Upskilling creates a path for everyone
Retailers also view upskilling as critical to ensuring that people from all backgrounds have a chance to secure higher-paying jobs, the retail executives said at the conference.
As part of an effort to develop nontraditional talent pipelines, Walmart has created learning opportunities for people looking to change industries or to return to work after taking time off for things like raising a family. For example, the company offers tech bootcamps for participants from unconventional backgrounds.
Walmart works with OneTen — an organization focused on improving the career potential of Black Americans — and other nonprofits to identify and evaluate candidates for the bootcamps. During the bootcamps, participants have an opportunity to learn, practice, and showcase their newly acquired skills to hiring managers who are actively looking to connect with talented individuals from diverse backgrounds.
“They want to learn how to code,” Jocelyn says, “in order to become a data scientist or a data analyst, and they’re able to enter into apprenticeships and bootcamps and develop those skills.”
Helping retail workers attain “lattice-shaped” careers
Retail companies have long been known as places where people can start at the bottom and rise through the ranks. Costco CEO Craig Jelinek
began his retailing career as a part-time food stocker at FedMart, while Walmart CEO Doug McMillon started at the company as an hourly associate unloading trucks. A whopping 75% of store and supply chain management team members at Walmart and Sam’s Club — roles that pay more than $113,000 in their first year — started their careers in hourly positions.
Now retailers are increasingly giving their employees the tools to change career lanes, the retail executives note in their talks with Aneesh. Thanks to retailers’ focus on skills training and internal mobility, more employees are moving laterally and pursuing lattice-shaped career paths as opposed to ladders.
“When I started in 2005, it was like you started as a store employee, you become a supervisor, a manager, a general manager, and you just move up this ladder,” Ryan tells Aneesh. Currently, “you might do this job today, but move laterally to a different part of the organization.”
The Best Buy program that allows employees to rotate through different departments, called Tidal Wave, has helped employees move into jobs that are very different from their previous positions. Ryo Hamasaki, for instance, had been working for years in product merchandising at Best Buy and was feeling stuck. After completing the Tidal Wave program, he gained the skills and confidence to move into a new role and was offered a permanent position on Best Buy’s customer and employee strategy team.
Shana’s own career path is an example of a lattice-shaped retail journey. She started out 31 years ago as a part-time hourly associate. Rather than taking a traditional route, she saw an opportunity to diversify and zigzagged between senior roles in operations, fresh merchandising, and human resources, ultimately rising to her current position.
“It’s been,” Shana says, “the transferable career built on transferable skills.”
