Introduction
Employee motivation is a critical component that enhances an organization’s performance and productivity. Walmart is an internationally recognized multinational enterprise operating within the vast and dynamic retail sector across the globe. The company has initially been implicated in workers’ mistreatment and underpayment, a practice that impacts its workforce’s motivation. Therefore, the organization must implement a motivational approach that promotes employee retention and will attract new talents.
The Problem Statement
Following the recent allegations of underpayment and employee mistreatment at Walmart, the enterprise is currently at risk of suffering the effects of demotivation within the workforce. The lack of employee motivation within an organization has been associated with several consequences, including poor workforce productivity and performance (Kumar & Kumar, 2017). Hieu (2020) further links low employee retention rates, increased turnover, absenteeism, low job gratification, and poor consumer satisfaction with decreased employee morale. The above-mentioned elements impact an enterprise’s growth prospects and expansion strategy within the global market.
On the contrary, a well-structured motivational approach may help minimize turnover and absenteeism incidences, attract top talents, and build the firm’s reputation. The aforementioned approach may also enhance team members’ creativity and innovation, increased enthusiasm, and the achievement of individual and organizational goals, as well as improve workers’ productivity and performance (Van Wingerden & Van der Stoep, 2018). Therefore, Walmart must adopt a well-designed strategy for inspiring employees to ensure the attainment of the said benefits and reduce the impacts of a demotivated workforce.
The Proposed Solution
A comprehensive employee motivation program premised on employee empowerment through various activities, including task delegation and workers’ autonomy, will help inspire Walmart’s workers. Cai et al. (2018) define employee empowerment as the procedure of providing workers within the organization with the freedom, resources, authority, and power to implement decisions and resolve job-related issues. This approach will ensure that team members utilize their maximum potential to attain the set objectives, implement the decisions made, achieve positive outcomes, and receive rewards.
This particular motivational strategy’s primary aim is to ensure the proper allotting of power between workers and the management to foster the workforce’s commitment. The approach will allow workers to perform meaningful duties, gain confidence while executing designated tasks, increase their autonomy levels during decision-making, and ensure that their responsibilities contribute directly to the company’s success.
Workers will also be allowed to engage in various higher-level and shop floor activities. This approach will help improve cooperation and communication among workers, which will, in turn, enhance team-building and a self-directed workforce working independently to resolve issues or perform specific tasks (Hieu, 2020). The implementation of the proposed solution will assume two significant methodologies: job involvement and high involvement.
Risk Analysis
Risk analysis is an integral process used to measure the motivational program’s viability and efficiency based on the dynamics within which Walmart’s business operates. Given that the company functions within the global business environment, cross-cultural issues represent a significant obstacle to the proposed project’s efficacy and success. To counter the threat identified above, the organization will implement cultural sensitivity policies and training programs to equip the workforce with the knowledge of acceptable deportment about cultural discrimination. Another strategy is to minimize cross-cultural communication barriers by implementing language training programs. Lastly, the enterprise, through the help of the HR department, will develop an infrastructure for celebrating diversity within the workplace.
The Timeline
The design, implementation, and evaluation of the posited motivational program’s efficacy will take approximately 12 months. The process will commence with job designing; this phase will ensure the proper delineation of every job’s duties and responsibilities, the methodologies used to execute work-related tasks, and the relationship between workers and their subordinates. The above-mentioned approach will help facilitate task and skill variety, the significance of duties, autonomy, and feedback. The organization will adopt the job enrichment and rotation approach. The following steps will be incorporated into the implementation approach:
- Assessment of the motivations, abilities, needs, and adroitness of employees within the company.
- Designing the job to address the identified inspirations, demands, and proficiencies.
- Implementation of the newly developed job design.
- Training of employees.
- Evaluation of the job design’s success using key performance indicators (KPIs), including employee performance, morale, and job satisfaction levels.
Pricing and Billing
This section highlights the potential expenses for the proper implementation of the proposed solution. According to Corkery (2017), Walmart spent around $2.7 billion on training employees and increasing the compensation rates for approximately 1.2 million of its store workers within two years. Considering a significant increase in salaries during this financial period, the training and job design expenditures can amount to about 35-40% of that sum.
Terms and Conditions
The proposed motivation approach will focus on two primary practices: autonomy and task delegation. All workers will be required to participate in the designing, implementation, and evaluation of the posited strategy; this includes all the recommended training programs. The implementation of the empowerment approach will be done through the job design methodology. The assessment of the project’s efficacy will be made using the KPIs identified in the proposal.
Conclusion
The lack of motivation among employees impacts workers’ productivity and performance, which affects an enterprise’s growth prospects and expansion strategy within the global market. A comprehensive employee motivation program premised on employee empowerment through task delegation and workers’ autonomy will inspire Walmart’s workers. The design, implementation, and evaluation of the posited motivational program’s efficacy will take approximately 12 months. The process will commence with the job designing procedure and assessment of its effectiveness.
References
Cai, D., Cai, Y., Sun, Y., & Ma, J. (2018). Linking empowering leadership and employee work engagement: The effects of person-job fit, person-group fit, and proactive personality. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1–12. Web.
Corkery, M. (2017). At Walmart Academy, training better managers. But with a better future?. The New York Times. Web.
Hieu, V. M. (2020). Employee empowerment and empowering leadership: A literature review. Technium: Romanian Journal of Applied Sciences and Technology, 2(7), 20–28.
Kumar, P. J., & Kumar, A. A. (2017). Employee empowerment: An empirical study. Global Journal of Management and Business Research: Administration and Management, 17(4), 1–6.
Van Wingerden, J., & Van der Stoep, J. (2018). The motivational potential of meaningful work: Relationships with strengths use, work engagement, and performance. PLoS ONE, 13(6), 1–11. Web.