WalMart has announced that it had decided to eliminate the zone manger positions at all of its U.S. stores, and will redeploy those employees elsewhere. The decision is part of an effort to cut bureaucracy and give frontline workers a greater voice, according to Fortune.
The decision was first reported by Bloomberg, citing Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg, who explained that the change would affect approximately 14,000 employees. The move is set to take effect this summer, and will not result in a reduction in overall employee headcount.
Stores have had roughly six zone-manger positions per store, which held responsibility over several departments. In recent years, the zone-managers were in addition to individual department managers.
According to Greg Foran, CEO of WalMart U.S. “How stores serve customers in a simple, repeatable and sustainable way” was one of the chief priorities he outlined recently to Wal-Mart U.S. executives. “We’ve recently undertaken some important activities to simplify our organization and empower our stores, our associates in our stores to make decisions.”
The zone managers will be shifted to salaried assistant manager or department manager positions, with no decrease in pay, according to Lundberg. Even after zone managers have been reassigned, Lundberg said that WalMart will still hire up to 8,000 new department managers to complete the transition. Lundberg stated that since department mangers better “understand what customers are buying, this is going to be something that allows them to focus on customers more.”
This move to shake up store management comes as part of an overall retooling of WalMart’s approach. In February, WalMart announced that it would raise the baseline wage for 500,000 current store employees .
In the February company statement, Doug McMillon, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. president and CEO , explained: "Today, we announced comprehensive changes to our hiring, training, compensation and scheduling programs, as well as to our store management structure. These changes will give our U.S. associates the opportunity to earn higher pay and advance in their careers. We're pursuing a comprehensive approach that is sustainable over the long term."
"By realigning our store operational structure, associates can enjoy a closer relationship with their supervisors. In addition, associates will have more control over their schedules. The investment in these initiatives is more than $1 billion for this fiscal year."
