Recently, Wal-Mart, the well-known retail corporation laid off 450 workers from across all the departments of the business, such as finance to global e-commerce as mentioned in the article, Wal-Mart HQ cuts with “need to become a more agile company”, The company aimed to reduce the labor costs that were incurred as due to an increase in the focus on e-commerce to combat its competition, websites such as Amazon. They also mention the higher wages for the for hourly workers that made them take such an immense decision. “Our customers are changing. Retail is changing and we must change,” said Doug McMillon, the CEO of WalMart.
Personally, I feel that Wal-Mart has made a massive change in its Human Resources sector and leaped onto e-commerce for competitive purposes. This change-over has a few positives and negatives for the business’ functioning. The positives include the stepping up their competitiveness to compete with other retailing companies. This changeover also shows that the company has conducted adequate market research to understand the demands of their customers. Additionally, they are keeping up with the technological changes in the economy and moving over to e-commerce, which is a fast-growing form of retail in today’s world. However, Walmart is known for the cheap and affordable products and as mentioned in their article, their major customer base includes lower income families and they might lose out on a large chunk of their revenue earned.
Additionally, it has been mentioned that WalMart is providing job search assistance and 2-month pay with benefits. This is a good strategy that would not ruin the brand loyalty of Walmart that could have in turn affected the brand image in the long run.
