Investing in Work(place)
In a move that surprised few, Walmart announced today they'd be laying off hundreds of corporate employees and restructuring their workplaces. According to the Wall Street Journal, as a part of the move the retail giant is also forcing (most) fully remote employees and employees in smaller tech hub offices like Atlanta, Dallas, and Toronto to relocate elsewhere. Their options: Walmart's HQ in rural Bentonville, Arkansas or Hoboken, New Jersey.
Walmart made a splash in local Atlanta real estate news by signing a lease for one of those soon-to-close tech hubs at Midtown Atlanta's Coda Tech Square only a year ago. Coda, developed by Portman Holdings and designed by Portman Architects, was the ideal landing spot for a company fighting to be at the forefront of retail technology innovation. Whether it's pioneering new cashierless technologies, engaging in bringing drone delivery to life, continuously expanding the last mile electric delivery fleet, or toeing the line between e-commerce growth and a physical storefront presence, Walmart is among the largest players in a crowded space and is increasingly facing fierce competition on all fronts. Talent attraction and retention is critical to holding and maintaining that spot at the top.
A workplace within the 'Collaboration Core' of Coda at Tech Square (Atlanta, GA) | Photo by Brendan Gregory, Design by Portman Architects
This is why the 21-story, 750,000 square-foot mixed-use project in the heart of booming Midtown Atlanta and a stone's throw from several of the region's top universities was a natural fit. Georgia Tech's Partnership for an Advanced Computing Environment, The Georgia Tech Research Institute, Center for Machine Learning , School of Cybersecurity and Privacy, and Institute for Data Engineering and Science (among other Georgia Tech entities) take up half of the leasable office space in building located at 756 W. Peachtree Street. The other half of the building has been a magnet for attracting small tech hubs and incubators from companies like Travelers Insurance, Thyssenkrupp, Dematic, Cisco (and formerly Walmart Global Tech) to name a few; all lured by the rich pool and proximity of talent.
The building itself was literally designed with collaboration in mind. A 21-story spiral staircase connects each office floor with individual break-out workplaces and respite areas perched every three floors within the 'Collaboration Core.' Partnerships with Georgia Tech and other area universities abound while 38,000 square feet of retail, including a ground floor food hall, act as vibrant feature for the neighboring urban landscape and campus community. Coda also happens to be a location of a certain competitor in the flex office space. Without mentioning any names, suffice it to say there's probably a reason they're trying very hard to hold onto this location as a bright spot among a very crowded portfolio of co-working units.
'Collaboration Core' interconnected staircase within Coda at Tech Square (Atlanta, GA) | Photo by Brendan Gregory, Design by Portman Architects
It's not to say that Walmart isn't investing vigorously in its workplaces. The company is in the middle of constructing a new 350-acre home office in Bentonville for 12,000+ employees. Once completed in 2025, the campus will be home to a childcare center, health & fitness amenities, food & beverage services, and walking trails surrounded by plenty of nature. But for a company so invested in the future of retail technology and maintaining its position amongst the top retail players in the space, the shift towards divestment in a more distributed workplace and focus on centralizing employees is a curious one. It leaves one to wonder if the recent Walmart layoffs and relocation mandates are less about employee "productivity" or "collaboration" and instead are to justify spend on a centralized mothership home office a-la Apple Park in Cupertino, which has faced its own share of push-back from return to office mandates.
Workplace is about more than the amenities, the bells & whistles, or about bringing people together just for the sake of bringing people together. Whether it's rural Bentonville or booming Midtown Atlanta, the key to attracting and retaining top talent is as much about the surroundings of the place as it is about the workplace itself. This is why a distributed model allowing for more employee choice and spread across more places that people actually want to be is the future of the work(place) (if this sounds interesting to you, I know some people). We can argue about the various vehicles to achieve this reality and which providers offer the best experience but there's no denying workplace as a distributed product is here to stay. Will Walmart be able to attract and retain that same level of talent as a concentrated office in Bentonville as it does today in places like Coda Tech Square or Toronto - only time will tell but this is a big bet for a company that lives on razor thin margins and low prices, always.
