Only Uncle Sam employs more people in America than Mr.Sam. Wal-Mart now boasts that by next year at this time it will have one million “associates” wearing aprons. Currently Wal-Mart has around 815,000 workers in the U.S., not counting employees in foreign countries. But Wal-Mart is apparently worried about keeping employees once they get inside the Wal-Mart culture. According to the Bloomberg News, Wal-Mart conducted a study of its own workforce and found that almost 50% of those who quit Wal-Mart leave within the first 3 months on the job. Bloomberg says one Wal-Mart Human Resources manager believes its increasingly important for retailers like Wal-Mart to reduce employee turnover. The giant retailer has not released its turnover rate, nor quantified how many W-2 forms it issues every year. Wal-Mart is concerned enough about “associate” turnover that it has revamped its employee training program to focus more time with store managers, and holding off the technical training for later.
If half of Wal-Martians who cut their ties with the company do so within the first three months, perhaps its because these workers learn very quickly what working for Wal-Mart is all about. No amount of contact with store managers is going to change that.
