Wal-Mart testing staff hiring, training hub

Special to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette - 06/26/2014 - Dozens of Wal-Mart check-out lanes — many more than you’d find in a store — are used to train employees at a new test project, a Wal-Mart Talent Center in Irving, Texas. The first hiring and training center will churn out workers for  up to 140 stores in the retailer’s largest U.S. market, Dallas-Fort Worth.
Special to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette - 06/26/2014 - Dozens of Wal-Mart check-out lanes — many more than you’d find in a store — are used to train employees at a new test project, a Wal-Mart Talent Center in Irving, Texas. The first hiring and training center will churn out workers for up to 140 stores in the retailer’s largest U.S. market, Dallas-Fort Worth.

Wal-Mart's largest U.S. market, Dallas-Fort Worth, is burgeoning, and to help keep stores adequately staffed, the retailer is testing a new concept -- a centralized hiring and training center.

The Wal-Mart Talent Center in Irving, Texas, has been open about two months and will eventually churn out workers for more than 120 stores within a 50-mile radius of the facility. It is not for all stores in the region but covers the majority of them, said Wal-Mart spokesman Kayla Whaling.

Wal-Mart employs about 29,000 people in stores across the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area and needs more. From January through April, the company opened three new supercenters, which employ about 300 people each, and a Neighborhood Market, which can use up to 95 workers. Three more stores, at least two of them supercenters, are to open by next spring.

The 38,000-square-foot hiring and training facility is roughly the size of a Neighborhood Market. It looks and feels like a real store but with more than the usual number of product aisles and work stations, including dozens of fully functional checkout stations for training cashiers. There's even a truck that holds merchandise so newly hired associates can learn to properly unload goods. Another position for which employees are trained at the center is cart pushers, those who clear Wal-Mart parking lots and carry customers' groceries to their cars.

Jeff Davis, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Wal-Mart U.S., mentioned the Talent Center while speaking recently to analysts at the Jefferies 2014 Global Consumer Conference. He said the center's focus is putting the right employees in the right positions.

"This center allows individuals to be appropriately onboard and understand the culture of what Wal-Mart does and actually get training before they get to the stores," Davis told the group.

"Hourly associates and management can actually do hands-on training, gain a level of proficiency in the store environment before actually being assigned to a store, and we believe these are the types of things that will help us improve associate engagements when they first get to the store," Davis added.

Another goal is adding consistency to the hiring and training processes, which would in turn improve customers' shopping experiences.

"The intent is give people the basic skill sets -- and more importantly, confidence -- to do the job on Day One when they step into the stores," said Vanessa Smith, director of the center.

Assistant managers for a region covering most of Texas also are trained there. If the pilot is successful, the notion of centralized hiring and training could be rolled out to other large markets. When fully operational, Smith said, the center will be able to churn out 150 to 200 people a week.

The curriculum for the training was developed by Johnson-based SVI, which has a satellite office in Dallas. Specifically, SVI put together the assistant manager training program for a manager's first month on the job, said SVI partner Erin Marchese.

"It's really the first level of management for them," she said. "They are a direct contact not only with customers but with every associate that's on the floor."

Willie Williams, an overnight stocker at a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Rowlett, Texas, spent a couple of night shifts at the Talent Center learning how to cycle out older, perishable products and to restock general merchandise. He was one of the first to be trained at the center.

"I feel like it gave me a leg up over those who just come in and get started," he said. Williams said he had the full attention of two trainers during his instruction. There's more to the job than just arranging products on a shelf, he said. It's important to have the right products and the right amount of products available.

At a company meeting in April in Orlando, Fla., executives reported that they were losing almost $3 billion because of some products being out of stock, retail analyst Paula Rosenblum said in a blog post for Forbes. Bloomberg News later reported that Wal-Mart was adding more associates to help rectify the problem.

Not only is the Talent Center a place to get the proper job training, some say it's also a source of inspiration. Williams said he learned volumes about the company and its leaders that he would not have known without an extensive Internet search.

"I had no clue that Wal-Mart has as many stores as it has or how Wal-Mart came to be," he said. One area dubbed the Hallway of Opportunity has portraits of executives and text about how they rose through the ranks. At the end of the hall is a mirror where associates can look and perhaps picture themselves as someday running the company.

Beginning his career at Wal-Mart at age 42, Williams said he's not likely to rise to the executive level, "but it does give you a sense that there's growth inside the company, that you won't be where you are forever."

SundayMonday Business on 06/29/2014

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