Good Example Of Essay On Wegmans Vs. Capital One

1.
Capital One is a financial institution in the U.S with a variety of products and services to its customers. It is among the top ten biggest banks in the country with over 900 branches spread out through America, Canada, and the United Kingdom. It has a clientele of over 50 million customers spread out through these countries and is one of the biggest providers of MasterCard in the country. Capital One is believed to make over 20 billion dollars annually and has a workforce of over 40,000 workers spread out in the branches. The company has four main divisions through which it operates. These are the financial services such as home loans, staff functions such as marketing, bank services such as retail and commercial banking; and card services such as small business cards and international cards. Its major competitors in the financial market include the American Express company and the Bank of America. Capital One started by mainly offering consumer lending services in the form of credit cards, but gradually grew and entered into retail banking through acquisition of some retail banks. ((About Capital One, 2015)
Wegmans Food Markets on its part is an American family run cooperation that runs a chain of supermarkets in the country. It started in 1916 as a fruit and vegetable store in the compound of the Wegmans. Currently, it has a chain of over 70 stores that employ over 40000 workers. The supermarket chain has enjoyed a lot of success in the past with excellent customer approvals and getting recognition nationally. It makes over 6.2 billion annually, which is admirable performance in the supermarket business. Wegmans Food Markets can be viewed as one of the pioneers of modernity and expansion in the industry, since it was among the first to use bar codes and incorporate a variety of services in the stores such as selling drugs. Wegmans Food Markets enjoys the reputation of having some of the biggest stores that are double in size compared to normal stores. The supermarket chain also has the highest average in daily sales in the country. Its major competitor is the Wal-Mart stores supermarkets, who took the industry by storm and for a period led to a reduction of profits in Wegmans stores.
2
In its operations, Capital One holds the values of excellence and doing the right thing. The excellence defines the performance of the institution right from the individual worker level to the organization as a whole. In the interaction with customers, the bank upholds the value of doing the right thing. Capital One also has a motto that it uses in advertisements. This is: "What's in your wallet?” (About Capital One, 2015). This slogan gives the bank some sort of identity through which customers can relate to the bank at a personal level. On the part of its mission and vision in the financial sector, the bank puts an emphasis on strengthening communities collaboratively in order to achieve mutual benefits. As seen in the vision statement, innovation is a principle Capital One holds dear and seeks to approach every situation differently in order to ensure maximum success.
In its operations, Wegmans holds the employees very highly. This is a very unique approach in the supermarket industry where the staff is seen as important assets which need to be protected and kept satisfied. In attaching so much importance in the employees, it is the belief of Wegmans stores that the employees extend the same attitude to the customers. This design in their operations has made the store be lauded for excellent customer service and satisfaction. The employees are viewed as the marketers of the corporation’s brand. The Wegman stores also have consideration of customer friendly prices for their products. In most instances, they are cheaper compared to their competitors. The store also has the policy of making Wegmans the one stop shop for the customers by offering a wide variety of products and services. Customers essentially have to go nowhere else in search of household supplies. Wegman’s is also deeply committed to sustainability. Guided by its mission statement which states “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children,” the company aspires to make the world a better place for future generations through reducing, reusing and recycling of resource (About Wegmans Stores, 2015).
3 & 4
The first human resource strategy that I would recommend is Training and Development. As Bartel (2004) points out, training and development does not occur with a single stroke but takes place over time. Essentially, this principle can be put in place in two major phase; one as a new employee enters the organization and two, the continuous development done as the employees continue to work. In the first phase, a new employee is introduced to the new environment and culture through orientation. Normally, this activity takes place within some months of an employee’s tenure. If successfully done, an employee is fully socialized and has the chance of performing better for the company. The other development occurs as the employee continues to work. Here, the company has the opportunity to sharpen the employees technical and leadership skills. (Geringer 2002). This enables the employee to be better suited to deal with issues that arise in the job.
In the case of Wegmans stores and Capital One bank, an already established and proven way of doing things is available. By successfully integrating the employee into the system, a sense of continuity is felt. This ensures that the company continues with its productive business since each employee knows their clear role. Due to the changing market dynamics, continually training the employees on emerging issues and trends will keep the companies ahead of their competition.
The other strategy that has been proved to work is the maintenance of a clear Performance Management program. Here, the organization makes clear the levels of effectiveness expected of each individual employee and groups at the workplace. Wright & Nishii (2007). They go on to point out that in performance management, it is key to maintain a certain level of clarity such that every player in the company understands. This approach calls for a continuous and comprehensive collection of information about the employees. The HR managers, in this case, have the role of holding the information against previously agreed on indicators in order to show progress in performance. Through the feedback that comes during performance evaluation, the management is able to maintain a rich pool of ideas from which faulty areas that are in need of improvement can be noticed, and appropriate action taken.
This strategy can be helpful to both corporations since it will keep the employees in check. The constant evaluation enables management discover areas of inevitable faults. The ability to recognize issues before they transform into big unmanageable problems can be the difference between a performing and a failing corporation.
Another useful strategy that can be employed is one of cultivating a strong organizational culture. Organizational culture here refers to the beliefs and values that a corporation holds dear. Everyone in the organization is expected to understand them and base every action upon them. Bartel (2004). In any organization, the responsibility of laying down the culture rests upon the management. After the management takes it up and enforces it, the effect trickles down to the employees and can be manifested in various activities occurring in the organization. Gauri (2013) notes that cultivating a strong organizational culture has the effect of developing and higher retention rates of employees. Therefore in any organization where the welfare and performance of employees are key to success, implementing this approach would be highly productive.
In the case of Wegmans Food Markets, it has already been established that a key value is the emphasis on the employees. Going on to entrench this culture into the organizational working can lead to more productivity through the excellent customer service they already boast of. In Capital One, cultivating the organizational culture would be highly beneficial since it would make it easier to adopt new market strategies with every employee already aware of what they are expected to do and how to behave.

References

Bartel, A. P. (2004). Human resource management and organizational performance: Evidence from retail banking. Industrial & Labor Relations Review, 57(2), 181-203.
Gauri, D. K. (2013). Benchmarking retail productivity considering retail pricing and format strategy. Journal of Retailing, 89(1), 1-14.
Wright, P. M., & Nishii, L. H. (2007). Strategic HRM and organizational behavior: Integrating multiple levels of analysis. CAHRS Working Paper Series, 468.
Geringer, J. M., Frayne, C. A., & Milliman, J. F. (2002). In search of “best practices” in international human resource management: Research design and methodology. Human resource management, 41(1), 5-30.
About Capital One. Capital One website. Retrieved February 10, 2015 http://www.capitalone.com/
About Wegmans stores. Retrieved February 10, 2015: http://www.wegmans.com/