Wal-Mart is cutting hundreds of accounting, invoicing jobs
Wal-Mart (WMT) is eliminating accounting and invoicing roles at approximately 500 locations in the Western region of the United States.
Kory Lundberg, spokesman for Wal-Mart, told CNBC on Wednesday that the program will affect about two to three associates per store, but the laid-off employees are being offered other, more customer-facing roles within the company.
Lundberg explained that the motivation behind the program is to "make the stores easier to run and free up associates so that they can interact with customers more and serve them better."
Accounting offices will use "cash recycler" machines to improve the efficiency and accuracy of counting money, while a centralized team will handle invoicing, Lundberg said.
This is an expansion of a pilot program that the retailer conducted earlier in the year at 50 locations, according to Lundberg. After that initial test, the company saw that only 1 percent of affected employees chose to leave Wal-Mart.
In January, the retailer announced it was closing 154 locations in the United States . Wal-Mart attempted to transfer affected employees to nearby locations, whenever possible.
Lundberg emphasized that the employment changes are part of a test and that the company will evaluate the results to determine how to proceed after it has gone through its data.
The layoffs were originally reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Correction: This story has been updated to include the proper spelling of the Wal-Mart spokesman's name.
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