As per the plan, McDonald’s will hire 50,000 new employees in various part-time and full-time positions at crew and management levels. The starting wage will typically be more than $8 an hour. Restaurant managers can earn up to $50,000 a year. McDonald’s was also recently selected by Working Mother magazine as one of the best companies in the country for hourly employees.

McJobs – Changing Perception

Oxford English Dictionary defines McJobs as “an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects.” McDonald’s is looking to change the perception of the term McJobs with this effort and teaching its workers important skills.

Around 75% of restaurant managers and 40% of corporate employees at McDonald’s started as restaurant crew members. And 50 percent of McDonald’s franchise owners started working as crew members. This should be great news for those who see it as a first step to a better career later, either within or outside the company. This should also be good news for the American economy where the national US unemployment rate is around 8.8 percent.

McDonald’s urges applicants to apply in person at their local restaurant or online. The biggest hiring initiative in company history comes in the wake of growing number of 24-hour stores.

This case study/article, titled Hiring at McDonald’s – 50,000 McJobs in a day, was originally published at Casestudyinc.com.

In 2008, its performance, operation-wise was superior to other Spanish chains and also foreign chains in the business. It’s sales per square foot was 60 percent higher than French retail chain Carrefour and twice more than an average U.S. supermarket. But all this was not achieved by neglecting its employees or cutting labor costs. In fact, Mercadona employees received more wages and training (20 times more training) than what the average American retailer offers. An indication of better employee productivity is the 18% higher sales per employee than other comparable Spanish chains (50% higher than U.S. chains).

HR Secrets of Success

Stable labor policy – Permanent contracts and Better pay

While Spain and Spanish retail chains are known as leaders in offering temporary contracts to employees, Mercadona is recognized for its stable labor policy. It offers only permanent contracts to its employees from the start. It also offers average pay better than the rest of the industry sector.

Employee Bonus

In 2008, when sales growth slowed down Mercadona still gave a EUR 190 million bonus to its staff, 19% more than a year earlier. CEO Juan Roig acknowledged his employees contribution and hard work and that they could not be solely responsible for the downturn. For promotions, employee coordinators assess employees based on a series of parameters and on their own judgement.

Additional month of maternity leave

Newspaper El País reported that Mercadona extends the legal four months of maternity leave to five months but on a discretionary basis and also based on certain conditions like foregoing pay rise or bonus.

Better workplaces

A few of Mercadona locations have nurseries to look after children and also free services like day care, food etc.

Employee Training

Mercadona provides an average of 60 hours of training per worker per year with all executives trained within the company. In 2008, Mercadona employees received more training (20 times more training) than what the average American retailer offers. In 2008, Mercadona spent €5,000 for each new store employee and four weeks in training time compared to just seven hours in the U.S.

Cross-training and Predictable Schedules

By cross-training employees, Mercadona ensures that employee productivity is not related only to store traffic. A store cleaner is trained on a cash register which he/she can operate during more traffic times, while a cashier can stock products on the shelf during less-traffic time. As a result, Mercadona is able to provide monthly schedules to their employees as compared to the U.S. chains which find it very difficult to even provide a weekly schedule to its full-time employees. This (stable hours and salaries) has resulted in Mercadona having only a 3.8 percent turnover rate with over 85% full-time employees.

No work on Sundays

Mercadona supermarkets do not open on Sundays and not even in tourist resorts to ensure work-life balance.

Ensuring employee productivity

To avoid employees coming late to work, Mercadona managers only recruit employees who stay no more than 10 minutes walking distance from the stores.

Department Specialists and Prescription Instructors

Mercadona stocks only the highest-quality and affordable products. A customer can walk up to a department specialist in the store and ask for advice on buying a particular product. The department specialists know everything about the products the store stocks. Any product changes are in the knowledge of the specialist. By stocking lesser products, the specialist has less information to remember. Field employees known as ‘prescription instructors’ constantly visit stores in their area to know what customers were saying about Mercadona’s products and service. Such information is conveyed back and forth in the chain to the management and to the suppliers as well.

To Mercadona, before it thinks about impact on the profits it always thinks about society, its suppliers, its customers and also its employees.

This case study/article, titled Mercadona – Innovative HR Practices for better store performance, was originally published at Casestudyinc.com.

Case Contents

1. Introduction
2. Background Note
3. Rewards and recognition programs – Motivating Employees
4. FedEx “purple promise,” – a simple corporate philosophy – people, service, profit
5. Promotion from Within – Employee engagement
6. ‘Purple Pipeline’
7. Excel program for FedEx officers
8. Survey, Feedback, Action
9. Survey – Annual associate survey every spring
10. Feedback – Feedback to joint employee-management discussion
11. Action – Future work unit and manager activities
12. The FedEx “purple” pipeline – Leadership Development Program
13. Components of the "Purple Pipeline" program – Strengths assessment, Coaching, Job rotation and Capstone Exercise
14. Additional Reading and References
15. Exhibit 1 – FedEx – Now and Then
16. Exhibit 2 – List of Innovative HR Practices and Programmes launched by FedEx since its early years
17. Exhibit 3 – Elements of FedEx’s HR Programmes
18. Exhibit 4 – Five Attributes of the FedEx Brand
19. Exhibit 5 – FedEx reputation as being one of the Best Places to Work around the World
20. Exhibit 6 – Four Basic Employee Requirements at FedEx
21. Exhibit 7 – The FedEx Definition of Management
22. Exhibit 8 – Guaranteed Fair Treatment Procedure
23. Exhibit 9 – A sample leadership evaluation question
24. Exhibit 10 – FedEx Leadership Traits
25. Exhibit 11 – FedEx’s Secrets of Success
26. Exhibit 12 – FedEx’s Management by PSP Objectives program
27. Exhibit 13 – People-Service-Profit (PSP)
28. Figure 1 – FedEx BravoZulu
29. Figure 2 – SFA – Survey Feedback Action
30. Figure 3 – FedEx’s simple HR friendly philosophy “P–S–P” – People, Service and Profit

