Walmart aims to increase career opportunities for its employees by rewriting the company’s requirements for certain jobs and offering more short-form certifications for skills. The move could help the retailer reduce the need for college degrees and promote higher-level workers from within, potentially making Walmart a more attractive employer overall. be.
The company has committed to investing $1 billion in career-driven training and development by 2026. The retail giant said it “continues to create pathways to in-demand roles within the company,” and he has already achieved 75% paid management positions. Start in an hourly role in a US store, club, or supply chain facility.
But these higher-level, front-line roles have never required a degree, so the rewritten description represents a new approach for Walmart. The new list will take into account skills as well as degrees, allowing companies to find employees with the talent they need, regardless of where or how they were developed.
“Ultimately, Walmart believes the U.S. workforce system needs to move to a system that recognizes and understands skills in the same way that it recognizes and understands college degrees,” Walmart said in a press release. Stated. “This gives talented, skilled workers without degrees the same benefits as those with degrees.” Harvard in his review of his business calls this approach a new-collar workforce. calling.”
Walmart plans to pay its employees to earn college degrees, and the retailer is currently adjusting its Live Better U education benefits to include shorter-form certificates. The retailer currently offers 25 short-form certificates through its partnership with Guild, up from his five in 2020, including data analytics and Also included for supply chain management.
Many potential employees and even existing employees don’t know about Walmart career paths. Retailers plan to use technology to help people find their options. The company’s Me@Walmart and Me@Campus apps help employees look for career advancement moves based on work preferences and skill sets, and the apps can recommend personalized career paths and Used to advertise high-paying jobs.
Better career opportunities could help Wal-Mart avoid the labor shortages that still affect the retail industry overall. Although the labor market has improved since the end of the pandemic, 20% of retail and wholesale jobs remain unfilled as of July 2023, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Additionally, the retail industry’s turnover rate was 2.8%, second only to the restaurant industry’s 4.9%.
While many retailers are raising wages for their employees, Walmart stands out by promising its employees full careers. It will be interesting to see how this impacts the company’s ability to recruit, retain, and develop talent.