Walmart Associates Week: Perks unveiled and performance celebrated amid changes for employees

Walmart is celebrating its associates this week, bringing roughly 14,000 workers to its Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters. HR Brew is on the ground at Associates Week, and talking with execs about the company’s plans for employees.

Festivities and fun. Some highlights from the week have been the unveiling of new incentives for hourly associates, and the annual shareholders meeting. (Oh, and a concert with Natasha Bedingfield and Leon Bridges—the week is known for attracting surprise celebrity guests, from Chris Hemsworth to Taylor Swift.)

During the meeting, all shareholder-proposed measures—including calls for Walmart to conduct a racial equity audit, report on respecting civil liberties, and perform a workplace safety and violence review—were voted down.

The company’s growth has slowed since 2023, but is still rising steadily, according to the Wall Street Journal, and was lauded during the shareholders’ meeting.

Yes, but. While Walmart appears to be taking a victory lap as it gears up to open its new home office campus in 2025, it’s not all smooth pavement.

Walmart recently announced that it would lay off hundreds of corporate employees and also close offices in Atlanta, Toronto, and Dallas, NPR reported. Employees in those locations will have to relocate to offices in Bentonville; Hoboken, New Jersey; or Silicon Valley, California, as part of the company’s in-person collaboration strategy.

Arkansas has some of the most restrictive reproductive access laws in the country, and has passed a number of anti-LGBTQ+ laws in recent years. The state also ranks #47 in the country for healthcare, #38 for education, and #49 for crime, according to US News. So while Walmart offers its employees relocation support, it may be a hard sell.

Dan Bartlett, Walmart’s EVP of corporate affairs, told HR Brew that the company intends to maintain its presence on the west coast and in the New York City area, so employees who may have concerns about moving to Arkansas can choose to work from those locations. He also pointed out that some employees will be relocating from states whose anti-abortion laws are similar to Arkansas, including Texas.

“Similar types of issues are playing out politically, and it’s too difficult for us to sit there and try to put our finger on where the politics are landing in any one given state,” he said. “We have healthcare plans, benefit plans…We believe that we can attract the right talent to this market as it grows, and we know that there will be a gain in that from a growth perspective.”