In a bid to retain employees, Walmart Inc. will shift more of its US workforce to full-time positions. The retailer expects at least two-thirds of its hourly employees becoming full-time staff by the end of January 2022. That means, over a period of a year, there will be about 100,000 additional full-time positions as compared to 2016.
Once these employees take on full-time positions, they will be able to follow fixed weekly schedules, which had been a common grouse of its workers.
In 2020, amidst the pandemic, Walmart had hired almost half a million people to tackle the rising demand for products online, as well as its stores.
However, unlike other retailers, Walmart had not increased the hourly wages. It is still paying its workers $11 an hour while others have hiked hourly pay to $15 and even more. Instead, it has opted to take on its staff in full-time positions, with fixed/consistent timings and same weekly working hours.
Over 80 per cent of its staff at the warehouses is already on full-time positions. The Company considers any worker putting in at least 34 hours as a full-time employee. Also, anyone putting in 30 hours a week is eligible for health benefits.
Walmart has been in the process of doing away with certain roles and creating a new team-based structure within stores, with employees working in groups of eight to 12. It also looks forward to providing more training opportunities for the employees at the lower ranks, so that they can be readied to take on more responsibilities going forward.
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