Walmart: HR Reorganization

Problem Identification 

One of the major problems affecting the human resource department is the lack of job satisfaction among the company's employees (Muntz, Dormann, & Kronenwett, 2019). Workers at the firm have, for a long time, complained about the issue citing the various causes of their job dissatisfaction. One of the causes of job dissatisfaction among the employees at Walmart is the lack of sufficient monetary compensation. More often than not, the employees have complained to the management and expressed their interest in having their wage per hour rate increased. Their pleas have fallen on deaf ears of the management and have resulted in the reduction of morale, which turns into job dissatisfaction over time. The other cause of job dissatisfaction as a HR problem in Walmart is the lack of a proper work-life balance. The members of staff at Walmart are known to have long working shifts, which leaves them less time to be with their families (Muntz, Dormann, & Kronenwett, 2019). The disconnection of families on emotional aspects has resulted in the conspicuous lack of job satisfaction among the workers. Such issues in the workplace have exacerbated the primary problem of job dissatisfaction at Walmart, which has affected many workers. 

Description of the Organization 

Based in the city of Bentonville, Arkansas, the United States of America, Walmart is one of the most expansive retailers globally. The retailer was founded in 1962 in the state of Arkansas and has expanded across the US and the other countries over time. The company's diversity has seen Walmart open hypermarkets, departmental discount stores, and a chain of groceries to expand its consumer base. The presence of the company across the globe has contributed to its rapid growth in revenue and customer base. Walmart employs more than two million people worldwide in its not less than eleven thousand stores, which are spread across the globe. Walmart has invested a significant amount of its profits and revenues in customer service. At Walmart, customers from within and without the US can shop online and have their goods delivered to them at a subsidized cost and in some cases, free. Regarding customer service, Walmart has sustained a competitive advantage against other major retailers such as Amazon and eBay based in the US, and Alibaba based in china. Walmart has also invested in employee satisfaction with the organization's efforts currently not being sufficient for the many employees serving in the various departments of the retailer. 

Context of the Problem 

Employee dissatisfaction has been evident at Walmart for the past few years. Like the workers in every other organization, the employees at Walmart have to deal with particular trying situations. Nonetheless, the issue of job dissatisfaction seems to be overarching the other issues that the workers face daily. According to Cain (2018), the employees' work at Walmart can vary from day to day. While job rotation is a technique that can be used to boost job satisfaction at Walmart, the workers who move from a department to another in a short period may report the lack of satisfaction in the same. Cain (2018) also notes that many different managers handle the workers at Walmart at the same time, which leads to confusion at the workplace and the possibility of bureaucracy, which bars effective customer service at the retailer. Some of the stores have been reported to be understaffed, which leaves the existing workforce with more to handle. The excess work with no extra pay has led to the dissatisfaction of various employees with the job. Therefore, such manifestations of the problem of job dissatisfaction at Walmart have led to the worsening of the problem. 

Needs Assessment and Diagnosis 

The needs assessment and diagnosis will help the retailer to identify its current level of job satisfaction and the targeted level that Walmart wants to achieve. The first step that Walmart would take to approach the problem of job dissatisfaction at the organization is to identify the business need. The primary corporate need of Walmart is to increase the job satisfaction levels among its employees in the various stores run by the retailer (Muqadas, Rehman, & Aslam, 2017). The main goal attached to the business need at Walmart is to boost the employees' morale to encourage them to work more. Consequentially, when the employees at the organization work more, the company's revenues and profits will be boosted. Additionally, with the employees having higher morale at work, customer service will be maintained at a higher standard. Then Walmart may conduct a gap analysis by interviewing the workers to identify the various satisfaction aspects they have a problem with and how they think they can be fixed (Muqadas, Rehman, & Aslam, 2017). The other step that Walmart could implement is to assess the alternative strategies that the store has to reduce job dissatisfaction. The other step that Walmart will integrate is to report on the needs of the satisfaction and recommend the plans to boost the same. 

Data Collection 

The most appropriate data collection method to unearth the issue of job satisfaction and propose solutions to it is interviewing. Walmart will issue interviews in-person to the selected employees from the various departments at the organization and some of the executives to identify the leading causes of job dissatisfaction in the company. One of the merits of interviewing as a method of data collection in the case of Walmart is the ability to collect the opinions, feelings, and personal perceptions of the workers regarding the issue of job dissatisfaction. The second advantage of interviewing as a method of data collection is that they have a high response rate. The interviews conducted on the employees of Walmart will take a few minutes for each individual and will not be as demanding as a survey would have been. It will also be easier to ask detailed questions over the interviews than it would have been if it were the surveys. However, the researchers will also face setbacks, such as interviews being costly. The entire interview process will take up significant amounts of money. Additionally, the interviewing process can be time-consuming, given the busy schedule that guides the workers at Walmart. 

