To keep great store managers, Walmart is offering up to $800,000 (2024)

At the time, the company was more focused on improving conditions for its hourly workers, investing billions in upgrading their wages.

From there, the manager attrition gap between Walmart and its competitors widened as the pandemic brought new challenges and obsolete technology made the job onerous and clunky.

When Vanessa Bennett started as a manager at a Walmart in Grand Rapids, Michigan, two years ago, she says she used an old computer with outdated software for scheduling shifts.

“It was absolutely awful,” she says of the technology.

Manager Oscar Romero says his day began with 40 minutes of paperwork.

“I’d have to go through reports to look at my sales. If I wanted to look at inventory, I’d have to go to another report,” says Romero, who oversees about 550 people at a Walmart in Calexico, California, near the Mexico border.

Souped-up compensation is just the most recent in a string of changes made to improve managers’ work life.

New technology has cut down on hours of busywork, and new benefits include telehealth and doula services.

The initiatives have helped boost retention and lowered turnover rates in the past year, says Cedric Clark, Walmart’s executive vice president of store operations.

Engagement scores that measure how managers feel about their jobs have also risen, he says.

The company declined to share exact figures for either metric, but according to Revelio’s data, Walmart’s annual attrition rate has fallen by about 2 percentage points in the past year to about 21 per cent.

Managers say they see a difference. “It’s been night and day,” Harden says.

Stock and bonuses

Walmart made one of the most significant changes for managers in years in January, when it announced it would significantly boost their pay.

They’ll now receive annual stock grants of as much as $US20,000. Average base salaries for store managers were raised to $US128,000 a year, from $US117,000.

The retailer also changed the way it calculates those managers’ bonuses: It will continue to evaluate sales, of course, but the profit generated by a manager’s store will play a bigger role going forward.

“If you hit all targets, your bonus could now be up to 200 per cent of your base salary,” according to a note to managers from Clark.

So a successful manager of a high-performing store can now pass the $US500,000 mark.

Running a Walmart is more complex than most retail jobs, says Jin Yan, a senior economist at Revelio.

The retailer’s Supercentres, which average 16,500 square metres, tend to be between 2800 square metres and 4600 square metres larger than a Costco or Target, and they offer more services, including auto body shops and pharmacies.

Many have mini-warehouses in the back that move hundreds of pallets of products every day. And the sheer volume of sales is enormous. One Walmart manager estimates he sells a truckload of dog food a day.

Harden oversees 400-plus employees and more than $US100 million in sales at one of the biggest stores in the Dallas region, in Grand Prairie, Texas.

By 7am he’s at the store getting feedback from overnight staff and checking the grocery section.

Throughout the day, he makes sure aisles are full, price tags are visible and truck deliveries are on time.

By the end of his 10-hour shift, he’s walked up to 10 kilometres and talked to about 200 people.

Before recent changes, his days were even longer. “I worked 5am religiously, probably six days a week,” he says.

The burnout risk is high. One manager told Bloomberg Businessweek he left recently for a less intense job. The pay at Walmart didn’t make the stress and long hours on his feet worth it.

Attrition is expensive for any company. For Walmart it comes with its own set of problems.

Because the retailer tends to hire from within – about 75 per cent of its field management team began their careers as hourly employees.

Revelio’s Yan says that when managers leave, they take many years of institutional knowledge with them.

Managers say the job is like being the chief executive officer of a small business mixed with a local politician. When one departs, it also means losing a community leader.

“You can run for mayor if you’re a Walmart store manager,” Romero says.

All-staff tech

When a series of open mic listening tours revealed frustrations that managers have with their heavy workload, the company in 2021 rolled out the Me@Walmart app that it built, which allows managers to track sales, inventory, staff schedules and more, saving them time.

Every employee who works at a Walmart store gets a phone with it installed.

Since then, the retailer has added more features on the mobile devices. Its VizPick app scans hard-to-reach top shelves and flags whether specific products are available, running low or out of stock.

A profit-and-loss app breaks down sales, profits and other important metrics that were often handwritten before. Over time, the company wants to bring various functions to the Me@Walmart app.

Romero, the manager in California, checks the app first thing in the morning.

Throughout the day, he uses his device to take photos of things to fix and to make to-do lists for his staff.

“I can pull out my app and it will tell me sales for the day, how many trucks am I getting in, whose birthday it is,” he says.

Ultimately, improving managers’ work life is meant to boost store sales, says Clark, Walmart’s store operations chief.

“If we make it the best place to work, they in turn take care of the customer.”

Walmart’s business has been booming since the pandemic, even as some competitors have started to struggle.

Sales have grown about 30 per cent for its US business over the past four years, as the retailer wins over inflation-weary consumers of all income levels with its discounts and low prices.

It plans to open new Supercentres for the first time in roughly two years.

Because compensation changes are now tied more closely to store performance, managers say they’re more motivated to improve sales.

“I’m in control,” says Mustafa Tovi, who oversees a Walmart in Dallas. “I’m focused on growing the business and controlling profit.”

Although most merchandising is handled out of headquarters, managers have some say in what they stock and can be creative with how they drive sales – a holdover from when founder Sam Walton scoured the country for items to sell in the earliest Walmart stores.

One year, Romero decided to stock up on Mattel’s Hot Wheels model cars. He put up displays throughout his store, appealing to collectors and other fans.

He sold more than any of the 4600 other stores in the country. Walmart sent him a trophy for the occasion, which he keeps in his office.

His latest gambit is putting plastic pools in pet aisles. After quickly selling out last northern summer, he reached out to the merchandising team about ordering more for this year.

“This year I said, ‘You know what? We need to get more pools,’” Romero says.

Bloomberg Businessweek