Wal-Mart execs tout training academies as crucial part of retailer’s success

The turnaround story for Walmart U.S. began with the focus more than two years ago on its workforce behind a $2.7 billion investment in higher wages and training, according to company officials.

Execs with the retail giant recently touted during the recent shareholders’ week the 153 training academies across the U.S. In most cases the regional training academies are located in the back of host stores that must go through an extensive audit of more than 2,000 criteria in order to be selected for academy host status.

Wal-Mart Stores CEO Doug McMillon said he’s excited about the training academies on many levels.

“We have been able to reduce inventory in our back rooms enough to construct three classrooms for the academy and that’s very exciting to me,” McMillon said during the retailer’s question and answer session with analysts following the annual shareholder meeting.

Inventory reduction under the direction of Walmart U.S. CEO Greg Foran is a positive and an indication the retailer is running a leaner overall operation. But the real benefit, according to McMillon and Foran, is the first class training its workforce is getting on everything from how to improve customer service during the holiday rush to optimizing day-to-day department operations.

Tom Ward, vice president of central operations for Walmart U.S., said the retailer will have 200 of the academies open by this summer. The academies are roughly 3,000 square feet. About 75% of the training takes place on the sales floor of of the host store and 25% is in the classrooms. He said the first round of training last year was with department managers, a position McMillon added back to the operation two years ago.

“They are the kings and queens of the business. They are the ones closest to the shelves and also serve the customers. Next we did the assistant store managers and we are not stopping there,” Ward said.

He said if someone is promoted to a new department manager or hourly management position they can get training on the front end of that promotion to be more confident in their new roles. The training can span two weeks to six weeks depending on curriculum. Employees are paid their regular hourly wage for the time they spend training. The academies have begun training for online grocery pickup employees. In the next two two weeks the academies will train store employees on new simplification rules recently rolled out by management pertaining to streamlining various store operating processes. Ward said the academies allow Wal-Mart to quickly deploy the training to masses across the retailer’s nearly 5,000 stores.

He said the academies will train around 250,000 by the end of this year, since the first academies opened in the spring of 2016. So far the academies have trained 100,000 employees and they can handle the training of 5,500 per week. Since the academies first opened they have also trained 4,000 who have taken on new roles. Ward said the academies are giving employees a path to a career with Wal-Mart as they take ownership in their jobs and exude confidence and purpose in their positions all while serving customers on the front line of the business.

One of the new training methods utilizes virtual reality (VR) to train employees without putting them in hazardous situations. For instance if there is a spill of hazardous liquids, the clean-up protocol can be taught through VR without creating a spill. It’s also been effective in recreating Black Friday situations in stores for employees to be immersed. Ward said not every employee has experienced Black Friday bedlam, but VR can put them in the situation so they can learn what to expect, and then deploy an effective plan for the real thing.

The VR system used by Wal-Mart in training was developed by STRIVR and is available in about 30 of the academies. Wal-Mart said other locations will be get the technology by the end of the year. Wal-Mart also talked about other technology such as the TC 70, a hand-held device that allows employees to check the availability of a product within the supply chain. The employee can see if a product is available on Walmart.com and then order it into any store on behalf of a customer. Each store has a few of the devices but Wal-Mart said the apps can also be pulled up on the MC 40s which are a little slower, and the data is also accessible on smartphones.

Judith McKenna, COO for Walmart U.S. and Mark Ibbotson, executive vice president of central operations, spoke to the media on the importance of the training academies which were modeled after training methods used by ASDA, Wal-Mart’s grocery chain in the United Kingdom. McKenna and Ibbotson each were recruited to the Walmart business from ASDA.

McKenna said the $2.7 billion investment originated by Wal-Mart in 2015 began with wage increases and structural changes when the department managers were brought back but it became clear that alone was not enough to move the bar. She said the training program launched last year has been crucial to the retailer’s success and it’s also a platform for the business going forward. She said having the right leadership in stores is the first element in running a better U.S. division. Secondly, she said having employees that engage with customers and are happy, well trained and paid fairly in their jobs is equally important. Thirdly, she said having the right people at the right time with respect to scheduling is the trickiest to tackle.

The retailer continues to revamp its scheduling process allowing employees to pick up open shifts when they are available. Effective training is the final piece of the blueprint and McKenna said the academies are delivering on that in a big way. She said the academies in the future will be the conduit that will allow Walmart to respond quickly to change to stay relevant in retail.

“With 1.2 million people, one of our greatest challenges is communication through the organization and getting people to do things in a consistent way and also understand why that is important. Whether it’s training personal shoppers for the new grocery pickup service or some new role in the future, it’s the academies that allow us to stay agile,” McKenna said. “You hire for attitude and train for skill and the academies are playing a big part in that endeavor.”

Wal-Mart employees who have been through the academy recently spoke to the media about their experiences. It was clear they were more passionate about their jobs having gone through the training, which is another way Wal-Mart can indoctrinate its culture into a huge workforce. One benefit stores are seeing among those who do go through the training is less turnover.

“The academies were the right thing to do on every level and that became evident after watching the first graduation,” said Ibbotson. “It’s a huge undertaking.”

Chris Norton, a veteran employee at the Fayetteville Joyce Avenue store, spoke highly of the academy as well as the technology she has been given to do a better job managing the back of the store.

“We were a little derailed in the past, but we’re on the right path now. If you haven’t worked for us lately, you don’t know who we are,” Norton said.