Walmart is cutting hundreds of corporate jobs and asking most remote workers to move to offices, according to people familiar with the matter.
In addition, 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, said one of the people familiar with the matter. Walmart 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.
Like other companies, Walmart has gradually moved away from remote-work flexibility. It has also shrunk the number of smaller offices scattered around the country. Last year, it closed three tech offices and asked some staff to relocate to central corporate hubs.
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Walmart has worked to cut costs over the past year in some areas as it gives priority to spending elsewhere. Last month, the company said it would shut all 51 of the health clinics it has opened over the past five years as it tried to build a bigger healthcare business.
The clinics, often located directly next to stores, offered primary-care services and telehealth appointments. Last year, Walmart said it was planning to have 75 of the clinics by the end of 2024.
Walmart said last month that rising operating costs and a challenging reimbursement environment “make the care business unsustainable for us at this time.”
Source: WSJ.com May 13, 2024 | By Sarah Nassauer