Why Home Depot Is Making Corporate Employees Work Retail Four Times a Year

Have you ever felt like your boss doesn’t understand your day-to-day workflow? Or, if you are a boss, are you worried that you may be disconnected from your employees? In an effort to address that very concern, Home Depot’s corporate staff will soon be subject to a policy that will take them out of the office and onto the retail floor.

What is the Policy?

According to Bloomberg, which obtained a corporate memo outlining the policy, Home Depot will require all of its corporate employees to work a full eight-hour shift at one of the company’s retail stores once every quarter. That includes everyone from senior management to remote workers. The policy is set to take effect starting in the final quarter of 2024.

If this news feels familiar, that’s because this is not entirely a new move for Home Depot. Despite the policy being billed as “new,” the report explains that the company had this policy in place before 2020 but paused it because of the COVID pandemic. Now, Home Depot is planning to bring it back before the end of the year.

Why Do Home Depot’s Corporate Staff Work Retail Shifts?

The company is dedicated to keeping its corporate staff in touch with the needs and realities of the retail employees. The report quotes an internal memo from CEO Ted Decker: “We need to stay connected to the core of our business so we can truly understand the challenges and opportunities our store associates face every day.”

This move will facilitate better understanding between these two facets of the company. It will also, hopefully, make it easier to resolve any issues that store associates face.

The quarterly requirement should also keep the lessons fresh. Rather than having their corporate staff do this once a year, or one time in the entirety of their service with the company, coming in once a quarter will give these employees a more cohesive view of the way stores are run.

Have Other Companies Done This?

While this move may make a lot of sense to many of us, it’s an unusual one in this industry. According to Forbes, few other large companies have an initiative like this one in place. The only one they mentioned was Doordash, who has been doing something like this since their start. But if this Home Depot initiative succeeds, perhaps other large retailers will take note and implement a similar policy.

Sources

Bloomberg, “Home Depot Orders Corporate Staff to Take 8-Hour Retail Shifts,” 2024.

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