The change is aimed at putting more workers on the company's sales floors, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

Rather than having in-store personnel managers in each of its nearly 2,000 U.S. stores, the retailer said it is instead going to handle human resource issues on a district basis.

"The goal of the program essentially is to add three full-time associates to the sales floor in each store," said company spokesman Ron DeFeo.

About 200 people will be hired for a new human resources service center to handle most store-level personnel needs by telephone, the newspaper said.

Among other cost-saving measures, the company has said it is shifting freight receiving and stocking at its lower-volume stores from overnight to days, after finding there wasn't enough work for overnight crews.