AI in the Workplace, Holiday Hiring and More With Walmart's Chief People Officer

We hear a lot about how people can start learning about AI so they don't fall behind in the labor market. Yet, we haven't heard much about how companies are using the technology to help their workforce. Donna Morris , executive vice president and chief people officer at 沃尔玛 , sits down with LinkedIn News Editor Gianna Prudente on the latest episode of Get Hired with Andrew Seaman to explain how they're deploying generative AI among their workers. The two discuss how employees can get ahead of the AI learning curve.

You can hear the episode above or on Apple Podcasts by clicking here. A transcript of the conversation is available below, too.

TRANSCRIPT: AI in the Workplace, Holiday Hiring and More With Walmart's Chief People Officer

Andrew Seaman: Artificial intelligence may not be taking over the world yet, but it's definitely top of mind for most people in the workforce. So we're talking all about it on today's episode. From LinkedIn News, this is Get Hired, a podcast for the ups and downs and the ever-changing landscape of our professional lives. I'm Andrew Seaman, LinkedIn senior managing editor for Jobs and Career Development, bringing you conversations with experts who, like me, want to see you succeed at work, at home, and everywhere in between.

Unless you've been living offline or maybe living as a hermit for the past year, you've probably encountered headlines and discussions about the rise of artificial intelligence, yet it's difficult to bring these discussions into real life settings to understand how the technology may affect our day-to-Day working lives.

Well, we're very fortunate to have Donna Morris, who's Walmart's chief people officer, joining us today to learn how they're using generative AI with their workforce. As a brief refresher, generative AI has the ability to use prompts to create new content. Now Walmart, which has the world's largest private workforce, was one of the first out with the statement about using generative AI on the ground. Donna, who leads the workforce, sat down with my colleague, Gianna Prudente, to talk all about it. Here's Donna.

Donna Morris: For the last number of years, we've been using AI within the workflow to support our customers and our members, and so think about your online digital experience and how that might be aided in terms of recommendations and/or chatting with a customer service agent, et cetera, but the exciting unlock now is how we actually pivot and bring generative AI to our campus associates, which we've done in an application that's called My Assistance.

So it's basically, think of it as an internal ChatGPT feature that allows our campus office associates to do things like draft communications, do a job description, find out information about their benefits, support their onboarding, make sure that they have the opportunity to do calculations or maybe a product spec, and so from our perspective, there's a lot of different use cases that can actually make sure that people can focus on roles, I'll call it a motive, that deal with their human side and mundane can actually be further digitized, which is really great.

Gianna Prudente: So Walmart employees are actually incorporating this AI into their workflows?

Donna: We have an app, which we've launched to 50,000 of our campus office associates that's called My Assistant. It allows access for all of our campus office associates here in the United States to actually leverage for their daily work and think of it as your thought partner as you navigate your day.

Gianna: Very cool. And are there any trainings that are offered around this AI when you're introducing it into their workflow?

Donna: Absolutely. So we have short intact training, we've got learning modules that we're continuing to roll out. To give you a sense, we actually implemented this app within 60 days.

Gianna: Wow.

Donna: And so it was really fast. The team that worked on it was super excited to apply data science to the opportunity, and so we've been catching up with equipping individuals to be most effective. That all being said, we still have more than 30% of the population that's using it on a regular basis and we are rolling out learning that's specific to the actual functional areas. So think about it as learning for individuals that are in human resources, or as we call it, the people function, learning that's specific to the communicators, to the merchandisers, to the marketers, and that way, you actually take cases that are in the flow of your actual job and apply how generative AI can help.

Gianna: And what has the reception been like among employees?

Donna: I'd say pretty strong. Most people want to go and they want to do their job and they don't actually want to do the mundane and they want to make big impact, and so this is really not only a thought starter, but an ability for people to accelerate the impact that they have. So with any change, you're always going to have early adopters. That's a pretty sizable group for us, but I'd say the majority right now are still learning what it really means for their work. So come back in another three to six months, we'll have better insights in terms of how we've actually landed with the ongoing iterations and opportunities ahead.

Gianna: And obviously, some people are fearful that this type of technology will take their jobs. I'm wondering how should people view AI and technology advancements, and how do you think AI will create opportunities for jobs?

Donna: I think if you reflect upon jobs and organizations, whether it be the time period of 10, 20, 30, 40 years, there's no doubt that generative AI is going to continue to reshape organizations and jobs, but as opposed to thinking that jobs are going to go away or people are going to go away, the way we view it at Walmart is we're people led, tech powered, and we believe that there's an opportunity for generative AI to enhance how people actually work and make an impact.

The world that we envision into the future is ideally, we're growing our business, our customers, our members, but our overall workforce might end up being more stabilized in terms of the size. We are the largest employer here in the US. We have approximately 2.1 million associates or employees across all markets. So from our perspective, if this enhances our opportunity to make a big impact and be more neutral in terms of the size of the organization, that's not a bad thing. With those changes, it will emerge that there'll be some new jobs and we'll transition individuals into those new jobs.

Gianna: Speaking of new jobs, has Walmart increased its recruitment or hiring of people with AI experience?

Donna: Not necessarily. Over the last number of years, we've hired a lot of individuals into our data science teams in particular within global technology, and we've continued to really strengthen our technical bench, but specific to the rise of generative AI, it's consistent with the moves that we've been making to embed AI into our products and our services for the last number of years.

Gianna: I saw a quote once that said, AI will not replace you, but people using AI will, and it's that whole idea of the early adoption, getting on board with it, testing it out in your workflow, and it seems like Walmart has had a great response so far and lots of learnings to come. So we're excited to follow up with you on some of those learnings once it's tested out a bit more, but I want to pivot a bit to talk about holiday hiring. So the holidays, believe it or not, are right around the corner. It's already October. So with the holidays approaching, is Walmart planning to hire seasonal workers?

