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Recognized as one of the largest companies in the US, and arguably worldwide, Walmart also dominates the industry when it comes to their number of employees. In fact, the largest retailer of America is the biggest private employer. What's even more fascinating is that half of their workforce are hourly workers or part-time employees.
Even though they already have a large workforce, Walmart is constantly expanding, building new stores, and hiring new employees. The retailer’s operations are also known to be smooth, with rarely any problems. How do they do it? For one, they are able to maintain a large base of satisfied employees, which is achieved through several practices that the organization deploys through their HR efforts.
In this article, we are going to discuss how Walmart is able to maintain their management efforts to keep their hourly workforce motivated.
Consistent Employment Retention Strategy
Every organization today must be able to retain its employees. If we’re being honest, recruiting and onboarding employees is not that difficult as compared to retaining them for a long time. This is especially true when it comes to part-time workers. And Walmart recognizes this - which is why they have a comprehensive HRM: Recruitment, Selection, Employee Retention strategy.
It's in Walmart's interest to improve their employee retention strategies as much as they can so that they can minimize the company’s turnover rates and the costs that come along with it. After all, the consequences can get pretty severe if they were to have a high turnover rate. Ensuring that their employees are retained for the long run will prevent them from incurring unnecessary expenses that could have otherwise been avoided.
Walmart has a combined set of approaches to achieve high employee retention. Here are their most applicable strategies for this purpose:
- Recognizing and acknowledging employees based on their performance.
- Giving employees added benefits based on their position or status.
- Providing incentives to employees based on their position and status.
In most cases, companies don't include their hourly employees in their retention strategies. Walmart, however, makes it a point to ensure that the set of approaches above applies not only to their full-time employees but their hourly ones as well.
Affordable Insurance and Healthcare Options
Most of the time, companies don't provide any welfare benefits to their part-time employees because they don't consider them as dedicated members of their organization. This, however, is not the case for Walmart. The giant retailer gives eligible full-time and part-time associates affordable options that also include full coverage of preventive care.
Aside from that, Walmart offers medical plans that start at $25 per day, which includes optical and dental schemes. They also provide domestic coverage partners and have a program that covers advanced procedures such as lung cancer, knee or hip replacements, heart procedures, spine procedures, and many others.
What’s more, all of the part-time employees get free access to healthcare advisors and nurse care managers in the company. These are just some of the insurances that Walmart offers for their hourly staff and there are, in fact, more than they can provide. This is the very reason why the giant retailer is appealing to their employees and the main reason why they stay with the company for a long time. Not many companies in the country would provide for their part-time staff as much as Walmart does.
Flexibility in the Workplace
Every part-time or hourly employee chooses this type of employment for several reasons. Some may just be retirees who want to fill their time doing something while others might be students who want a flexible work schedule to fit in with their existing school commitments. Thus, while they may not receive higher salaries as compared to their full-time counterparts, they do enjoy flexible working hours. All they have to do is ensure that they clock in a certain number of work hours each month. This opens up the opportunity for them to focus on other ventures in their life, such as education, training, or entrepreneurship.
Additionally, Walmart is constantly upgrading their parental benefits to give more flexibility to parents. Hourly workers that become parents through foster care programs, adoption, or birth can get as much as 6 weeks of paid leave.
10% Employee Discount
Apart from giving hourly employees solid salaries, great health insurance, and the ability to get as much free time as they need, Walmart also provides a 10% discount to all their employees. This is why a lot of college students choose to get a job at Walmart: it provides them with sufficient income and allows them to reduce their grocery expenses (we all know how expensive college can be). Furthermore, since they have flexible work hours, they can always choose to work less to focus on their studies during their examination periods.
Taking into account all of the factors above, it is no wonder why Walmart has many satisfied part-time employees and is also able to retain a large number of them in the company. In some cases, these employees eventually become full-time workers as they choose to further develop themselves and their career with the company. Consider adopting some of Walmart’s HR strategies - who knows, you might just be able to improve your company’s standing in the years to come!
If you are looking for ways to expand your hourly workforce like Walmart, look no further. At Workstream, we help you cast a wider net for quality candidates that your company deserves! Book a free demo with us today to find out how we can best meet your hiring needs.
