Assignment

Name : Ibna Shad Anik

ID : 16304083

Course : Manpower Planning and Forecasting

Sec : 02
Topic: An evaluation of human capital development as a strategy for increasing
productivity in any reputed company.

What is human capital? Human capital is knowledge, skills and abilities that make it possible for
people to do their jobs. And the development of Human capital determine the extent at which
effective human resource development can enhance productivity in order to reduce poor
performance in organization, to determine the efficiency of human resource training and
development in organization growth, to ensure if human resource development have any
significant impact on organizational profitability. Also determine and identify the factors
affecting human resource development and organizational productivity and to ascertain the
attitude of the senior management and other employees on the need for proper utilization of
available human resources which have tremendous effect on the firm’s profitability. After the 2nd
world war, there came a huge number of change in human capital situation in many institutions.
People and organization starts to develop the human capital to make more progress in business.
The study found that human resource development is very vital to any organizations ranging
from small to large scale enterprise. It is well known that no business can exist entirely without
human being. One of the major functions of human resource development is the engagement of
people to work in order to achieve sales goals & profit.

Walmart Inc. is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of

hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores. Headquarter of Walmart in
Bentonville, Arkansas, and the company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962. It is own
company and operate by SAM Club under different name. According to the statistics of 2018,
Walmart has 11,277 stores and clubs in 27 countries, operating under 55 different names. It’s a
largest company by revenue—over US$500 billion and as well as the largest private employer in
the world with 2.3 million employees. So, we can see that Walmart is biggest place where they
provided a huge number of job all over the world. Employer of Walmart can do both full time
and the part time job in here. The nature of Walmart is an American multinational retail
corporation that operates a lot of departmental stores, warehouse stores, and eCommerce. It is the
largest retailer in the world, the largest private employer in the world, and the world's largest
company by revenue.
The Organizational Process This process involves determining what work is needed to
accomplish the goal, assigning those tasks to individuals, and arranging those individuals in a
decision‐making framework. Walmart is planning a goal that $6.8 billion of capital investments
in the U.S. in the coming fiscal year, which includes construction and remodeling of stores, clubs
and distribution centers, as well as the expansion of new services such as Online Grocery Pickup.
And also provide best service and product to the customers by hand to hand or online. So, as a
result, to achieve this goal, Walmart is assigning responsibilities to the top level management and
mid, lower level management.
Wal-Mart's success in Human Resource Management, both in the US and abroad, is keeping
their workforce of 1.3 million from unionizing, while adding to it and pursuing other Human
Resource activities to further Wal-Mart's success. Wal-Mart would not have been able to expand
and have the same level of success without hiring and taking care of quality employees. Some of
Wal-Mart's human resource activities include employee advancement, employee recruitment on
college universities, and employee training and development. Additionally, while most firms
have slowed down their hiring of new employees, Wal-Mart are finding out new ways to attract
employees to compensate for their further expansion over the next five years.

There have some key factors that are keeping huge impact on productivity of Walmart Inc. to
increase their productivity and keep sustainable it for a long run. These are:
 Technology: As online sales continue to grab a larger chunk of consumer spending, Wal-
Mart has been looking for ways to integrate its digital offerings with its massive store
fleet. They include the continued rollout of Wal-Mart's online grocery business, which
lets shoppers order food online and have it loaded into their cars at a nearby store.
Walmart retailer will begin rolling out two features to its mobile app that take aim at
Target and Amazon's weaknesses. Wal-Mart has also started testing a Scan & Go
technology that allows customers to scan items from their mobile devices as they add
them to their cart. They then click a button to process their payment, and have an
employee check their receipt as they exit the store. While it is so far only in three Wal-
Mart stores, this technology has already been rolled out across Sam's Club's fleet.and
these use of technology is helping them to increase productivity
 The demand for the product: Walmart Inc. has all types of products that a buyer can
and want to purchase. People always need grocery for living. So, they have to go to
nearest grocery shop. But sometimes customers don’t get what they wanted. But, the
matter of fact, customer never have dissatisfaction on Walmart about not getting the
certain product. Walmart collects every types of product and keeps it in front of eyes of
customers. So, for making easy access to the customer, customer most of the time go
Walmart to do their shop and this is how Walmart incase their productivity.
 Employee motivation: Walmart (“WMT”) has made it a top priority to motivate its 1.3
million U.S. store workers. Earlier this year, the discount chain announced higher starting
wages for hundreds of thousands of workers - costing an extra $1 billion annually in
effort to improve customer service. The idea is to encourage workers to think more about
a long-term career with the company. And increase their service much better which lead
to more productivity for Walmart.
 Knowledge & Skills: Knowledge, skills, and attitudes of the employees, play vital roles
in productivity. While an employee want to work in retail sector first of all first thing
require: 1. A person should flexible regarding time. 2. He/she should have good
knowledge of product either Indian &international. 3. He should have any degree related
to retail shop. Also they have to be friendly, patience, dedicated. And also have to be
good on their certain position. So, based on the knowledge, skill and attitudes, Walmart
hired well enough employee those who can serve well to the customer. And which is
making productivity
 Distribution channel: Wal-Mart often insists on sales directly to the chain from the
manufacturer rather than sales through wholesalers. This is the exception to the rule since
Wal-Mart is large enough to be able to handle distribution itself rather than going through
retailers.
Last five year productivity of Walmart:

So, clearly we can see that, the sales of Walmart is increasing continuously. We can see ,in 2013
sales was $465.6 billion, in 2014 sales was $473.08 billion, 2015 sales was $482.23 billion, 2016
sales was $478.81, in 2017 sales was $481.32 and last year sales was $495 billion which is close
to $500 billion.
The turnover of Walmart is= (49500/2.3) million = $21,521.74

