of the best working environments. Works Cited Dowling, Peter J., Marion Festing and Allen Engle. International Human Resource Management: Managing People in a Multinational Context. South-Western College Pub, 2007. Greenhouse, S. At Wal-Mart, Choosing Sides Over $9.68 an Hour. 2005. 13 January 2011 . WalMart. About Us. 2011. 15 January 2011 .