Data Analysis 

For the interviews conducted on the workers and executives at Walmart, the most appropriate analysis method is the thematic content analysis technique. The content analysis technique approaches data analysis from a systematic perspective following the themes identified in the process. After the analysis of the interviews, the researchers expect to have the causes and effects of job dissatisfaction among the workers at Walmart. The researchers will begin by coding the data that has been collected from the interviews. Then, they will create themes that relate to the causes and effects of job dissatisfaction. On the causes of job dissatisfaction, the researchers expect to find themes such as the lack of a proper work-life balance and low compensation rates for the employees. On the effects of job dissatisfaction, the researchers expect to have results related to the loss of workers to Walmart's competitors such as Amazon and eBay and the low productivity among the workers at the retailer, thus derailing customer service efforts. The researchers will then compile a report of the causes and impacts of job dissatisfaction at Walmart and present it to the human resource department. 

Proposed Organizational Development Strategies 

The first strategy that will work towards the improvement of job satisfaction levels at Walmart is to raise the hourly compensation of the employees (Kaur & Vijay, 2016). The hourly compensation is a form of motivation for the workers in various organizations, including Walmart. The raise in the same encourages the workers to be committed to delivering quality work. Consequently, the organization will benefit by having a rise in the revenues owing to the efficiency of the workers. Customer service levels at Walmart will also be improved due to the willingness of the workers to perform particular duties as expected. If raised, the hourly compensation will increase the satisfaction of the workers and hence the retention of employees. The second strategy that will boost job satisfaction at Walmart is to diversify the modes of compensation for the employees at the organization (Kaur & Vijay, 2016). Apart from raising the hourly compensation at Walmart, the management needs to look into the other non-monetary compensation practices, such as providing free gym membership for the workers, provision of free parking, and paid vacations in a year. Such incentives will ensure that the workers deliver quality work and that job satisfaction will be guaranteed at the workplace. 

Required Resources 

One of the resources necessary to provide the workers of Walmart with more pay per hour, and the non-monetary benefits is cash. The organization will have to raise additional money to provide for the extra incentives that are given to the workers to boost their morale as well as increase their overall satisfaction with the job. The other resource that will be required is time. Walmart's HR will invest significant time to formulate a plan that effectively leads to the eventual rise in the hourly compensation of the workers as well as the other non-monetary compensation procedures. Walmart will also need to plan adequate time for the evaluation of the strategies aimed at improving job satisfaction levels at the organization. Walmart will also need to organize training for its workers regarding the burgeoning compensation at the company. The employees will have to be trained on the use of motivation to boost satisfaction, as will be evidenced by the diversification of the compensation practices at the company. The company's HR department will hire trainers from outside to educate the management more on the use of incentives on the employees to boost job satisfaction levels among them. 

Timeline 

The timeline for the increase in job satisfaction levels among workers at Walmart as a project will be as follows. The identification of the problem will take a week as the HR officials navigate through the various difficulties that workers at Walmart face. The next two weeks will be spent by the analysis of the problem's context. After identifying the problem that majorly faces the workers at the retailer, the human resource department will have to look for ways that provide evidence for the existence of the problem. For instance, to realize that job dissatisfaction is a problem among workers at Walmart, the human resource department can look for the possible implications of the issue, such as a drop in the level of customer service in the company. The HR department will then collect the data required to identify the causes and effects of job dissatisfaction at the company for a week. The data analysis phase of the research will take three weeks and will report on the various potential causes of the problem of job dissatisfaction at the company as well as the impacts of the same. Finally, the HR department will suggest and evaluate the strategies given to increase job satisfaction among the workers. 

Anticipated Resistance 

A change in the compensation of Walmart is expected to raise some resistance from the employees. The opposition is likely to result from the employees' lack of readiness to accept the changes that will be done to their hourly pay and compensation. The main reason why the employees at Walmart are expected to resist the change is the fear of loss of jobs due to the extra compensation. Some of the workers will view the additional compensation as a threat to their work or as a plan by Walmart's executives to lay off some of the members of staff. The other reason is that some of the workers, especially those who have attained lower levels of education, will feel that the increase in compensation is a tactic used by the key executives to induce pressure at the workplace. One of the ways that the human resource department will implement to counteract the employees' resistance is prior training. The workers at Walmart will be trained on the importance of having their pay per hour increased, and their non-monetary benefits diversified and how the move is connected to their level of satisfaction at the company. The other way is to ensure that effective communication is passed from the executives to the workers before the change is implemented. 

