Wal-Mart Memo in a Lengthy Term Paper

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The company would develop a list of the best (and cheapest) doctors and offer incentives for employees to go to them. Wal-Mart would replace its current one-size-fits-all benefits package for a flexible offering that allows employees to choose which benefits each wants. Although this seems like a good idea, the total number of benefits offered would probably be reduced. Health clinics in stores is another suggestion with "innovations to create lower cost visits." All these changes would involve little risk and/or expense for Wal-Mart.

The author then presents five "bold steps" that would make a big impact. Her use of the word bold is interesting. Bold implies courage, something everybody wants to have. Bold also sounds safer than risky. The use of the positive word bold shows the attitude the author wants the reader to take toward the recommendations. The first bold step is to get rid of the present insurance plan and establish Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) -- bank accounts "for health expenses...similar to...401(k). Wal-Mart would contribute annual seed money to fund it, employees would contribute annually, and Wal-Mart would match the employee's contribution. With no deductible, the employee would pay for medical care from the HSA account. If the account ran out, the employee would have to cover his own expenses until co-insurance kicked in. This time when the employee has to pay from his own pocket is referred to as a "bridge," but there is no explanation how long the bridge would be. All employees would participate. A healthy employee could build up an account from $600 to $2,100 in three years time. The author remarks that a program like this would be harder to sell to the employees than an insurance plan, but it would be more beneficial to everyone involved.

The team sees retirement as the wrong place to put their money, as employees don't think it is very important. Instead of investing 4% of the employee's wages into a 401(k), Wal-Mart would only invest 3% of the employee's wages. "Giving them what they want" seems rather unethical in this case, since younger people don't realize the importance of a pension until they near the age of retirement and realize they will need it to live on. Currently, Wal-Mart pays a flat rate contribution to employee 401(k)s.

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The author recommends matching funds instead, which would save Wal-Mart $650 million to $700 million dollars by 2011.

Another recommendation is to attract healthier employees by converting to HSAs because HSAs are more attractive to healthier people than to sick people. They want to develop a policy of including physical activity in every job description so as to lower the rate of obesity and health related complications. They would offer a discount card for healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables and offer benefits (such as an education subsidy) that would be attractive to younger people. The author never uses the word "younger" in the whole memo, probably because it is illegal to discriminate against older people. Instead of younger, she uses the word healthier, but it's the same people she is talking about.

Finally, she describes the need to increase public relations activities and to work harder on influencing legislators for healthcare reform. She suggests reframing the debate ("We're all in this together"), which is a rhetorical strategy. The author also wants to find a way to reduce the number of Wal-Mart employees on Medicaid, highly publicize these changes, and make Wal-Mart seem to be a leader in the healthcare debate. This last set of recommendations is especially interesting in light of communication. Wal-Mart wants to change the rhetoric and construct a new story, one that makes Wal-Mart a hero instead of a villain. At the same time, they hope to influence national and state legislatures so that they will come up with programs that are advantageous to Wal-Mart.

The memo is a fairly complete statement and description about a major change in policy. It uses language to minimize the negative impact on employees of proposed changes. I think it might have been more effective to make an oral presentation to the….....

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