The Home Depot has cut around 800 roles and is set to require corporate employees to return to the office five days a week.

About 150 of the affected employees are based at the company’s headquarters in Atlanta, with the remainder in remote positions. The reductions primarily impacted the company’s technology organisation, along with other corporate teams.

In an internal memo to employees, CEO Ted Decker said the decision was intended to increase the company’s “speed and agility”.

“To extend our industry-leading position, we must position the company to move faster and stay even more closely connected to our customers and frontline associates,” he wrote.

A Home Depot spokesperson described the move as “a difficult decision” and said the company would support affected employees through severance packages, transitional benefits and job placement services.

In addition, the company will make it mandatory for corporate employees to work on-site five days a week, starting April 6. Decker said the changes are “essential to simplify our business and focus our energy on the priorities ahead”.

“In-person engagement enables more meaningful support for store and field associates, drives results and reinforces our people-centric culture and inverted pyramid,” he added.

Home Depot is the second Atlanta-based company to announce workforce reductions in recent weeks, following UPS, which has outlined plans to cut up to 30,000 operational roles.

The move comes as Home Depot’s sales have fallen short of expectations, with the retailer waiting for a recovery in housing turnover and home improvement demand following the surge seen during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company missed Wall Street earnings expectations for the third consecutive quarter in results reported in November.