pratikkk

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Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company was the world's largest public corporation in 2010 by revenue.[6]
The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. Wal-Mart, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, is the largest majority private employer[7] Walmart is also the largest grocery retailer in the United States. In 2009, it generated 51% of its US$258 billion sales in the U.S. from grocery business.[8] It also owns and operates the Sam's Club retail warehouses in North America.
Walmart has 8,500 stores in 15 countries, under 55 different names.[9] The company operates under its own name in the United States, including the 50 states. It also operates under its own name in Puerto Rico. It operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the United Kingdom as Asda, in Japan as Seiyu, and in India as Best Price. It has wholly owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, and Canada. Walmart's investments outside North America have had mixed results: its operations in the United Kingdom, South America and China are highly successful, while it was forced to pull out of Germany and South Korea when ventures there were unsuccessful.
In a new addition to its benefits package, retail giant Wal-Mart is offering its U.S. employees a way to obtain discounted college degrees through an online university, The New York Times’ Stephanie Clifford and Stephanie Rosenbloom report.

Executives from Wal-Mart told the Times that the point of the program was to help employees become more educated, which would therefore improve the quality of its workforce. But the effort could help the company with a problem that has plagued it over the years: high employee turnover. (The company notes in an SEC filing: “Similar to other retailers, the company has a large number of part-time, hourly or non-exempt employees and experiences significant turnover in employees each year.”)

Under the partnership with American Public University, a for-profit school located in Charles Town, West Virginia, eligible employees will receive a 15 percent price reduction on tuition. Wal-Mart will also invest $50 million over three years in other assistance programs.

In order to be eligible, an employee must have worked full time at Wal-Mart for a year or part time for three years, in addition to scoring “above target” on his or her most recent job evaluation.

Most small businesses won’t be able to offer employees education subsidies, but Wal-Mart’s new program underscores how companies are trying to get creative in their attempts to retain workers.

Tom Mars, executive vice president and chief administrative officer of Wal-Mart U.S. told the Times, “If we want to make [jobs at Wal-Mart] great jobs, we really have to do something different to distinguish those jobs and our company from everyone else in retail.”

During the worst days of the recent recession, employee retention wasn’t at the top of a business owner’s concerns since jobs were scarce. But as the economy improves, employees are likely to start weighing their options again—even amid a tight labor market.
 
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