Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, is increasing pay and benefits for store managers and looking for ways to retain them.
Walmart said Monday that managers of its U.S. stores would be eligible to receive grants of up to $20,000 in company stock each year. The stock will vest over three years, with a certain percentage vesting each quarter.
The announcement came a few weeks after Walmart said it would increase the average salary for store managers from $117,000 to $128,000. The major retailer also said bonuses for store managers could be up to 200 percent of base salary, with store profitability becoming a more important factor in the calculation.
Store managers are critical to increasing store sales and profitability and keeping morale high in a dynamic company. Managers are also considered important leaders in the company.
A store manager at a Walmart Supercenter oversees hundreds of employees who work in various departments, including grocery, apparel, pharmacy, and auto center. These stores often attract hordes of shoppers and generate millions of dollars in sales each year. At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, store managers were given even more responsibilities as the company adapted to changing consumer behavior, including managing e-commerce functions such as in-store pickup of online orders and navigating out-of-stock and surplus items Goods inventory.
“It’s fair to say we’re asking them to act like owners and think like owners,” Walmart US Chief Executive John Furner, who previously served as a manager at one of the company’s stores, said in a briefing with reporters .
The amount of shares allocated to managers depends on the format of Walmart stores. Supercenter store managers are eligible for the highest amount, up to $20,000 per year. For the other two store levels, which are often smaller and have fewer departments, managers are entitled to annual stock awards of $10,000 or $15,000.
Retailers have looked for ways to retain workers as people moved in and out of jobs during the pandemic in search of higher wages and more opportunities. Until recently, Walmart focused on increasing store worker wages. Sales at Walmart stores have stabilized after 2022 and the company is satisfied with staffing levels, Furner said.
“Branch manager positions have been more stable in recent years,” he said.
“We keep store managers in place for a little longer and it’s good for a whole team to have a manager for a few years rather than a year or a little less,” he added. “So that’s a good sign.”
Mr. Furner noted that Walmart already had a stock purchase program in which the company matched 15 percent of the purchase price up to $1,800. But Monday’s announcement goes beyond that.
He also said the new program would allow store managers to share in the benefits of a growing company and rising stock price. On Friday, Walmart shares closed at $164.27. In the last five years it has increased by almost 43 percent.
“If we perform well and the stock price goes up, our management teams, especially our store managers, can participate in that,” Furner said.
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2024-01-29 16:46:01
www.nytimes.com
