Week 2 In The News: Walmart Dress Code

In The News: Walmart Dress Code At the beginning of September, Walmart announced that they are implementing a new dress code for its store employees. The new dress code requires the employees to wear khaki or black pants, closed-toed shoes, and a collared shirt. Additionally, they will be required to wear a redesigned vest. This is a big change for many of the company’s employees and Walmart is placing the financial burden on the employees, with the exception that the vest will be provided. Many of the employees are complaining about the new dress code. One of the topics that were covered this week was strategies for managing change. When implementing a major change within a company it is important for the company to get employees to buy-in to the change, by communicating why the change is important and how it will help the company. Communication is an important part of implementing change within a company. It's impossible to over communicate when an important change is occurring. Not only is it about telling the employees what is going on and what isn't, but it's also about listening to their feedback. This helps getting the employees to buy into the change, which is key in making it the change occur smoothly. According to Stephen Warrilow, the five guiding principles of a good change management communication process are: Clarity of message - to ensure relevance and recognition, Resonance of message - the emotional tone and delivery of the message, Accurate targeting - to reach the right people with the right message, Timing schedule - to achieve timely targeting of messages, Feedback process - to ensure genuine two way communication. Walmart says their customers want a more professional look, hence the change. Putting this message out to the employees is only a part of what they need to do. Obtaining the feedback from