Dive Brief:
- Furthering its efforts to streamline company structures, Walmart is eliminating its market coordinator role, according to a Wednesday internal email from Walmart U.S. Executive Vice President of Store Operations Cedric Clark.
- The mass retailer is also cutting some academy coach and academy coordinator positions at certain locations as part of a larger restructure to Walmart Academy (which is the company’s internal training and development program), per the email shared with sister site Retail Dive.
- The retailer did not disclose how many employees were impacted, but market coordinators and academy coaches “will be guaranteed store-level Coach roles in the local area,” per Clark’s email. Academy coordinators, however, are encouraged to apply for other store roles if they wish.
Dive Insight:
The latest role eliminations at Walmart are part of larger strategic shifts at the company, as opposed to performance issues with the impacted employees.
“We’re simplifying our market support structure, reducing touchpoints and friction for our store associates,” Clark said in the email. “With improved processes and new tools, we’ve determined that the Market Coordinator (MC) role no longer serves the same purpose as when it was created. To help drive speed and clarity for our store leaders, we’re giving ownership of the remaining work to other market-level associates and eliminating this role.”
The market coordinator role helped support Walmart’s market managers, according to previous postings for the position. Market managers at Walmart oversee about a dozen stores and store managers.
As for the shifting of its Walmart Academy initiative, the executive said the company is “moving from a one-size-fits-all staffing model to staffing our Walmart Academy facilities based on location, volume of participants, and training needs.” As such, Walmart is adding roles in higher volume locations and removing some in others. The retailer had a little over 200 Walmart Academy locations as of 2021, per a 2022 company fact sheet.
The latest news from Walmart comes after the company announced in May the restructuring of its global tech and Walmart U.S. operations teams, impacting 1,500 employees. The retailer also decided in February to eliminate about 700 jobs in New Jersey and North Carolina as part of an effort to change its national corporate office footprint.
Though retailers are facing a new global trade environment this year and Walmart has said this could impact pricing, the retailer’s earnings have remained resilient so far. Its first-quarter earnings released in May showed revenue increased 2.5% year over year to $165.6 billion, with Walmart U.S. sales up 3.2% to $112.2 billion.