Sample Page/Content

"Federal Express, from its inception, has put its people first both because it is right to do so and because it is good for business as well."- Frederick W Smith Founder, Chairman & CEO, FedEx Corporation

“At FedEx, our people are our greatest asset. We truly believe that. Our founder and CEO rooted the company in this philosophy and we continue to stand by it… HR today has the capabilities to be that strategic partner to business whether it’s in recruiting, talent development, performance management, employee relations or compensation, all of those functional areas have the opportunity to really help the business achieve strategic objectives” – Judith Edge, Corporate VP of Human Resources of FedEx

1. Introduction
In 2008, when FORTUNE magazine and the Great Places to Work Institute released the 100 “Best Companies to Work For” list, FedEx (NYSE: FDX), a leading global logistics solutions provider, was one among them. It was the largest employer in the 2008 list and the only shipping company included. The Memphis, Tennessee-based company ranked 97th overall and had now figured in this list in 10 of the past 11 years. In 2005, the package-delivery company was named to the “Best Companies to Work For” Hall of Fame.

FedEx like its main rival United Parcel Service (UPS) is considered a bellwether of U.S. economic health…

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Case Updates/Snippets

Federal Express: The word ‘Federal’ in the company’s original name came from founder Fred Smith’s proposal to carry checks of the Federal Reserve overnight to approximately 36 locations. ‘Express’ indicated speed in doing so.

FedEx began operations in the year 1973 and became not only the first company to deliver overnight packages but also went on to become the first company to grow to a billion dollars in 10 years of its existence.

This case study/article, titled Case Study on FedEx – HR Practices, was originally published at Casestudyinc.com.

• Organization Culture at Wal-Mart

This case study/article, titled Human Resource Management (HRM) Case Studies, was originally published at Casestudyinc.com.

1. Introduction
2. Wal-Mart – Company Background
3. Sam Walton and Wal-Mart’s culture
4. Exhibit: Unique values that support Wal-Mart’s three basic beliefs
5. The 10-Foot Rule – Wal-Mart’s secret to customer service
6. The Sundown Rule
7. Open-Door Policy
8. Servant Leadership
9. Rank-and-file profit sharing
10. Grass Roots Process – Associate Opinion Survey
11. The Wal-Mart Cheer
12. Wal-Mart’s efforts to make the company an even better place to work



13. Employee Development programs
14. Combining Technology and empowerment
15. Awards and Recognitions received by Wal-Mart
16. Wal-Mart – Timeline
17. Wal-Mart – Quick Facts
18. Wal-Mart – Various Store Formats
19. Wal-Mart – International operating formats
20. Sam Walton’s ten rules for building a business

Introduction

"Wal-Mart continues to execute well and deliver solid results in a challenging economic environment"- A Goldman Sachs analyst

"What makes ordinary people do extraordinary things?" Sam Walton once asked. "Aren’t we a group of ordinary folks? We really are. And I think we, together as a team, have done extraordinary things. We’ve all grown, we’ve all accomplished much more than any of us ever thought that we could."- Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart

"We are a people association supported by one million associates. Much of what we do centers around individual stores. We’re in a labor-intensive customer service business. Associates can’t treat customers as number one if they are not treated that way." – Susan Oliver, Wal-Mart’s SVP of human resources in 2005

In August 2008, Wal-Mart Stores announced that its profit rose 17 percent in the second quarter and that it is raising its full-year forecast. In a challenging economy, the world’s largest retailer benefited from low prices and its moves to cut costs. Wal-Mart’s President and Chief Executive Lee Scott said that, "While inflation and higher fuel costs are pressuring suppliers, retailers and customers worldwide, we’re confident that Wal-Mart is well positioned for this economy.” Chief Financial Officer Tom Schoewe attributed the better second-quarter profits to tighter inventory controls, which led to fewer markdowns on merchandise. One of Wal-Mart’s goals – which it successfully met – was keeping inventory growth at half the rate of its sales growth which it successfully met. In contrast, sales at department stores and specialty retailers were lagging behind.

What is the key to such good results? Wal-Mart overhauled its strategy. Instead of announcing any price increases to cope with the tough economy, the company slashed its expansion plans. It refocused on lower prices, improved the mix of merchandise offered, cleaned up its stores and provided friendlier and faster customer service. But there is more to Wal-Mart’s success over the years than just tighter inventory controls and lower prices.

Wal-Mart is truly a great company. A strong organizational culture is the foundation for making a good company a great one. The secret to Wal-Mart’s success has long been attributed to its strong culture. Analysts like Jim Collins believe that Wal-Mart had the kind of ‘cult-like’ culture that is shared by all great companies. Wal-Mart employees are referred to as ‘Walmartians’ which is a sign of a unique culture shared by them. This culture is responsible for a company of this magnitude to be able to sustain its entrepreneurial spirit decade after decade.

Since its early days, Wal-Mart achieved remarkable growth rates and was the first trillion dollar company in the world. In 1999, Wal-Mart became the largest private employer in the US with 1,140,000 Associates. But with amazing success also came criticism. Wal-Mart was sued many times and even held the record for being sued the maximum at one time. Its practices and culture were held responsible for killing small local retailers. It was also criticized for gender-based discrimination, its overtime policies and using sweatshop products.
Download case study PDF file to read more…

This case study/article, titled Organization Culture at Wal-Mart, was originally published at Casestudyinc.com.