Walmart is making plans to streamline job titles across its corporate staff to ensure that it remains competitive. While some staff will receive a new job title, their roles and responsibilities will not change, reports Reuters.
Walmart’s corporate employees at Walmart and Sam’s Club will be reclassified into fewer groups of titles, and in some cases, pay changes will go into effect starting in November.
Stock option awards to the staff will stay the same, or even increase in many cases, however, about 4% of the staff will see a decrease in stock-option awards to ensure compensation is aligned across geographies. But, those staff who see a reduction will also receive a stock grant to account for the adjustment.
The change “is good compensation hygiene,” and ensures Walmart is “appropriately rewarding similar levels of work,” Kim Lupo, Walmart’s head of global total rewards, told The Wall Street Journal.
Walmart recently changed its hourly starting wage structure for entry-level store workers, meaning store workers including cashiers, personal shoppers, stockers, self-checkout helpers, and associates in departments now receive the same hourly starting wages that are paid at the store (instead of different levels previously).
Walmart said the new pay structure will allow new workers to handle a variety of duties, creating better staffing throughout the store. More than 50,000 Walmart workers actually received raises because their pay was below the new minimum.
The retailer currently employs about 1.6 million in the U.S.
