Walmart partners with non-profit, large employers on worker skills site
Walmart Inc. is spearheading an effort to develop a common taxonomy (language) for businesses to assess and verify skills.
The retail giant is collaborating with Burning Glass Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to researching the future of work and workers, as well as other large U.S. companies including Accenture, Bank of America, Blackstone, Home Depot, Microsoft, Nordstrom, PepsiCo and Verizon on the Skills-First Workforce Initiative.
The goal of the project, initially launched by Walmart in 2025, is to develop a framework for skills-first hiring that can fit every business. On Monday April 7, 2025, the Burning Glass Institute unveiled Skills-First.org, a new website built on custom-built artificial intelligence models housing skills profiles for nine common jobs representing more than 11 million U.S. workers.
[READ MORE: Walmart redefines skilling strategy to meet evolving workforce needs]
Employers can use the site to see the top skills for each role, which skills are on the rise, common skills definitions, and standards for basic, intermediate and advanced proficiency.
The release of the website is intended to support a broader effort to create an open-source, comprehensive framework for skills-based hiring that will be available to all employers. Walmart is expanding the site to include 30 in-demand roles encompassing an estimated 40% of U.S. workers.
The site’s AI tools will analyze publicly available labor market trends and provide definitions for skills and proficiency levels, among other qualifications. Walmart is also working with HR tech providers to give specific feedback on how to integrate skills into their platforms used in the private sector.
"Our goal is to have HR enterprise technology companies incorporate this work into their existing systems to help encourage broader adoption of skills-based hiring across companies of all sizes," said Donna Morris, chief people officer, Walmart and Julie Gehrki, senior VP and president, Walmart Foundation.
Walmart offers employee education and training
Walmart is also making efforts to build the skills of its workforce by removing college degree requirements where possible, investing $1 billion by 2026 in skills-based training and education and creating career pathways to jobs with greater responsibility and higher pay.
Launched in 2018 in partnership with education benefits management company Guild and steadily expanded in the years since, an initiative called Live Better U is designed to provide the 1.5 million Walmart and Sam’s Club associates in the U.S. free access to educational and career-building resources, such as 100% payment of college tuition and books starting on the first day of full-time or part-time employment.
The company says that when it removed the initial $1 a day fee for associates in 2021, it saw a 66% increase in enrollment year-over-year.
Live Better U offerings now include more than 70 programs, including programs added to support growth in high-demand areas such as supply chain. In March 2023, Walmart launched a new collaboration with Springboard, a provider of online mentor- and instructor-led training programs, to offer tailored upskilling and reskilling courses in data analytics, software development, and data-driven strategic thinking.
