Wal-Mart tweaks the workday
Employee dress code eased; store music will diversify
A more relaxed dress code and a wider variety of music played during working hours are among the changes WalMart Stores Inc. announced for its U.S. employees Wednesday.
The changes, part of a broader, employee-focused initiative aimed at boosting morale and sales, were revealed to about 3,000 employees during a meeting at Bud Walton Arena as part of Wal-Mart’s shareholders week.
Wal-Mart U.S. CEO Greg Foran has been on a listening tour of stores since taking over last year. Reviewing information from those stops and emails sent to him the past 10 months, Foran complied a list of common complaints the retailer is working to address for its 1.4 million U.S. employees.
“I like hearing what’s working, what isn’t, what ideas you’ve got about the business,” Foran said. “I even like to hear the frustrations you’ve got. It’s really simple. Our job, my job, is to make your lives easier.”
Wal-Mart addressed employee concerns with doses of humor during its U.S. employees meeting Wednesday morning. Company executives interacted with a puppet named Willie Sellmore, who poked fun at in-store matters including the dress code, boring and unhelpful training sessions, store temperature and the variety of music played during work shifts.
A radio station housed in the home office will again provide music for stores. Wal-Mart discontinued its “Wal-Mart Radio” about nine years ago, and employees complained that they were often subjected to the same CDs for entire shifts. Music and messages will be customized on the basis of community, a move that Wal-Mart is hoping will improve employee attitudes. Studies have also shown that music influences shoppers to buy more.
Wal-Mart also told its employees that it would continue increasing staff availability at registers during peak hours on weekends. The retailer debuted its checkout promise during the 2014 Christmas-shopping season and has extended it several times in the months that followed.
A new training program, Pathways, was announced in February. It is being piloted in
Missouri, and the video- and experience-based training system is designed, the company said, to allow employees to learn “in real-life settings.”
Wal-Mart also is relaxing the dress code it implemented nearly a year ago. Employees are now allowed to wear black or khaki denim on the sales floor and the company is allowing workers in “more physical positions” to wear blue denim and black denim with T-shirts.
Specific days throughout the year are being designated for employees to wear sports jerseys, ugly Christmas sweaters or shirts supporting national Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
“We’re always listening to you to find ideas to make things better for customers, associates and really have more fun in our stores,” David Moore, executive vice president of supercenters for WalMart, said during the meeting.
Workers made available recently by the company to discuss wage increases also spoke of steps the retailer was taking to improve morale. Improvements to scheduling and training, along with putting department managers back into stores, were among the specific steps the company is taking that the hourly workers noted.
“Morale is up. Absolutely,” said Linda Manes, a store-level personnel manager in Springdale and 37-year Wal-Mart employee. “Our application pool has gotten bigger. Retention is our biggest concern. We’re hoping to see more retention. If you can keep turnover low, you can keep costs low.”
Trimming the costs associated with training is among the ways Wal-Mart expects to recoup money from its recent employee-focused initiatives. Shareholders have been told to expect a cost of 20 cents per share associated with the wage increase and training and scheduling adjustments.
All of the improvements and changes are designed to
address largely flat growth in sales in the U.S., which accounts for about 65 percent of Wal-Mart’s total $483 billion in worldwide sales. Wal-Mart has reported three consecutive quarters of positive, same-store sales and store traffic, though those increases have been well below peak levels for the company.
Questions persist outside the company on when WalMart will see the benefits from its employee-related expenditures. CEO Doug McMillon has urged patience.
“We know there is not a formula,” Dan Bartlett, executive vice president of corporate affairs, said during a questionand-answer session focused on employees. “It’s not looking for a dollar-to-dollar replacement.”
While minor compared with a $1 billion investment in wage increases and changes to scheduling and training for employees, executives are hopeful that the workplace changes will give morale a big boost. Wage increases were announced in February and are up for hourly employees and store managers, increasing to $9 an hour for entry-level jobs and up to $24.70 for some management positions.
That Wal-Mart would be making store-level changes to go along with wage increases should not come as a surprise, according to associate professor Christoper Rosen of the University of Arkansas’ management department. Rosen didn’t specifically address temperature and dress code, but he noted that employees are generally motivated by having more control in the workplace.
“There is research on job characteristics going back 30 years showing that employee autonomy is related to morale in a positive way,” Rosen said. “And through work-stress research, we know control and work environment — it doesn’t speak specifically to dress code or temperature — but we know that the more control employees have, it has an impact on reducing stress. Providing employees with more autonomy and control contributes to motivation and well-being.”