Walmart says its U.S. training academies fill a gap that should help drive sales

The $2.7 billion investment Wal-Mart said it has made in raising pay and more training over the past two years is helping employees take care of the retailer’s 140 million U.S. shoppers each week, according to Walmart U.S. CEO Greg Foran.

The retail giant spoke about the training opportunities it provides to its U.S. workforce at the recent Shareholders Week events.

“The investment we make in our training will be the thing that pays off and the biggest differentiator from our competitors,” said Judith McKenna, chief operating officer for Walmart U.S.

A big part of the new training program are three academies which opened earlier this year in Carrollton, Texas, Fayetteville and Fort Smith. The training centers are located adjacent to existing supercenters so workers in the academy can spend 25% of their time in class and 75% in the store aligned with someone already doing that job.

Walmart plans to build 200 training academies by the second quarter of next year which will cover all U.S. stores. Each center serves about 30 stores because the retailer wanted to ensure store workers could train close to home, or within 40 to 50 miles of their own store.

Tom Ward, vice president of U.S. central operations, said running the training centers next to a store was key because stores have people call in sick, get late deliveries and provide real-life applications for the training. He said because the stores are so involved in the training, Walmart has added 15 to 17 workers in stores connected to academies so the store’s performance in not negatively impacted from pulling away managers to train.

“The response of the academies has been good. There is high energy around this program which was needed because the associates are the ones who really run our business, they are closest to the customers,” Ward said.

Only department managers are going through the the academies, but Ward said the curriculum with be expanded to include other positions.

Carol Johnston, a senior vice president who oversees Walmart stores in the south central division which includes Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, said in the 27 years she’s been with the company this is perhaps the most important investment it’s made.

“Over the past two years Judith McKenna, our COO, was clear that we were going to have a lot changes and we needed to change. In my 27 years with this company, this was the one thing that was lacking,” Johnston said. “When this was brought to me it was a dream come true.”

Johnston said the training in-store allows learning from those who do the jobs the daily, not someone from academia.

“I can already see the results. The engagement scores are up in these stores, our clean, fast, friendly scores are improving and it’s the best thing I have seen and it’s going to help drive sales,” she added.

Johnston said as retail continues to change amid customer higher customer expectations, Walmart knew it had to do something to better equip its workforce to meet the demands of retail today and tomorrow.

ONBOARD TRAINING
Kathleen McLaughlin, president of the Walmart Foundation and sustainability chief, said 75% of store management started as hourly staff. She said the difference today is that Walmart is using technology at scale to offer a more consistent training experience across its massive store fleet.

More than 900,000 of the 1.4 million U.S. workforce at Walmart are entry level jobs, according to Pippa Pomeroy, senior director of HR strategy and talent development at Walmart.

“The 900,0000 associates are a great fuel tank for us drive our future but it also means we have help these associates who want to build careers in retail with additional training and educational opportunities, which is why we developed Pathways — a program that allows each associate to guide their own careers,” Pomeroy said.

She said Pathways is a clear, systematic map that starts at the entry level and moves to leadership positions within store operations. Each new employee is aligned with someone who can mentor and work with in the store. The first six months the worker completes pathway training modules that use gamification and then practices on the sales floor.

“We want to make it clear to the workers who join us that there is a wealth of opportunities at Walmart. We also teach retail basics in addition to the culture of Walmart as well as soft skills to help ensure confidence among the workforce. We know that not all of our associates will stay will us, but we hope that everyone who does leave, does so with more skills than they came with,” Pomeroy said.

Michelle Knight, leads Walmart talent development at Walmart and oversee the training for the 1.4 million U.S. workforce.

“We see training as an investment more so than as a cost. The more equipped our associates are at their jobs the easier is to increase productively which is good the company.  When associates are effectively trained they are more productive, and they are more satisfied and engaged to better help customers. This is the ‘why’ behind our investment,” Knight said.

Continuing, she said: “We want our associates to think of retail as a career, and we know a lot them don’t see retail as career when they sign on at Walmart. We are on a journey and we are not there yet, but I am proud of what we are accomplishing.”

LIFELONG LEARNING
Walmart execs also talked about efforts to provide lifelong learning opportunities for its workforce, a program that began in 2010 after the retailer heard from hourly workers that they sought college degrees, language and literacy help and along with high school diplomas for themselves and family members.

Walmart partnered with American Public University in 2010 to offer courses in retail. They also work with Rosetta Stone to offer English literacy as well as 29 other languages. Partnering with the American Council on Education Walmart also offers GED certification training for its workforce and their family members at no cost.

Over the past several years Walmart has expanded opportunities for this workers who want to attain some level of higher education either a retail certificate or associate’s or bachelor’s degrees in retail. Walmart said it now offers a debt free degree through various tuition discounts at more than 2,000 universities, free books and class credit for work in retail through partnerships with education providers. The employee cost of the debt free degrees is $99 per month for two, four or eight years depending on the high far the student goes and the time it takes to complete the program.

Since Walmart began lifelong learning in 2010, 7,000 employees have engaged in GED programs at no cost, 60,000 have received no-cost language learning in English and 29 other languages, 2.5 million hours of college class and study time saved from work-credit, 8,000 have started college and have taken more than 65,000 courses available at reduced or no cost.

Despite Walmart’s efforts to provide workers with educational opportunities, the retailer is not among the 54 employers in Northwest Arkansas that offers tuition reimbursement and other tuition services as highlighted by The Northwest Arkansas Council’s Graduate NWA initiative.

Economists agree that someone with a college degree has far more earning potential over their lifetime. In fact just $2 more per hour at the start could be a $1 million more over a career.