Question

Case Application : Training Better Managers…Now at Walmart

Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is a mega-business with more than 11,700 retail units in 28 countries and approximately 2.3 million associates around the world. That’s a lot of employees to manage! Its most recent annual revenues were more than $485.3 billion with profits of more than $13.6 billion. Because of its position as the United States’s largest private employer, Walmart often finds itself at the center of controversy over employee-related issues, from sick day policies40 to wage concerns.41 However, in 2016, the company created its Walmart Academy training program, a program intended to help those employees in lower-level management positions be more successful in their careers. Currently, there are some 100 of these academies across the United States. Since its inception, more than 150,000 store supervisors and department managers have gone through the weeks-long training.42

What does the training include? Topics cover advanced retail skills, including merchandising, ordering, and inventory control, plus managerial skills, including better communication and motivating employees. All management training is designed with the goal of helping transform the in-store shopping experience into a consistently positive one. As the industry faces increasing competitive pressures from Amazon and other online sellers, brick-and-mortar retailers are being forced to provide customers with something that makes the customer want to come to their store again and again. For Walmart, this means that if the company wants to create a more pleasant in-store shopping experience, it needs a well-trained and engaged workforce. That starts with the managers who, in turn, take that focus back to training their employees to be attentive to customers. Walmart thinks this effort is so vital that it has spent $2.7 billion (yes, that’s billion!) on employee training and raising employee wages. That’s a significant investment. However, there are companies that evidently don’t focus on training managers as Walmart does. Here are some startling statistics43:

· 26 percent of new managers feel they’re unprepared to transition into management roles.

· 58 percent of new managers don’t receive any training to help them make the transition.

· 48 percent of first-time managers fail in that transition.

Considering the important role that managers play in employee motivation and engagement, investing in training like Walmart is doing, seems to be a good investment.

Discussion Questions

1. Why would a company want employees in lower-level management positions to be more successful in their careers? (Hint: Think efficiency/effectiveness and the four functions of management.)

2. What benefits and challenges do you see to a training program such as this?

3. Does an organization have an ethical responsibility to assist new managers’ transition into their positions? Why or why not?

Answer 1

(1)

The justification the company needs lower-level workers to be more effective with their jobs is that they want you to step up within the company. The better out you are, the more information you know about the job. A nice thing about Walmart is that even if you might be a store manager, you can be qualified to know that job as well. We want you to know as much details as you can and the more details you have the happier you are going to be. To be competitive you want to see lower level and eventually go up with the business. If you are recruited or appointed as a boss, they see you as a visionary with a possibility for doing better with achieving better

(2)

With the software I see so many advantages. Over four years I served at Target and was different from this same plan. This is named the LEAD system, at my house. You will submit and also accept the recommendation of the field manager and activities managers. They address it with upper management when you get through the referral portion of the document. Only a few of them pick once a year. The obstacles I find are being admitted into the system because not everyone is willing to access it. Being a boss myself, I would guarantee that using such services are a fantastic tool and helps you appreciate what the role teaches you about the task and what is anticipated.

(3)

It is important for the company to allow us to realize the importance of equipping the human resources with the requisite ability sets they need to successfully and efficiently execute their work. It can take time to bring the senior managers on board along with the line managers, but with the correct scientific proof on how the improvements would benefit the business, it will become less of a concern. Two of the strategies that should be utilized to help an organization's commitment strategy will be preparation and an appraisal mechanism. Workplace training, whether on job training or off work training, would encourage the workers to become valuable partners for the enterprise. It helps the employee feel more valuable to the organisation and enables the corporation to maximize the commitment in the expertise they acquire from the training. Training will start with the company at the recruiting period of an employee and at different points during their tenure. Training can be done as on the job or off the job, including things like teamwork and leadership for certain individuals should also be considered.

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