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 Over the past decade, Wal-Mart Stores Inc opened nearly 1,500
new stores in the United States, a 45 percent increase in space and
equivalent to more than 4,000 American football fields, while its
sales have grown by 50 percent. But based on rough headcount figures
provided by the company, the expansion was in stark contrast to the
growth in its U.S. workforce, which was only about 8 percent in that
time. It means the store space per employee increased around 34
percent.
The disparity may help to explain why Wal-Mart acknowledged earlier
this year that its customer service needed to be improved
significantly as it was hurting sales growth, and why it is now
investing a lot more in its workforce and technology to improve the
standard of the stores and how shoppers are treated there.
Before the company began rectifying its problems, only 17 percent of
stores got a pass mark in an internal survey in February. Customers
were asked to judge the stores on their ability to provide clean,
fast and friendly service.
Through July of last year, the company, which currently operates
5,283 stores under the Walmart and Sam's Club brands in the U.S.,
endured a six-quarter span in which same-store sales showed flat or
negative growth.
Greg Foran, who became chief executive of the retailer's U.S.
operations in August last year, says employee levels have at times
been too low. "The reality is over the last probably four years it
hasn't been enough," he said in an interview. Foran also said the
company had been too focused on producing profits to benefit
shareholders in the near term and this had come at the expense of
customers.
Wal-Mart, which for many years built a reputation for providing the
lowest prices, allowed that advantage to erode. "The customer lost
because the price gap narrowed," Foran said. "And the shareholder
won short-term." \
The Reuters analysis, based on data from the retailer's annual
securities filings, shows that by January this year the store space
per employee had increased to about 547 square feet from 407 square
feet in 2005. The total number of U.S. employees increased to nearly
1.4 million in 2015 from around 1.3 million in 2005, according to
the retailer’s figures.
INCREASED AUTOMATION
To be sure, the available data limits what can be gleaned about
Wal-Mart’s use of its workforce. In its filings, Wal-Mart only gives
an approximate figure for its headcount and does not disclose the
number of hours worked, which would give a more accurate picture of
labor productivity. It is also unclear how many of its employees
work outside the stores and how much labor may have been shifted to
its stores because of increased automation in its warehouses.
Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg said after being provided with the
Reuters analysis that the drop in employees per square foot over the
past 10 years reflected advances in technology and process, such as
increased use of shelf-ready packaging, motorized carts to retrieve
shopping carts, and self-checkout lanes.
This year the company installed 8,000 new department managers -- key
players in the effort to keep its shelves stocked and improve the
customer experience. And in its quarterly financial report on
Tuesday, the company said it added more labor hours to its stores
than initially planned for its fiscal third quarter. "The real
question is have you got the right labor in the right area at the
right time doing the right jobs," Foran said.
Wal-Mart in February announced it was raising starting wages,
initially to $9 an hour and then to $10 for existing employees in
early 2016, in a bid to improve customer service. The company does
not disclose what the average starting wage was before.
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Last month, it shocked investors by warning earnings would drop by
as much as 12 percent in the year to January 2017 because of the
increased labor costs, investments in e-commerce and discounts,
sending its shares to their lowest level in four years.
On Tuesday Wal-Mart said sales at stores open more than a year rose
by 1.5 percent in the fiscal third quarter, the fifth straight
quarterly gain. But with operating income still declining as costs
rise, Wal-Mart is seeking faster revenue growth. "We've got to be
growing faster," Foran said.
Wal-Mart added sales performance as a metric in setting cash bonuses
for top executives for the year ended January 2015. Previously,
bonuses had been largely based on profit targets.
DRONE TESTS
Wal-Mart says its efforts are having a positive impact. Some 70
percent of its stores have now earned a passing grade on customer
service — about quadruple the result in February.
A recent survey of Wal-Mart shoppers by securities firm Cowen & Co
showed customer service satisfaction at 60 percent in September, its
highest in nearly two years. Still, some analysts and suppliers have
expressed concern the retailer still does not have enough workers to
address a long-standing restocking problem.
Based on a rolling survey of major U.S. markets, retail consultancy
Strategic Resource Group estimates Wal-Mart currently has anywhere
from 10 to 20 percent of products out of stock, up from 2 to 3
percent a decade ago.
"Wal-Mart simply does not have enough U.S. retail store workers to
prevent out-of-stocks and to try to optimize sales,” SRG Managing
Director Burt Flickinger said.
Wal-Mart says in-stock levels are improving, though it has not
provided detailed figures. On Tuesday, Foran told reporters efforts
to ensure it had stock of key items had improved sales of fresh
food.
Foran said Wal-Mart would likely cut back on labor over the next
decade as it consolidates back office functions and simplifies the
stocking process. It is testing a service that will allow customers
to use handheld scanners to tally items as they put them in the
cart, potentially speeding up checkout, and it has applied for
permission to test drones for use in its warehouses and for curbside
and home delivery.
Central to the effort to employ labor more effectively is a new
inventory management system rolled out this year. Key changes
include the introduction of three distinct shifts that ensure
important tasks are finished within a 24-hour cycle, instead of
spilling over into the next day as in the past. It has cut the
number of steps to get product out of the backroom by 60 percent, is
using a new smartphone-like device to reduce time needed to scan
shelves by 89 percent, and has also begun stacking inventory on the
sales floor and on a newly installed top shelf.
"If we can shave seconds off each of those processes it's worth a
lot," said Mark Ibbotson, head of the retailer’s Central Operations
unit.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne; Editing by Martin Howell)
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