Labor & Employment

Office Depot isn’t about to let its rivals get the better of it during one of its busiest times of the year.   The office-supply retailer plans to hire a total of 8,000 seasonal and regular associates for the back-to-school season, up 33%, or 2,000 associates, over last year.  

If it seems like more if your inventory is disappearing, you’re probably not imagining things.   According to the 2016 National Retail Federation (NRF) Retail Security Study, conducted in collaboration with the University of Florida, retailers’ inventory shrink averaged 1.38% of retail sales, or $45.2 billion in 2015, up by 3% from $44 billion the previous year.  

The liberal return policies of many big retailers are having a negative impact on the paychecks of store associates who receive commissions, according to a report by the New York Times.   

Aéropostale has received final approval for $160 million in debtor in-possession financing provided by Crystal Financial LLC.

Wal-Mart Stores is undertaking a series of executive changes at its international divisions, starting with a new head for its struggling United Kingdom business, Asda.
 
Andy Clarke, president and CEO of Asda, will step down on July 11, after having worked at the British company for more than 20 years. Asda has been under heavy competitive pressure and has reported seven straight quarterly sales declines.

Just 9.8% of more than 5,400 financial and accounting professionals say their companies are prepared to comply with the new Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) lease accounting standards.   That is one of the highlights of a recent Deloitte poll. http://www.slideshare.net/DeloitteUS/new-lease-accounting-standards-are-companies-prepared-to-comply-62702689  

Quality Solutions, Colwich, Kansas, a leading provider of facilities maintenance and constructions services, has changed its name to QSI Facilities.    The company has also launched a new website and introduced a new approach for overcoming “value leakage” in outsourced facilities services.  

Tracy Borchardt has been promoted from senior project manager to associate VP of architecture firm CMA.
 
Borchardt joined CMA in 2003 as a project coordinator. In 2006, he was promoted to senior project manager. As of June 2016, he is now the associate VP of CMA.
 

Walgreens Boots Alliance is making a number of changes to its senior management roles and responsibilities as part of what the company is calling the “next phase of evolution.”
 
Alex Gourlay, executive VP of Walgreens Boots Alliance and president of Walgreens, and Ornella Barra, executive VP of Walgreens Boots Alliance and president and chief executive of global wholesale and international retail, have been appointed to the role of co-CEOs.
 

Amazon.com has been announcing a lot of new distribution centers lately, and now is opening a new IT office dedicated to logistics, as well as a new physical pick-up location.

The e-tail giant is planning a new technology development center in downtown Minneapolis that will create 100 full-time, technology-focused jobs. Amazon currently has hundreds of employees in Minnesota and is also in the process of hiring an additional 1,000 full-time employees for its new Shakopee, Minnesota, fulfillment center.