Essay Sample on Walmart's Compensation Program

Introduction

Improving the service quality in a company calls for a good compensation program which covers the payments made to the employees and the general staff in form of salaries or any other form of payment. Therefore, Walmart Company employs a leadership generic strategy that is meant to incur the minimum cost to the company and at the same time preventing payment errors to the employees. As a company that deals with product retail, there is much employee involvement in the company's activities which means that the employee attitude towards the work is crucial. In addition, the HR capacity in the company is boosted by the ability to develop careers, offer reliable compensations thus boosting the morale of the employees in the company thus preventing any incidences of turnover. The programs that have been incorporated in the company have helped to ensure a positive relationship between the employees of the company and the management thus promoting the gradual and continuous growth of the company globally. The following discussion, therefore, creates an analysis of the compensation program that is currently being used in Walmart Company.

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There are three approaches that have been used by the HR department of the company to help in the compensation of the staff members. There is the basic pay, benefits to the employees as well as the company's incentives. The company has been known to offer low wages to the company's staff with an average of seven dollars hourly which is below the national standard set for nine dollars. However, there have been plans with the change of the human resource department thus enabling the increase in basic salaries to ten dollars thus rebuilding its corporate imagery (Chan, A. 2011). In order to increase its competitive strength against other retailers such as gap which currently offers ten dollars per hour to the employees, the company plans to incorporate other payment programs which are supposed to boost the employee motivation. In addition, the manager's minimum salary is set to be increased and thus helping the managers of different departments to attend to their duties appropriately. The company is keen to explain to the new employees about the payment policy to avoid any inconveniences. It is important to understand that the basic salary of the employees is based on their functions in the company thus explaining the variation of salaries among the many employees in the company. Lowly paid employees have a low attitude towards the job and thus there is low production in the company.

Apart from the basic salary offered to the employees, there are benefits which are issued by the company to its staff with the relative requirements. First, there are associate discounts given to the employees especially for those in the marketing department. The payment is issued in accordance with the number of sales that an individual makes and at the same time, the team achievements in the company are covered in this payment. Therefore, the employees are supposed to work as much as possible to gain the benefits which can only be achieved if the set standards are met. In the case the employees met the set bar of sales, then the rest is considered as bonuses which are paid separately from the basic pay. Secondly, there is the health insurance plan for the employees where the employees are covered by the company in the incident of sickness (Kaplan, D. A. 2019). All employees have been covered under this program and therefore, they necessarily don't have to get into their pockets when sick and away from their workstations. The insurance covers a wide range of situations such as accidents, dental plan, vision plan as well as accidental illness and accident. Thirdly, there is the stock purchase plan in relation to the company match and this also varies with departments where there is the share issued to the employees calculated from the total purchases made by the company (Xie, Y., & Cooke, F. L 1996-2017). Lastly, there are contributions which are company matched and which add up to a total of six percent of the total salary earned by an employee.

In addition to the other payments, the company takes an extra mile of providing incentives to its employees for the job performance. The plan is based on the progress of the employee as well as the annual ratings of the staff members. There is the periodical celebration of improved employees in the company where a list of the most performing and improved employees is made and the payment made in accordance to the performance ("Walmart's HRM: Compensation, Career Development - Padmore Institute", 2019). The APU credits which are made optional in the company are also counted as part of the supplementary incentives of the company. The credits are supposed to create the motivation of employees towards improving their skills and knowledge of the job through APU education. With increased knowledge and skill, then there is the ability of the employees to show improvement in their workstations.

Conclusion

The above discussion shows the strategies incorporated by the Walmart Company in their compensation plan and is categorized into incentives, benefits as well as basic pay to the employees. However, the company is supposed to increase the approaches in a way that does not affect the incurred costs. There is the need to include other compensations to the employees such as overtime pay as well as travel payments for the employees working away from the company's offices. The compensations are supposed to increase the employee willingness to work thus pushing them to work an extra mile thus improving the company's production.

References

Chan, A. (Ed.). (2011). Walmart in China. Cornell University Press.

Kaplan, D. A. (2019). Issue: Health Care Payments Health Care Payments.

Xie, Y., & Cooke, F. L. Quality and cost? The evolution of Walmart's business strategy and human resource policies and practices in China and their impact (1996-2017). Human Resource Management.

Walmart's HRM: Compensation, Career Development - Padmore Institute. (2019). Retrieved from http://panmore.com/walmart-human-resource-management-compensation-career-development