pratikkk

MP Guru
Employee Retention of Walmart : 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.[3]
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[4] 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.[5] 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.[6] 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.

“Given that salaries have been frozen or even cut back at many companies, unhappy employees may jump ship at the first opportunity,” wrote Nancy Mobley, president and CEO of Insight Performance, a human resource consulting firm focused on emerging and mid-market companies, in an Inc.com blog post this week.

On Tuesday, Inc. highlighted a story from CNN Money about Ohio-based cleaning company, My Maid Service, which – oddly enough – has found one of best ways to retain employees is to promise to train them for other careers. By offering anyone who stays with the company for at least two years free training in the career of their choice, My Maid reduced its turnover rate from 300 percent in 2007 to zero in 2009.

It's never been any secret that Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) has serious problems with employee morale, employee retention, and customer service. A new piece in BusinessWeek sheds some light on just how bad things are at the world's largest retailer, which has been suffering from stagnating same-store sales and a sagging share price.

The most important observation in the piece is this:

The most significant finding is what appears to be an enormous problem with customer service. As the experience with the cashier in Uniondale illustrates, many of Wal-Mart's workers feel outright hostility toward the company, and, by extension, they often treat customers with indifference or worse. That puts Wal-Mart in a box. Without reasonable service, the company is forced to compete almost solely on price. That in turn squeezes margins and makes it difficult to pay employees the better wages and benefits that could boost morale. It's a vicious cycle...

This raises an interesting question: Can Wal-Mart right the ship without taking a big bath? In the past, some have suggested that Wal-Mart take a one year break from attempting to grow earnings to focus on treating its employees better.

Given that better employee morale could be the only way for Wal-Mart to move toward competing on something other than price, that's looking like a really good idea. I somehow doubt it will happen though.

Employees come and go: For most employers, that's a fact of business life. And it's also a fact that there are costs associated with employee turnover, both tangible and intangible. Hiring involves the time and costs associated with interviewing, evaluating, and selecting new employees. There are training costs to bring a new employee up to speed in a job. And there are the less tangible costs of not having a skilled employee in the job when you need one—costs that can be measured in terms of customer satisfaction or lost customers.

All of these costs add up, even for lower-paid workers. Some sources put the cost of hiring and training an hourly worker at 300 to 700 times the worker's hourly wage. HR.com, a human resources Web site, has estimated that it costs two to three times more to replace a worker than to keep an existing employee—even when you're replacing an unproductive employee with one who is more efficient.

Turnover, and the costs associated with it, may be manageable during tight economic periods, when employees at all levels are more likely to stay put. But when the economy improves, turnover increases, and it is often a company's best employees that jump ship—especially if they are feeling underappreciated or undervalued.

Even those companies mindful of turnover costs might overlook the impact on the bottom line. In a landmark study involving a national food chain reported in The Service Profit Chain: How Leading Companies Link Profit and Growth to Loyalty, Satisfaction, and Value, James Heskett, Earl Sasser, and Leonard Schlesinger found that stores in the top 20 percent for employee retention were 55 percent more profitable than stores in the bottom 20 percent.

The impact on customer relationships is especially visible with turnover among sales or customer service employees. Customer relationships may be affected, customer satisfaction can decline, and sales or customers may be lost. In large part, this is because of the knowledge and experience these employees have with customers.

Turnover can affect other departments as well. In IT departments, for instance, a departing employee may be leaving with knowledge of software code changes that will take months or years of experience and training for a new employee to acquire.

As Frederick F. Reichheld, a director of Bain & Company and author of The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits, and Lasting Value (Harvard Business School Press, 1996), found from his firm's studies of a variety of industries, "The true cash-flow consequences of employee turnover far exceed most manager's intuitive estimates. In fact, the turnover tax on corporate earnings, although invisible in most accounting systems, is larger than any state or federal tax." For instance:

Customer selection. Experienced salespeople and marketers, for instance, "are much better at finding and recruiting the best customers," Reichheld says. Bain & Company research has shown this to be true in the life insurance industry, where policies written by new agents are generally found to have a lower net value for insurers.

