Walmart details seasonal hiring plans
More associates working more hours to elevate the customer experience is the pledge Walmart COO Judith McKenna is making to holiday shoppers this season.
The day after Kohl’s, Toys “R” Us and UPS announced ambitious holiday hiring plans, Walmart said it would add 60,000 seasonal workers after giving existing workers the opportunity to pick up extra hours.
“The holidays are one of the most anticipated times of the year for families, and one of the busiest. Walmart has been working all year to give our customers a great shopping experience and we believe they will see a difference when they visit us during the holidays,” McKenna said. “Walmart will have more associates in our stores working more hours this season, all with a focus on providing service and convenience to our customers. We will continue our ‘Checkout Promise’ by having more registers open during peak shopping times, helping customers save time by getting through our lines quicker.”
Walmart also said it would give its current employees first dibs on working addition hours and noted that its seasonal employees would start at a rate of at least $9 an hour.
“We know some of these hires are looking for a short-term opportunity to earn extra Christmas money, but for many, this could be the start of a career,” McKenna said, echoing a theme share by others. “In fact we have hundreds of store managers who started with the company as a seasonal associate. Last year, more than half of our seasonal associates stayed with Walmart in a permanent role after the holidays.”
A key job function for some of the seasonal hires will be to help Walmart execute its omnichannel strategy. Walmart said its it has added department manager function back to 3,500 stores to help cope with a surge in buy online, pick up in store orders.
“More and more, customers are turning to the convenience of digital and mobile shopping and we are going to make the experience at Walmart simple and easy. We want to help people pick up their order and get back to the rest of their day as quickly as we can,” McKenna said.