To keep pace with this high productivity and development of human capital, Walmart is
following 3 strategies
1. Develop long-term plans for the number and type of employees needed.
2. Implement a flexible staffing process that delegates to managers the authority to make staffing
decisions consistent with long-term plans.
3. Implement processes to quickly reassign or rotate employees to functional areas with high
workload.
Develop long-term plans for the number and type of employees needed:
Finding good employees is challenging for any business also for Walmart too. Even if you
manage to find good workers, retaining them is another challenge. High turnover suggests
worker dissatisfaction, which reflects poorly on the company. Conversely, long-term employees
tend to signify employee satisfaction. So, for the Walmart, having long-term employees is
important for many reasons.

Indicates Stability

By being with the company for a number of years, long-term employees reflect a stable work
environment, which improves morale. Each time an employee quits or is terminated, it disrupts
the work environment because a suitable replacement must be found. Further, in an economy
where jobs are scarce, long-term employees indicate a secure work environment.

Cost Effective

Employee turnover costs the company money. Costs vary by Walmart, but typically include
separation fees, such as for exit interviews, administrative tasks related to termination
processing, severance or separation pay, and unemployment compensation.

Retention Strategies

Long-term employees are loyal to the company, but you must work to keep them as such.
Motivate them by providing competitive health insurance and retirement plan packages. If
possible, promote from within rather than hiring a newcomer. Offer paid benefit time, such as
personal, sick and vacation days, and annual raises and bonuses. Show your generosity by
offering small perks weekly, such as free snacks or bagels.

Implement a flexible staffing process that delegates to managers the authority to make
staffing decisions consistent with long-term plans:

Saving money:  Creating a mix of full-time and contract workers enables you to turn some of
your fixed personnel costs into variable expenses by paying only for the talent you need when it's
truly needed. In addition, you lower the high costs associated with hiring and training new staff
while reining in overtime expenses.

Improving competitive position:  A flexible staffing strategy gives you more control over
personnel. That translates to an advantage over competitors whose rigid labor structure makes
them more vulnerable to economic highs and lows.

Trying out potential hires: A flexible employment strategy allows you to observe and evaluate
project professionals you've engaged and determine their fit with your core staff and
management. Having the opportunity to assess a potential employee on the job provides far more
insight than reading a resume or conducting an interview.
Implement processes to quickly rotate employees to functional areas with high workload:

Reduced exposure to focused physical demands of one job.

Reduced physiological stress, strain, and fatigue to muscle group used for one job.
Reduces employee exposure to high-risk job demands.
Reduced MSD incidents and severity.
Increased innovation and improved work process efficiency.
Reduced boredom and complacency.
Increased productivity & quality.
Reduced absenteeism & turnover.

So, These 3 strategies helps Walmart to achieve success and bring productivity.

Walmart faced some challenges/obstacles while they take initiatives some human capital
strategies

Recruiting Talented Employees

Attracting talent is a huge investment of time and money. It’s difficult for Walmart to balance
between keeping a business running, and hiring the right people at the right time. In addition, it’s
impossible to know whether a candidate will actually be a good fit until they’ve worked for you
for a period of time.

Workplace Diversity

Multiple generations. Ethnic and cultural differences. These are just a few of the many factors
that make workplace diversity a continual challenge for Walmart. The risk of lawsuits for failing
to protect employees from harassment is real. And often Walmart face this racist issues. Because
a lot of foreigner student or migrated people work in Walmart as part time or full time.

Workforce Training and Development

Investing in the training and development of lower-level employees is another common HR

problem in Walmart. They face some trouble finding the resources to do so. Employees on the
front lines are some of your hardest workers, and may not have the time to take a training course.
Recommendation:
Except from upper strategies, I will suggest some strategies that can help organization to
improve.
An Accountability System

No plan or process is successful until and unless it is managed well. It is critical to keep track of
progress. An accountability system involves measuring the failure and success of an
implemented plan. It also helps organizations to analyze the loopholes in the plan, if applicable,
as well as ways to rectify the same. Without an accountability system, organizations will have no
knowledge of whether a strategic management plan is working or not.

Clarity in Direction

This important component involves understanding an organization from the inside out. One must
understand the senior management, customers, expectations and requirements of stakeholders,
vision of an organization, budgetary constraints, and the needs of the current employees in order
to achieve a concise, clear strategic direction. To do this, companies must collect data from
employees, customers, and stakeholders to understand their expectations and needs. Discussing
these issues will help define the entire vision of a company and its team. An effective analysis
may involve analyzing current employees’ as well as where they see themselves and the
company two years down the road. This type of analysis can help organizations pinpoint any
flaws or gaps in the system.

In the end of the assignment, I want finish with another information that, Wal-Mart market, each
of associates put on staff card without name, even CEO also put on the same staff card which
shows some characters — ‘Our People Makes Difference’. It indicated that there is no difference
among directors and employees. Furthermore, based on the culture of open door, there is a
platform to communication between associates and CEO, and associates are able to suggest and
complain. Besides, Wal-Mart provides a lot of benefits to motivate associates as well. For
example, people, who join the Wal-Mart more than one year and work more than 1000 hours per
year, are able to share the company’s bonus which is equal to 5.6% of annual income. In
addition, associate and associate’s family is able to get discount when they purchase products in
the Wal-Mart, as well as they have a chance to purchase Wal-Mart stocks in the Associate Stock
Ownership plan.