Potential Benefits 

High job satisfaction has some merits in the organization, such as Walmart. Firstly, increased job satisfaction guarantees the organization an increase in productivity (Zablah et al., 2016). Satisfied employees often have a high morale of working, and their efficiency boosts customer service, which in turn generates revenues and profits for a particular company. The increase in job satisfaction at Walmart is also capable of reducing the employees' turnover. Many employees have been leaving the organization owing to the dissatisfaction that they have experienced caused by low compensation rates and a poor work-life balance. Therefore, the more satisfied the employees of the organization are, the more likely they will be retained in their jobs. Thirdly, increasing job satisfaction levels among the employees at Walmart will reduce absenteeism (Zablah et al., 2016). The relationship between job satisfaction in an organization and the rate of absenteeism is inversely proportional. Workers have been reported to want to go to jobs where they are satisfied. The improvement of job satisfaction levels at Walmart will lead to an increase in the level of customer service. Due to their willingness, the satisfied employees will strive to serve their customers diligently, which will increase their customer focus. In the end, Walmart will realize more benefits with more satisfied employees than with dissatisfied ones. 

Evaluation Approach 

After the implementation of the strategies to solve the issue of job dissatisfaction at Walmart, the human resource department will then integrate the appropriate evaluation approaches to ensure that the strategies are practical. Firstly, the job satisfaction of the workers at Walmart will be determined before and after the implementation of the strategies to increase the hourly pay and diversify the non-monetary compensation. The first method that can be used to assess job satisfaction is the single global rating. The rating measures the general satisfaction that an individual has in their job. The second method that will be instrumental to the measurement of job satisfaction is the summation score. The summation score divides a particular job into various elements where the satisfaction of the employees in every aspect is considered. The other method that can be used to measure job satisfaction is job satisfaction relative to expectations. Every employee at Walmart has his or her expectations regarding the job relative to the current level of satisfaction they have in it. The measure is effective at identifying how the stresses of the various jobs can hinder an employee from delivering the quality work that is expected of them. In all the measures of job satisfaction used, the anticipated results will be the same. If the satisfaction of the workers at Walmart after the implementation of the strategies will be more than before the implementation, then the strategies given to solve dissatisfaction will be proven effective. 

Conclusion 

The issue of job dissatisfaction has been observed in Walmart, one of the largest retailers in the world. The issue has become worse in the recent past, with a large number of employees moving to Walmart's competitors in search of jobs. The leading causes of job dissatisfaction at Walmart include a low hourly compensation rate and the lack of a balance between work and personal lives of the workers. Apart from the evident employee turnover, the issue of job dissatisfaction at Walmart has led to decrease productivity, which poses a threat to the organization's profitability in the long run. The main strategies that have been introduced to the retailer to combat the menace are the increase in the hourly compensation of the workers, and the diversification of the non-monetary techniques of compensation. The satisfaction of the workers will be measured over time to evaluate the efficiency of the strategies given to address the issue of job dissatisfaction at Walmart. 

References 

Cain, A. (2018, August 2). Walmart employees’ dish on what it's actually like to work at the retail giant. Business Insider . Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-store-employees-describe-working-retail-giant-2018-7?IR=T 

Kaur, S., & Vijay, M. R. (2016). Job Satisfaction-A Major Factor behind Attrition of Retention 

In Retail Industry. Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research , 2 (8), 993-996. 

Muntz, J., Dormann, C., & Kronenwett, M. (2019). Supervisors’ Relational Transparency 

Moderates Effects among Employees’ Illegitimate Tasks and Job Dissatisfaction: A Four-wave Panel Study. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology , 1-13. 

Muqadas, F., Rehman, C. A., & Aslam, U. (2017). Organizational Justice and Employee’s Job 

Dissatisfaction: A Moderating Role of Psychological Empowerment. Pakistan Business Review , 18 (4), 848-864. 

Zablah, A. R., Carlson, B. D., Donavan, D. T., Maxham III, J. G., & Brown, T. J. (2016). A 

Cross-lagged Test of the Association between Customer Satisfaction and Employee Job Satisfaction in a Relational Context. Journal of Applied Psychology , 101 (5), 743.