Move is designed to bring its workforce into more direct contact with customers.
Walmart initially announced its intentions to thin its back-office job force in order to bring more workers in touch with customers, stating that it would be eliminating approximately 1500 accounting and other positions at 500 locations in the Western region of the country, as Innovative Retail Technologies reported. With the success of that pilot, now, according to the Wall Street Journal , the company plans to eliminate some 7,000 positions, including invoicing and accounting jobs, which are among the highest-paid hourly jobs at the company. These also tend to be long-term employees .
These are also highly attractive positions for employees. “You are not running around the store on your feet all day,” and receive decent pay, one Wal-Mart store accounting employee who earns about $13 an hour, or $27,000 a year told The Wall Street Journal. “Everybody wants to get in there. The jobs never open up,” says this person, who has worked at the store for nine years.
Deisha Barnett, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, told the Wall Street Journal that the majority of displaced employees will be relocated to customer-facing positions. “We’ve seen many make smooth transitions during the pilot,” she said. Employees facing cuts could see their salaries go up or down in a new position, she said.
In June, Walmart spokesman Kory Lundberg explained that the retailer was centralizing its invoice department using “cash recycler” machines to automatically count money, and implementing other changes that would improve efficiency and allow attention to refocus on the customers.
"What we are doing is taking the complexities out of old cumbersome jobs and simplifying things in the store," Lundberg said. "How can we get the focus less on the backroom jobs?"
Walmart has taken great strides to boost e-commerce sales, create more efficient and attractive customer experiences, and reduce inventory while raising wages. They also recently rolled out Customer First Scheduling to more efficiently staff their stores, as Innovative Retail Technologies reported.
