How We're Using Tech at Walmart to Equip Our Associates

Drew Holler, Senior Vice President, People Operations, Walmart U.S.

Each week, more than 220 million customers shop with Walmart. Given the rapidly changing retail landscape, we’re investing heavily in technology to make it easy for them to shop with us however they want.

On the flip side, roughly1.6 million associates work for Walmart across the U.S. That’s more than the population of cities like San Francisco, Denver and Seattle. Working at that scale is a huge opportunity and a major responsibility, and we’re focused on getting it right for each and every associate.

As the nation’s largest private employer, our associates are a representation of the communities they serve and make up a diverse cross-section of the U.S. population. That’s why we aim to provide them with consumer-grade products that make their jobs easier and make Walmart a great place to work. Just this year, we’ve unveiled an incredible new, all-in-one associate app called Me@Walmart created by our world-class Global Tech team. And we’re also providing more than half our U.S. workforce a Samsung Galaxy smartphone, free of charge.

For us, it’s all about simplifying the customer and associate experience. With customers, we map out their entire shopping experience from beginning to end so we can identify and remove friction points – often through technology.

We apply that same lens to our associate journey – the path our associates travel from the time they apply for a job at Walmart all the way through the various points of their career. We treat our associates like customers and solve problems to simplify their jobs, at scale. All 1.6 million associates need the tools to be successful in their current job while also preparing them for the next steps in their personal and professional lives.

Every successful company is constantly finding new ways to meet their customers’ needs. We try to do the same thing with our associates, and we’re seeing great results.

Associates want to work how they live, with simple and intuitive technology that mirrors what they use at home. So that’s what we’re giving them. Our in-house Global Tech, Product and People teams have joined forces to deliver some incredible consumer-grade products to our associates this year.

Every successful company is constantly finding new ways to meet their customers’ needs. We try to do the same thing with our associates, and we’re seeing great results

The Me@Walmart app is available in public app stores. The name says it all: This app will be the one location for everything associates need. Some of the most popular features include:

• Scheduling: From home, a cashier can log into the app to check their schedule and even trade a shift with another team member if they have, say, a family event they want to attend.

• Clocking in: Once the associate gets to the store for their next shift, they’re able to use the app to clock in right from their phone, rather than going to the time clock.

• Helping customers on the salesfloor: An associate in the Apparel department can use the app’s artificial intelligence feature, Ask Sam, to quickly help a customer find the pair of jeans they’re looking for. If their store doesn’t have them in stock, they can look up the closest store that has them or let the customer know to order it online.

• Communicating at work: Associates can easily interact with each other by using the app’s walkie talkie feature. For example, stockers can call for some extra help with freight if things get busy.

• Stocking the shelves with unprecedented ease: Stocking associates can use the app’s patent-pending augmented reality to quickly scan and identify which products are ready to go to the salesfloor, a feature that takes one-third the time of the previous manual process.

All associates have access to these features, and the most exciting part is this is just the beginning. We’ll continue adding new features to the Me@Walmart app so our associates can do their jobs more simply.

As we do that, we want to provide associates with a sleek, new device to use the app and simplify the work. That’s where the Samsung devices come in. Associates can use the Galaxy smartphones as both a work and personal device, if they want. They can essentially toggle back and forth between two separate phones on the same device. The phone’s work side enables them to do things like use the Me@Walmart app and access real-time, on-the-salesfloor training.

And then they can use the personal side however they want, with all the features and privacy they’re used to having (Walmart doesn’t have access to personal data.) They can text and email, let their kids watch Netflix and TikTok, or even sign up for our Live Better U benefit that pays for 100 percent of associates’ college tuition and books – you name it. It’s their phone to use. A lot of schools give students laptops at the start of the year. While it’s ultimately the school’s laptop, the students get to take it home and use it as their personal computer all year. When they’re done with school, they turn it back in. This is a similar model.

We’ve gotten an overwhelmingly positive response from associates, and we think this will be a recruiting tool to help us attract great talent going forward. The phones and the Me@Walmart app are two great examples of how the company is leveraging tech and pushing the business into the future.

Retail is an exciting industry to be in and we offer a great package for associates. They’re our competitive advantage and they make the difference each and every day for their communities.

So, we’re using tech to invest in them, remove friction and create a path for everyone to succeed at Walmart. We’re preparing for the future of retail and we’re bringing our associates along for that journey.

Retail

Artificial Intelligence

Augmented Reality