Customer retention. Long-term employees have been shown to create higher customer loyalty in such industries as banking, brokering, and auto service. But even in manufacturing, Reichheld says, "long-term employees can produce better products, better value for the consumer, and better customer retention."

Customer referrals. Loyal employees can be a source of new customers.
When Reichheld's firm examined "the economic penalties of excessive employee churn" at one trucking company, for example, it found that the company "could increase profits 50 percent by cutting driver turnover in half." At a stock brokerage it found that "a 10 percentage point improvement in broker retention (from 80 percent to 90 percent) would increase a broker's value by 155 percent."


Health and Wellness Benefits for Walmart Employees
There are numerous Walmart employee discount packages for you in regards to health and wellbeing. A Walmart associate who is working in any of the US branches of this retail store chain is eligible for health coverage at the cost of as little as $5 to $8 per month. These benefits are applicable for the children of that associate too (if any). It is this reason why more than 90% of Walmart employees have a Walmart health coverage plan. These employees also get around 2400 generic medications and prescription drugs for heart disease and diabetes for about $4. The best thing about Walmart employee benefits is that there are more than 50 various ways through which a Walmart associate can personalize his own health coverage, with various options in the fields like health credits, premiums, deductibles and many other coverage options like long term and short term life insurance for Walmart associates.

Several Walmart insurance plans include dental insurance, business travel accident insurance, optional life and dependent life insurance, critical illness and accident insurance, sick time (illness protection), short term and long term disability coverage, company paid life insurance, etc. Apart from those mentioned above, Walmart also offers 80% coverage for various eligible services. A Walmart associate also gets a 24 hour open, private Mayo Clinic nurse line, for free health advice. There are many other preventive health care initiatives that are taken by the company including an annual checkup for associates as well as his/her family members and immunization for persons belonging to the age group of 0 to 18mths (that are covered under Walmart health coverage plan). There is a special 'Life with Baby Maternity Program' that helps a female employee from pre-conception to early child development. It also helps her to find a registered nurse.

Along with the above mentioned Walmart employee benefits, each Walmart associate is eligible for a performance based bonus program for each branch of the store. Employees who finish 20 years with Walmart, get extra pay as well. On this note, I conclude this article about Walmart employee benefits. I hope it was found comprehensive!


Financial Benefits for Walmart Employees
Just like there are a number of Walmart employment opportunities, there are various benefits that a Walmart employee gets to enjoy. Along with a number of paid holidays along with vacation and personal time, there are numerous other Walmart employee benefits that a Walmart associate can avail. Every Walmart associate receives various special discounts on everyday goods. Some of the best Walmart savings for the employees include, 10% off on fresh vegetables and fruits, 10% off on regular priced general merchandise, 10% off on eye-wear at Walmart Vision Center, etc. Employees can also avail special discounts at the official website of Walmart with the help of their associate discount card. Employees can also avail of more than 250 discounts for employees on the 'associate only' website of Walmart. Employees can also make savings on movie tickets, fitness center membership and sports entertainment, etc.

Walmart employees also get military differential pay, Sam's Club associate membership, bereavement, Jury Duty time off, etc. There are various employee saving policies that are offered by Walmart. For instance, the company put more than $850 million during the year 2009 for Walmart employee benefits 2010 plan, that includes associates' profit sharing and the 401k plan. Another excellent benefit of being a Walmart associate is that you can participate in the Associate Stock Purchase Program, which allows stock purchase without any brokerage fees. For each plan year, 15% of $1800 is payed by the company itself. This is quite a beneficial deal for the employees. All these benefits make Walmart an employee friendly company.

