March 19, 2020
Editor’s note: John Furner, President and CEO, Walmart U.S., sent the following note to Walmart U.S. associates.
To: Walmart associates from John Furner, President, and CEO, Walmart U.S.
It’s been incredible to see Walmart associates step up to the challenge of serving America this month. During a very uncertain and stressful time, you have done your jobs with calm, compassion, and excellence. Because of you, Americans have been able to get the items and services they need from clean, orderly, stores — or delivered right to their doorsteps.
Thank you so much for devoting yourselves to your customers and communities. I also want to say thank you to your spouses and loved ones who’ve had to take on extra responsibilities during this time — particularly with many schools and daycares closed, and relatives and friends to look out for.
We are so grateful for your hard work, and it is our absolute pleasure to announce several initiatives to reward you and support you in the coming days.
- First, hourly associates in our stores, supply chain, and corporate offices will receive a special bonus: $300 for full-time hourly associates and $150 for part-time, to be paid out on April 2. All hourly associates employed as of March 1, and still employed as of March 24, will qualify.
- Second, we will accelerate our upcoming Q1 bonuses for hourly associates, so that you will receive payment in late April — a month early. We know this is a difficult time when many people could use more cash, and we want to support you how we can.
(These two bonus payments are in addition to the scheduled Q4 bonuses received this week. Tomorrow you will receive additional details about your bonuses.)
- Third, tomorrow (Friday, March 20) from 6 a.m. – 7 a.m., we'll have a special associates-only shopping hour. During this hour — and the rest of the day — your 10% associate discount will be expanded to include most grocery items.
- And fourth, today we’re also announcing plans to hire 150,000 new associates to work in our stores, clubs, and fulfillment centers, to help support you as you deal with the current level of demand. These roles will be temporary at first, but we expect many to convert to permanent roles over time.
To quickly hire these individuals, we will temporarily reduce our usual two-week application cycle to be just 24 hours. If you know individuals who are out of work and would make good additions to the Walmart team, please encourage them to apply through careers.walmart.com.
For more information about our recent announcements, and other Coronavirus issues including our associate leave policy, feel free to visit walmart.com/coronavirus.
Thank you again for what you’re doing — America needs Walmart right now, and we have been at our absolute best.
– JF