Walmart reportedly cutting corporate jobs, relocating workers
Walmart is cutting hundreds of corporate jobs and asking most remote workers to move to offices, per a Wall Street Journal article, which cited people familiar with the matter.
Additionally, workers in small offices in Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto are being asked to move to other central hubs like Walmart’s corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., as well as Hoboken, N.J., or Northern California, per the report, which also noted that the retailer will still allow staff to work remotely part of the time, as long as they are in offices the majority of the time.
Walmart is the country’s largest employer, with 1.6 million U.S. workers, most of them in stores and warehouses. Walmart has tens of thousands of U.S. corporate workers across the country.
[Read more: Pharmacy Innovator of the Year 2021: Walmart connects with communities]
Walmart announced on April 30 that due to rising costs it is closing 51 health centers across five states.
The company noted that back in 2019, it launched Walmart Health centers, and that during its five-year journey, it made meaningful impacts with patients while continuing to learn, pivot and evolve.
A Walmart spokesperson provided Drug Store News with a memo that was sent today to Walmart campus associates in the U.S., from Donna Morris, chief people officer:
"It has been a little over four years since we faced the global pandemic that reshaped our lives in many ways, including our ways of working. In February 2022, we made the decision to bring Home Office associates back into our campus offices. We believe that being together, in person, makes us better and helps us to collaborate, innovate and move even faster. We also believe it helps strengthen our culture as well as grow and develop our associates.
[Read more: Walmart is closing Walmart Health, Walmart Health Virtual Care]
"With the goal of bringing more of us together more often, we are asking the majority of associates working remotely, and the majority of associates within our offices in Dallas, Atlanta, and our Toronto Global Tech office, to relocate. Most relocations will be to our Home Office in Bentonville, but some will be to our offices in the San Francisco Bay Area or Hoboken/New York.
"In addition, some parts of our business have made changes that will result in a reduction of several hundred campus roles. While the overall numbers are small in percentage, we are focused on supporting each of our associates affected by these changes.
"We have had discussions with associates who were directly impacted by these decisions. We will work closely with them in the coming days and months to navigate the best path forward."
This article has been updated.