Walmart pays for the college degree of any employee who wants to earn that diploma, but now the retail behemoth says associates — or anyone else — may no longer need one to climb its corporate ladder.
The company announced this week it is rewriting the job descriptions for positions at its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, and a college degree will no longer be required for some of those white-collar gigs.
Walmart's senior vice president of associate learning and leadership, Lorraine Stomski, and vice president of philanthropy, Julie Gehrki, delivered the news in a blog post Thursday as part of a broader initiative at the retailer to invest in skills-based systems to attract and advance more workers in their careers.
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The executives said the company has "always been focused on eliminating unnecessary barriers for associates to advance in their careers," pointing to the success it has had in promoting from within for salaried managers at U.S. stores and supply chain facilities, with 75% of those workers having started at the company in hourly roles.
They noted that those managerial positions pay upwards of $100,000 and have never required a college diploma.
Now, Walmart is "expanding that thinking," the pair said.
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"We’re rewriting job descriptions for our campus (headquarters) jobs to factor in the skills people possess, alongside any degrees they hold," the blog post reads. "This creates an either/or option for an applicant: to be considered for the job, you can have a related college degree or possess the skills needed for the job, whether through previous experience or other forms of learning."
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"Both options count," the Walmart executives continued. "While degrees should be part of the equation and in some cases even required, there are many roles where a degree is simply unnecessary, including at corporate headquarters."
