I know many of you are interested in and concerned about Walmart associates.  Over the years I’ve had many questions from the audience.  So I was pleased that on my last trip to the Walmart Headquarters in Bentonville Arkansas we had an entire session about some of the new employee opportunities that Walmart is putting in place.  I was happy when they asked me to share the information on their behalf.

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Normally I try to rewrite things and put out information using my own style and voice–but there is a LOT of information to share, so I’m going to just put it out there in list format pretty much straight from the information sheet I was given.  On interesting fact that I learned that is not included on that list is that only about 6,000 of the 1.3 MILLION Walmart associates in the USA are making the federal minimum wage at any given time. That’s a pretty high percentage of employees making above minimum wage.  Also the pay increase I list below gave over half a million Americans a pay raise in one fell swoop.  That’s pretty amazing when you think about it.

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Oh, and as another interesting side note–I learned in the session we attended that roughly 75% of Walmart’s managers were promoted in house from hourly associates, and they DO NOT require that their managers have a college degree.  That’s almost unheard of these days.

Opportunity

-Walmart is piloting an onboarding and training program that will create clear career paths for associates so they know what is expected of them in order to move from entry level positions to jobs with more responsibility that pay $15 an hour or more.

-Leaders will receive refresher training on people leadership skills to help prepare hourly supervisors to potentially be promoted to higher roles.

-Hourly associates will get hands on training in areas to include teamwork, merchandising, retail fundamentals and communications.

-Starting in 2016 new associates will starting training to be completed in the first 6 months of training, after which they will move to the $10 or more pay scale and can pursue on of three career paths that most interests them and aligns with their skills–Hourly Supervisor, Specialty Path (ie bakery, deli, wireless) or Grow Skills in Current Role.

-Walmart is working with outside experts to create industry recognized credentials for workers so as they gain new skills, training, and education they can grow their careers either inside or outside of Walmart.

More Choice in Scheduling

-Walmart is working to provide associates with more control over and ownership of their schedules, including more predictability for associates who want it and flexibility for those who need it.

-Starting in 2016 they will be one of the first retailers to offer some associates who value stability and consistency fixed schedules each week.

-Associates will know their schedules at least 2 1/2 weeks in advance, making it easier to plan their personal schedules (ie working around education or appointments).

-Associates interested in picking up additional hours will have the ability to view available shifts in their store and select them, giving associates the control to build the schedules that best meet their needs.

Benefits

-Health Care-Walmart offers health care benefits starting at $22 per pay period–roughly half the national average for single person coverage

-Sick leave is currently offered, but they are working to make it better by eliminating the one day waiting period in 2016.

-Education-there are benefits for college credit, GED, Language training and other skill building courses.

-401K-The company recently changed its 401(k) program so that associates can start contributing on their first day.  Walmart will continue to match 401 (k) contributions dollar for dollar up to 6% after a year on the job.

 

These are some very positive and sweeping changes.  I think if I were a Walmart employee I’d be pretty excited about the future and the opportunities available to me.  As a matter of fact, honestly do have an extended family member who has been looking for a management job, and I strongly urged them to apply at Walmart, even if it was to start as an hourly employee–I’m sure with their hard work ethic and prior experience they would move up that chain in time!