Home Depot will begin requiring corporate employees to work a full day at one of its stores each quarter, a move the company said is aimed at supporting its retail workers.
Employees, including senior management and remote workers, will have to complete eight-hour shifts starting in the fourth quarter of this year, according to a memo seen by Bloomberg News.
“We need to stay connected to the core of our business so we can truly understand the challenges and opportunities our collaborators face,” CEO Ted Decker said in a memo introducing the program. Our store employees face every day.”
A company spokesperson said it has been a long-standing practice of the company to require employees to spend time in stores, and this new program is the company’s latest initiative.
Home Depot, one of America’s largest retailers with annual sales of more than $150 billion and 450,000 employees, is going through a difficult time. After splurging on homes during the pandemic, Americans shifted their spending to other areas and took a hit sales decline at chain.
Decker’s move to ask everyone at the company for changes is unusual in the sector and comes amid increased workforce activism. That includes Home Depot, which faces a small union try in 2022, and other retailer.
Fragmented schedules, manual labor and historically low wages have made work in the shops difficult. The job has become more difficult in recent years due to store theft and unruly customer behavior, and operators are having to contend with it as well. introduce New benefits and pay increases to improve retention.