There are numerous job openings that are available at Walmart and hence applying for the best suitable job can be quite challenging. You will find endless Walmart job opportunities at various departments and segments of Walmart. Some of the popular Walmart jobs include: accounting, auditing, administrative, computer hardware, support service, creative work, designing, environmental service, engineering, financial services, recruiting and human resource, information technology, merchandising, marketing, product management, operation management, strategy planning, user experience, program management, safety and quality assurance, supply chain department, etc. Once you zero down on the best suitable job for you at Walmart, then only you can fill the Walmart employment application form. The procedure for Walmart employment application is quite simple and you can get easily recruited if you be honest with the company and understand Walmart employee recognition criteria. Once recruited, there are numerous Walmart employee benefits that you can enjoy.

In the memorandum, M. Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart's executive vice president for benefits, also recommends reducing 401(k) contributions and wooing younger, and presumably healthier, workers by offering education benefits. The memo voices concern that workers with seven years' seniority earn more than workers with one year's seniority, but are no more productive.

To discourage unhealthy job applicants, Ms. Chambers suggests that Wal-Mart arrange for "all jobs to include some physical activity (e.g., all cashiers do some cart-gathering)."

The memo acknowledged that Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, had to walk a fine line in restraining benefit costs because critics had attacked it for being stingy on wages and health coverage. Ms. Chambers acknowledged that 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart's 1.33 million United States employees were uninsured or on Medicaid.

Wal-Mart executives said the memo was part of an effort to rein in benefit costs, which to Wall Street's dismay have soared by 15 percent a year on average since 2002. Like much of corporate America, Wal-Mart has been squeezed by soaring health costs. The proposed plan, if approved, would save the company more than $1 billion a year by 2011.

In an interview, Ms. Chambers said she was focusing not on cutting costs, but on serving employees better by giving them more choices on their benefits.

"We are investing in our benefits that will take even better care of our associates," she said. "Our benefit plan is known today as being generous."

Ms. Chambers also said that she made her recommendations after surveying employees about how they felt about the benefits plan. "This is not about cutting," she said. "This is about redirecting savings to another part of their benefit plans."

One proposal would reduce the amount of time, from two years to one, that part-time employees would have to wait before qualifying for health insurance. Another would put health clinics in stores, in part to reduce expensive employee visits to emergency rooms. Wal-Mart's benefit costs jumped to $4.2 billion last year, from $2.8 billion three years earlier, causing concern within the company because benefits represented an increasing share of sales. Last year, Wal-Mart earned $10.5 billion on sales of $285 billion.

A draft memo to Wal-Mart's board was obtained from Wal-Mart Watch, a nonprofit group, allied with labor unions, that asserts that Wal-Mart's pay and benefits are too low. Tracy Sefl, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart Watch, said someone mailed the document anonymously to her group last month. When asked about the memo, Wal-Mart officials made available the updated copy that actually went to the board.

Under fire because less than 45 percent of its workers receive company health insurance, Wal-Mart announced a new plan on Monday that seeks to increase participation by allowing some employees to pay just $11 a month in premiums. Some health experts praised the plan for making coverage more affordable, but others criticized it, noting that full-time Wal-Mart employees, who earn on average around $17,500 a year, could face out-of-pocket expenses of $2,500 a year or more.

Eager to burnish Wal-Mart's image as it faces opposition in trying to expand into New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, Wal-Mart's chief executive, H. Lee Scott Jr., also announced on Monday a sweeping plan to conserve energy. He also said that Wal-Mart supported raising the minimum wage to help Wal-Mart's customers.

The theme throughout the memo was how to slow the increase in benefit costs without giving more ammunition to critics who contend that Wal-Mart's wages and benefits are dragging down those of other American workers.

Ms. Chambers proposed that employees pay more for their spouses' health insurance. She called for cutting 401(k) contributions to 3 percent of wages from 4 percent and cutting company-paid life insurance policies to $12,000 from the current level, equal to an employee's annual earnings.
 
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