Walmart Inc. has more women and people of color in U.S. senior leadership roles than it had two years ago, but still has work to do in building a more diverse workforce, the company said in a report Thursday.
"We continue to build on that momentum while addressing focus areas with an intentional approach," Chief People Officer Donna Morris said in a blog post introducing Walmart's mid-year Culture, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Report.
This strategy can be seen in Walmart's recruitment practices, Morris said. These include investing in diverse sourcing channels and partnerships; requiring diverse hiring teams and candidate slates; and tracking progress and obstacles in its recruitment process, she said.
"We are also making meaningful strides toward advancing racial equity across education, finance, health and criminal justice systems," Morris said.
The Bentonville-based retailer employs about 1.6 million workers in the U.S. and another 550,000 around the world.
Among Walmart's achievements named in the report, its Accessibility Center of Excellence "began working as a functional team" earlier this year. Formed in May 2021, the center works across all areas of the company to develop strategies aimed at "making Walmart the most inclusive and accessible retailer and employer for people with disabilities."
The report also breaks out Walmart's efforts to diversify its ranks, often illustrating them with charts and graphics.
One chart shows that Walmart's U.S. workforce is nearly 53% female and 26.6% women of color. And the greater the position of responsibility, the lower the percentage of women and especially women of color who fill those roles.
Women make up 53% of hourly workers, while women of color hold 27% of those jobs. The disparity grows in management positions, of which 44% are held by women compared to 18% by women of color.
And women comprise 36.4% of Walmart's officers, with 10.3% of officers' ranks filled by women of color.
What the mid-year report doesn't include, however, is a comparison to the annual report released in June. That report shows these numbers as of the end of the previous fiscal year on Jan. 31.
The annual report shows that women represented 33.8% of U.S. officers last year and women of color only 9%, which means those percentages have grown this year.
Percentages among total and hourly female workers varied only slightly, but management positions were filled only 17.2% by of women of color last year.
The mid-year report said new hires in the U.S. operations so far this year by gender and ethnicity include 50% women; 30% women of color; 58% people of color; 29.7% African American or Black; 18.5% LatinX; and 3% Asian.
Doug McMillon, Walmart's president and chief executive officer, addressed racial equity in a video accompanying the report.
"Our goal is to have everyone feel respected and welcome as they shop or build their career at Walmart," McMillon said.
"One of our core values, that we inherited from [Walmart founder] Sam Walton, is respect for the individual," he said. "It serves as the foundation for building an inclusive company that values what everyone brings to the table."
Walmart's work on racial equity starts inside the company, "as it should," McMillon said.
"Having a healthy environment for our associates everywhere we operate is foundational," McMillon said. "We focus on hiring, development, promotion, pay practices and culture to create a welcoming workplace for everyone."
Morris said Walmart started publishing a mid-year edition of its Culture, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Report in 2020.