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When Doug McMillon took over as Walmart’s CEO in 2014, he decided to make some changes.
The 33-year company veteran had a mandate to revive stagnant sales and fight off some formidable e-commerce competitors. But he also set out to change the company’s narrative, and focusing on its relationship with workers was a big part of that, writes my colleague Phil Wahba in a new magazine feature.
Since 2015, the company has raised entry-level salaries from $9 to $14 per hour, and created more learning pathways to facilitate internal mobility among workers. It has also introduced new benefits like covering employees’ college tuition. Those improvements have been instrumental in motivating workers, keeping them in the fold, and improving the high turnover rate that plagues the customer service industry as a whole.
McMillon has also courted good will in other ways, supporting efforts to reduce Walmart’s carbon footprint by making good on a pledge to significantly decrease greenhouse gas emissions six years ahead of schedule.
“We’re not a perfect company, but we’ve done a lot of good things for the environment, for our associates, for others,” he says. “I would just love for the reputation to match the reality.”
The reputational shift that has already taken place is likely a factor that has made it possible for the company to shutter its regional offices and either relocate or attract corporate workers to its company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, a town of around 55,000. That includes engineers, marketers, merchandisers and all manner of retail executives who could live in places like New York City or Los Angeles, but have instead chosen to live in the Ozarks.
“Walmart would not have been able to pull off this modernization, and by extension ability to better compete against Amazon, without having employees on board,” says Wahba.
Emma Burleigh
emma.burleigh@fortune.com
Around the Table
A round-up of the most important HR headlines.
A group of current and former OpenAI employees allege the company prioritizes profits over safety, and silences workers who bring up risk concerns. New York Times
Social media influencers are helping to unionize pharmacists at major drugstore chains to advocate for adequate staffing, as well as better wages and benefits. Wall Street Journal
Citigroup will now give staffers up to 24 weeks of paid parental leave, in order to stay competitive with other banks amping up their benefits to attract and retain top talent. Bloomberg
Google fired at least 100 sales and engineering workers, and Microsoft will cut “hundreds” of staffers from its Cloud department, as tech companies funnel their budgets and efforts into AI. Quartz
Watercooler
Everything you need to know from Fortune.
Forced retirement. A 25 year-old chief of staff at one of the biggest AI startups predicts her job, and most others, will become obsolete in the next three years due to the new tech’s takeover. —Orianna Rosa Royle
Swept up. Airbnb’s CEO says he messed up when he wrote in a layoff memo that he has a “deep feeling of love” for the 1,900 staffers being fired, saying he was pressured and rushed to write the response. —Chloe Berger
Winner takes all. S&P 500 CEO compensation increased nearly 13% last year, while private-sector employee wages rose by only 4.1% in the same time, as the pay gap continues to widen. —Mae Anderson, Paul Harloff, Barbara Ortutay, AP