Walmart Goes On a Hiring Spree

The Christmas holiday season is fast approaching so it’s not a huge surprise that Walmart is planning to hire 55,000 seasonal workers, up 10 percent from last year. What is surprising is the announcement that the company plans to move some 35,000 associates currently working part-time to full-time and 35,000 others from temporary to part-time.

"Our associates have always been the key to Walmart’s success, and that’s especially true during the holidays. We know our associates are going to deliver for our customers, so we are going to deliver for our associates," said Gisel Ruiz, executive vice president, chief operating officer for Walmart U.S., in a statement.

While adding more workers will increase costs, Walmart expects increased staff levels to reduce its widely reported out-of-stock issues and improve service to customers, steps that should lead to higher sales.

Kory Lundberg, a Walmart spokesperson, told Bloomberg News that the 70,000 workers given more hours for the holidays will continue in those spots once the season is over.

Walmart rival Target recently announced it would hire fewer workers for the holiday season but would give them more hours than in the past. The company is hiring 70,000 seasonal workers this year compared to 88,000 in 2012. Seasonal hires will get five to 10 percent more working hours than they did last year.

BrainTrust

Discussion Questions

What do you make of Walmart’s staffing news? Will this help resolve the stock and service issues that have hurt the chain in the past?

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Tom Redd
Tom Redd
10 years ago

First, Walmart’s move is smart and will help improve the service levels across the board. The two Walmarts that my family shops have great store teams, that even find things that might not be on the shelf.

Next, the problem is the holiday shopper. There is no secret way to read the shopper’s “shopping attitude” during the holiday season. There are new video games coming into the market this Fall and new gaming gear. There will be new toys and more. What will all this NEW NEW NEW do the to shopper’s frame of mind? How demanding will they be?

Last, the shopper is the CHALLENGE! Walmart can add people as all big retailers do for the holidays, but what really would help is to add some new ways to predict the shopper “shopping attitude” for the holidays. Doing this would help retailers be ready for the Holiday Retail Battlefield.

Happy Retail Holiday Season and Black Friday will be as real as the RetailWire is this year!

Mark Heckman
Mark Heckman
10 years ago

Certainly this is good news and contrary to most news blurbs we are hearing about the health and welfare of the job market. Walmart’s announcement also serves as a nice public relations move, given some of the negative press they have been receiving in the past concerning salary and benefit policies.

We must all assume that Walmart knows something that many of us do not; that is, they must believe there will be increased consumer spending during the upcoming holiday season over previous years and Walmart is in position to grab more than their past share of it.

Unfortunately, the events in Washington D.C. and in the Middle East may have more to do with the mindset of shoppers in the coming months than most anything that Walmart and other retailers can control. A bit of a roll of the dice, as I see it.

Max Goldberg
Max Goldberg
10 years ago

This is good news for current Walmart staffers and those who will be hired for the holidays. Increasing staff should help Walmart cut down on out-of-stocks and improve customer service, both of which have plagued Walmart in the past. Target’s moves, while benefiting workers, will do little to reduce their chronic out-of-stock issues and will have minimal benefit to consumers.

Frank Riso
Frank Riso
10 years ago

Walmart once again is setting the pace for the industry in preparation for the Christmas season. The increase to 10% and the forecast of a 4.5% increase in sales for the season indicates a better then normal sales season and what better way to end 2013 and provide a great start to year 2014.

Dan Raftery
Dan Raftery
10 years ago

The out-of-stock issue is big for this retailer. They should be able to take money to the bank by increasing turns on the big-margin items that they hold at minimum levels.

Gene Hoffman
Gene Hoffman
10 years ago

This is good PR at an appropriate time … but it isn’t expected, by me, to resolve existing stock and service issues.

You don’t solve basic issues with obtuse programs.

Ben Ball
Ben Ball
10 years ago

Leave it to Walmart to figure out how to turn a good PR decision into a good business decision.

Big bad Walmart – moving part-time workers to full time status just as the ACA is kicking in? And doing so as other retailers are dropping employees to part-time and kicking them off healthcare coverage to major headlines?

Think Walmart’s customer service will go up? Yep. Think Walmart’s holiday profits will go up? Maybe.

Think Walmart will get a little warmer reception from those municipalities currently fighting new store locations? Not sure. But I’ll bet they are banking on it.

Kenneth Leung
Kenneth Leung
10 years ago

It is combination of a good PR move before the holidays and addressing the practical problem that some of their stores are so understaffed they can’t restock items on the shelves. Customers don’t go to Walmart expecting high-touch employee service, but they do expect availability on shelves, which you need employees to do. The positive press they gain probably helps them in the short-term PR efforts, also against other perception issues.

vic gallese
vic gallese
10 years ago

I believe Walmart’s staffing news (mainly moving part-time workers to full-time status) is primarily due to changing healthcare laws and possible legal action. Throwing dollars and labor at an operational or cultural problem has never worked. Walmart must also bring process, and training help to make the investment pay off.

Craig Sundstrom
Craig Sundstrom
10 years ago

Hmmm… isn’t WM frequently seen as a contra-indicator (i.e. they do better when the economy as a whole does worse, and vice-versa )? If that’s the case, then maybe this isn’t the good news it seems; or maybe I’m just being a killjoy.

Ed Rosenbaum
Ed Rosenbaum
10 years ago

How about this? Once again Walmart sets the pace and others (Target) play catch up.
Great PR move as well as an HR decision to increase staff to lower stocking problems for what should help become a remedy. However, Walmart seems to find ways at the store level to screw it up.

Mark Burr
Mark Burr
10 years ago

55,000 is 2.6% of their workforce and temporary.

35,000 is 1.67% of their workforce and considering their turnover rate, is insignificant.

Enough said on the employment side.

Walmart’s stock issues are systemic. Their service issues are by design and not significant to their shoppers as they are a lesser factor in their value equation.