Walmart Opens Associate Training Academy in Naperville

Naperville, IL (April 5, 2018) – Walmart opened a dedicated training academy for associates in Naperville this morning with a graduation and ribbon cutting ceremony at the store on 2552 W. 75th St. Academies are dedicated facilities located in, or adjacent to, a Walmart Supercenter where hourly supervisors and department managers receive two weeks of hands-on training that combines the classroom and the sales floor.

“Our training academies, which help provide associates with the skills they need to succeed and advance, are an important part of our business because we know that when our associates succeed, our business succeeds,” said Walmart Vice President and Regional General Manager Dale Murphy. “Providing skills training increases productivity, confidence and knowledge which leads to greater job satisfaction, personal and professional growth and helps make working at Walmart a smart career choice.”

Walmart has created a new end-to-end training program called Pathways for associates at all levels of store operations, from entry-level to Regional General Manager. Hourly frontline supervisors and department managers will attend a dedicated two-week training program at the academy facility as part of Pathways.

• The first week is dedicated to retail fundamentals and gaining core retail skills.
• The second week is dedicated to training on the sales floor to gain the knowledge and skills to run the specific department where the associate works.
• Areas of study include leadership, merchandising, operations, technology and customer service, in addition to the department-specific training.
• Academy graduates will have the skills and confidence to run outstanding departments, lead people and deliver a great customer experience.

Walmart plans to build approximately 200 academies in the U.S. by the end of 2018. Each academy will train associates from approximately 25 nearby stores. Benefits include:

• Making training more accessible to more associates. By being closer to where people work and live, associates can be home each night rather than being away from home for two weeks of training.
• Taking associates out of their home store so they can focus solely on training for two weeks while still utilizing a real-life Walmart sales floor as a training environment.
• Training more than 140,000 associates a year.

Each academy will have its own team of dedicated associates with retail operations experience to lead the training. All academy stores go through a rigorous auditing process to make sure they are able to deliver the teaching, training and development that associates should receive at the academy.

This investment in associates builds on Walmart’s announcements earlier this year that the company is increasing its starting wage to $11/hour, providing one-time bonuses to all eligible full and part-time hourly associates in the U.S., expanding its parental and maternity leave policy and providing financial assistance to associates adopting a child.