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BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart has launched a new program to train hourly workers for higher-paid positions while helping the retailer address its growing need for skilled technicians. It’s part of an ongoing effort to improve pay, benefits and opportunities for employees, according to the company.
“We say around here that a lot of associates start looking for a good job and end up having a great career,” Walmart U.S. president and CEO John Furner said. “That’s definitely my story, and the story of a lot of people that I get to work with.”
Furner noted that he started his own career with Walmart as a part-time associate working in the garden center. “So I know what it’s like to be able to experience working on a team and being rewarded for great work over the course of the year. And over the last few years, we’ve been on a journey to transform our company to serve customers in new, flexible ways. And we’ve been investing in our associates all along.”
Those investments have included wage increases, benefits and growth opportunities, Furner and Walmart chief talent officer Lo Stomski explained in a blog post that went on to detail four new ways the retailer is investing in its people. They are:
- Launching a new program called “Associate to Technician” that is designed to help the retailer address a skilled trade labor shortage while offering workers new and more lucrative career opportunities. The program provides front-line associates with the training and pathways to move up into higher-paying technician jobs in its stores and supply chain facilities.
- Doubling the number of skills certificates available through the Walmart-paid Live Better U (LBU) benefit to help fast-track front-line associates into approximately 100,000 jobs that are higher-paying and in-demand for the company over the next three years.
- Adding a new piece to the total compensation of hourly store associates — a new Associate Bonus for eligible part-time and full-time store associates, including in the retailer’s pharmacy and Vision Centers. This bonus is designed to reward long-term associates — the amount of the bonus potential increases the longer they’re with the company.
- Launching a new Total Pay & Benefits feature in the company’s Me@Walmart app. It gives store associates the opportunity to quickly see their pay, 401k (with company match), associate stock purchases (also with a company match) and more, right in the palm of their hand.
The initiatives were announced this morning as part of Walmart’s 2024 Associates Week celebration, which brought thousands of Walmart associates from around the world to Northwest Arkansas.
Stomski explained that the “Associate to Technician” program will give front-line associates technical training over a six-month period while they are getting paid.
“We’re using the phrase ‘Earn While You Learn,’ and it’s very similar in concept to our ‘Associate to Driver’ program, which addressed a critical demand for truck drivers. The ‘Associate to Technician’ program is going to address another nationwide shortage that we have, which is for skilled trade workers.”
Walmart wants to increase its team of technicians from 450 to 2,000 over a tw0-year period, giving the company the people needed to maintain everything from the HVAC and refrigeration systems in its stores to the increasingly automated systems in its supply chain facilities. Stomski said the technician positions will pay between $19 and $45 an hour.
Furner stated that he was particularly pleased to be announcing the program during the Associate Week celebration.
“This is a fantastic company,” he said. “It’s rewarding that we’re in the position to be able to do things like this for our associates, and we spend a lot of our time thinking about how can we enable them and give them the tools that they need to serve our customers effectively. And they’ve done a great job with that, as the results of the recent quarters would show. And it’s a great time for us to be able to tell our associates that we have this program in line for them.”
