Walmart is giving out 740,000 Samsung Smartphones to store employees as the retail giant rolls out a new app for its workforce

walmart worker mask — Courtesy of Walmart

Walmart is unveiling a new, unified app for employees called Me@Walmart.
"We believe it's the first of its kind in the retail industry," Walmart execs wrote in a blog post.
The company is also distributing thousands of Samsung smartphones to its workforce.
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Walmart has announced a new app to streamline the workflow within its stores - and it means that thousands of workers may be getting a work smartphone in the coming months.

The Me@Walmart app is being introduced as a new, unified app for Walmart's US store employees. The app will allow workers to "digitally clock in" with geo-fencing technology, check their schedules up to two weeks in advance, and request time off or scheduling changes. The app's push-t0-talk feature is an answer to walkie-talkies, allowing workers to "instantly connect with one another." It also features Ask Sam, Walmart's in-house voice-activated personal assistant for employees.

As part of the app's rollout, Walmart plans to give out 740,000 free Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro smartphones to its workers. The devices will come with a case and a protection plan, and will be considered work phones. The Me@Walmart app is also available for download on personal phones.

"The idea of this app started as a way to manage associates' schedules and has grown into our single in-store app for U.S. associates, saving them time and helping them be more efficient," Walmart US People Operations Senior Vice President and Product Drew Holler and Associate Experience Vice President Kellie Romack wrote in a blog post. "We believe it's the first of its kind in the retail industry."

The phones will start to replaced Walmart's supply of company-owned handheld devices, shared by store workers. Holler and Romack wrote that employees will only be able to access Me@Walmart's "work features while they're on the clock" and that the retail giant "will not have access to any personal data."

The executives also wrote that, soon enough, the app will allow workers to speed up the stocking process.

"Instead of scanning each box individually, associates just hold up their device and, using augmented reality, highlight the boxes that are ready to go," the execs wrote. "Product gets on the shelf faster - something we all know is increasingly important. In fact, since piloting it last year, this patent-pending capability takes a third of the time than the previous manual process."

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