Donna: We're an always on hiring company and so we don't specifically lean into holidays and think about it different than any other time of the year, and so we continue to have opportunities across our clubs and our stores and our facilities here in the United States. We don't expect that there'll be a change as we go into holiday season other than always on.

Gianna: Love that mentality, and I think a lot of people think with holiday work, there's a strict start and end date. Maybe it's three months, you go from November to January, but that's not always the case. Often, these roles can lead to full-time employment. So with seasonal hiring, if somebody does get a job at Walmart around this time, do those people end up working beyond the holidays, and if so, what can workers do to increase the likelihood of that happening?

Donna: We've had a great track record of individuals starting with us as maybe what they thought of as an interim job for a period of time and maybe it was even part-time. Over 70% of the individuals that work for us in our facilities are actually full-time associates and so we have a big belief in having individuals join us.

And if the path that they want to take is to be full-time, we do have those opportunities available. I love that we're able to actually say that more than 75% of our store managers started in the frontline, and so the path of opportunity definitely exists and I'd encourage people, whether they're at Walmart or they're at any other organization, use it as your best start to demonstrate that you can make a lot of impact to the organization.

Andrew: We'll be right back with Donna Morris.?

Andrew: And we're back with Walmart's Chief People Officer, Donna Morris.

Gianna: When you talk about people climbing up the career ladder or changing roles within the company, having that internal mobility, how does Walmart provide upskilling opportunities to help people get to that next level?

Donna: Well, we see it in three different areas and that's on the job through what we call our academies, which are specific learning opportunities, and then we have a program called Live Better U. Live Better U is focused on some college courses, some that are not college bound courses. They could be certificates all directed to position openings that we have. I'll give some examples. We have one of the largest private fleets in the country.

We have a wonderful program where individuals might start for us in a distribution center and they might end up being one of our fleet drivers. Those salaries started around $90,000 a year. That education and the certification to actually become a commercial driver is all paid for and supported by Walmart, and so we have a bunch of different pathways that could lead the direction to our fleet, to supply chain, to health and wellness, to information security and technology and beyond.

And what we're trying to do is give tools to individuals so that they can identify what are their skills currently today, what might they be interested in the future, and how do they fill those gaps. It's a perfect example of where we're using AI to actually provide insights right to our associates and there's more ahead in the future as it relates to our ability to really match workforce requirements with our active associates.

Gianna: Yes, that job matching piece is so key, and I love that there's different pathways for employees to explore. We know that having a clear career path is so important to feel like you can grow your career at a company, and it's amazing that Walmart is able to provide those opportunities for people. I want to talk about another workplace trend we're seeing, which is skills-based hiring. How is Walmart adapting to that trend, which is going to just continue to grow in 2024?

Donna: I think it absolutely is not only a trend that's going to continue to grow, but I think a reality is ongoing learning and being focused more on skills as opposed to a degree or diploma or certificate is going to be the wave of the future. We absolutely have jobs and there are jobs that do necessitate the requirement for a four-year college degree, but the reality is the majority of jobs require individuals that are going to be lifelong learners, that are going to continue to invest in growth and learning.

And I think as an employer, we're focused on making sure that we've got real clarity in the skills that are required for jobs and that we're focused on developing those skills on the job through our academies, through Live Better U, and that we actually celebrate the skills that people have. So I think the increase in companies that'll be looking at skills, the removal of actual degree statements on postings will be something that'll continue to travel through 2024 and probably beyond as well.

Gianna: And Walmart recently announced that they will be getting rid of degree requirements for a certain number of jobs, right?

Donna: We'll see the majority of jobs for which we no longer call out degree requirements. You're right. So there'll be a small subset that no longer have degree requirements.

Gianna: That's great to hear Walmart is hopping on the trend. I want to just end on one question and some parting advice for people listening. When you're thinking about AI and your skills and all of the ways that our jobs are constantly changing, what do you think is most important for people when it comes to embracing this AI, whether they're looking for a seasonal job, any type of job around the year? What's your best piece of advice?

Donna: I would really encourage people to always be focused on learning, be inquisitive, try it out. There's lots of open source abilities for people to test, whether it be Bard, whether it be ChatGPT. Don't think of it as a barrier, but think of it as an unlock of opportunity, and so my big message is always continue to invest in learning, and that's something that can be lifelong and can really support your continued growth and development ahead.

Gianna: Amazing. Thank you so much, Donna, for joining me.

Donna: Thanks very much for having me.

Andrew: That was Donna Morris, executive vice president and chief people officer for Walmart. Remember, it's up to you to put our advice into practice. Still, you always have a community backing you up and cheering you on. Connect with me and the Get Hired community on LinkedIn to continue the conversation. Also, if you like this episode, please take a moment to leave us a rating on Apple Podcast. It helps people like you find the show, and don't forget to click that follow, subscribe, or whatever other button you find to get our podcast delivered to you every Wednesday.

Because we'll continue these conversations on the next episode right here, wherever you like to listen. Get Hired is a production of LinkedIn News. This episode was produced by Alexis Ramdaou, Rafa Farihah is our associate producer, Assaf Gidron engineered our show, Joe DiGiorgi mixed our show, Dave Pond is head of news production, Enrique Montalvo is our executive producer, Courtney Coupe is the head of original programming for LinkedIn, Dan Roth is the editor in chief of LinkedIn, and I'm Andrew Seaman. Until next time, stay well and best of luck.