TRAILBLAZER Pacsetter Late Bloomer
Company Narrative
Walmart, a global retail corporation with hypermarkets, discount stores, and grocery outlets, has been ranked as a TRAILBLAZER on the criteria used for the Women’s Power and Influence Index.
Walmart has attained pay equity and provides employees with a comprehensive six-month professional development program through its empowHER initiative. Walmart’s CDEI Learning & Leadership Institute offers a 5-week program to enhance Walmart associates’ inclusive leadership skills. Additionally, Walmart supports women in the workplace through W-Connect, a dedicated mentoring circle. Under Walmart’s Parental Pay Policy, mothers are eligible for 22 weeks of paid leave, while nonbirthing parents can take up to 12 weeks of paid leave.
As of 2022, over half of Walmart’s workforce is female, with nearly 37% holding leadership roles.
Sufficient information regarding Walmart’s childcare policies, including subsidized care, could not be found.
Workforce Profile
Equitable Pay
✓ Does the company demonstrate a clear and transparent commitment to equal pay?
“We conduct annual pay equity analyses to confirm that, accounting for relevant factors such as position, tenure, and location, associates are paid equitably regardless of race, ethnicity, and gender.”
Ref: Walmart Equity & Inclusion at Walmart & Beyond Web Page 2023
✓ Does the company perform an annual analysis of gender pay equity and pay disparities?
“Our analyses of pay and compensation practices are conducted in consultation with expert third-party firms to confirm that we are following industry-leading standards. As part of our annual and ongoing rewards management, we adjust pay and practices, as necessary, to correct for unintended pay differences and market competitiveness. We continue to review our processes and analyses beyond the U.S. and Canada so that we can consistently review and report on our equitable pay and practices globally. We commit to annually updating this disclosure.
Fair pay is foundational to Walmart’s culture and values. Pay equity analyses are part of a larger set of practices to support and develop diverse talent and to treat all associates fairly, consistent with our core value of respect for the individual. Examples include:
- Hiring practices. Gender-neutral job descriptions; interview training workshops and standardized interview questions; not requesting a salary history to set pay for external candidates; diverse candidate slates for U.S. officers and the Board of Directors
- Pay controls. Market-based starting pay rates; limiting discretion on pay; reviewing pay and promotion decisions before finalization
- Transparency. Providing self-service tools for associates to view their pay details and range at any time; supporting associate inquiries regarding pay and providing confidential resources for raising concerns”
Ref: Walmart Equity & Inclusion at Walmart & Beyond Web Page 2023
✓ Do female employees earn at least 95% of what their male counterparts earn?
“Our pay equity analyses in the U.S. confirm that women are paid 1:1 (dollar for dollar) of the pay for men, and that people of color are paid 1:1 (dollar for dollar) of the pay for white associates.”
Ref: Walmart Equity & Inclusion at Walmart & Beyond Web Page 2023
Career Growth
✓ Does the company demonstrate a commitment to actively attracting, retaining, and/or promoting women within the organization?
“We are focused on the growth of our associates, and this includes a concerted effort to continue to ensure our female associates are growing in their careers by providing a path of opportunity and advancement.”
Ref: Walmart Embracing Women’s History Month Belonging Matters for Women in the Workplace 2023
✓ Does the company provide professional development programs designed specifically for female employees?
“In conjunction with WWIT (Walmart Women in Tech), our Associate Resource Group – Women’s Resource Community leads several engagements to elevate our workplace. We build a long-term strategy and many programs to encourage and empower women to learn and progress in their careers to leadership positions…empowHER is a six-month development journey created for high potential women associates at mid-management, focusing on exposure and experiences. The program includes a guided plan of virtual learning labs with topics ranging from business acumen, domain expertise, tech upskilling, and leadership capabilities.”
Ref: Why do we need more women in tech 2023
✓ Does the company provide professional development programs designed specifically for diverse employees?
“The CDEI Learning & Leadership team develops and curates resources and training to help upskill Walmart associates as inclusive leaders. Recent examples include:
- Culture, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (CDEI) Institute. The CDEI Institute, launched in 2020, is a virtual development program designed to cultivate inclusive leadership skills for CDEI advocacy. Associates who participate in the five-week program examine five major areas: promoting values-based leadership, exploring the power of diversity, mitigating unconscious bias, fostering a sense of belonging, and creating equitable environments. After completing the program, associates are encouraged to remain engaged and help integrate key learnings among their teams. Approximately 800 associates participated in FY2023.”
Ref: Walmart Equity & Inclusion at Walmart & Beyond Web Page 2023
✓ Does the company offer a formal mentoring program to support the career advancement of all female employees?
“In conjunction with WWIT (Walmart Women in Tech), our Associate Resource Group – Women’s Resource Community leads several engagements to elevate our workplace. We build a long-term strategy and many programs to encourage and empower women to learn and progress in their careers to leadership positions…W-Connect is our first unique mentoring circle for women at mid-levels of their profession to create a career-focused identity. This is done by leveraging the concept of intentional career pathing convergent with mid-term and long-term career milestones to enable them to pursue their vision successfully and sustainably.”
Ref: Why do we need more women in tech 2023
✓ Does the company offer a formal mentoring program to support the career advancement of diverse employees?
“Mentoring Circles. Close to 3,000 associates have participated in over 1,000 Lean In Mentoring Circles since the inception of the program to support one another along their learning and development journeys. Additionally, we have mentoring circles for our Black and African American, women, and LatinX senior directors led by their respective officer caucuses.”
Ref: Walmart Equity & Inclusion at Walmart & Beyond Web Page 2023
✓ Does the company have policies and programs in place to actively recruit female candidates?
“Walmart Inc. Board of Directors and Board Committees
- The Board is comprised of directors with diverse backgrounds, experiences and viewpoints, which we believe improves board dialogue and decision-making. The Board has adopted a policy requiring that search firms include women and people of color candidates among the pool of potential directors, and we ask Board members to annually disclose their gender and race/ethnicity. As of April 2023, the Walmart Board included 27% women and 18% directors who are racially/ethnically diverse.
- The Compensation and Management Development Committee of the Board has the authority and responsibility to review and advise management regarding the Company’s human capital management strategies, including culture, diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies, programs, and initiatives.”
Ref: Walmart Equity & Inclusion at Walmart & Beyond Web Page 2023
✓ Does the company have policies and programs in place to actively recruit diverse candidates?
“Our approach to hiring focuses on broad outreach to create robust pipelines of diverse talent:
- Strategic partnerships and initiatives
- We have strategic partnerships with two Historically Black Colleges and Universities—North Carolina A&T State University and Jackson State University—focused on strengthening pathways to careers at Walmart, career readiness, and academic enrichment. We also have recruiting partnerships with six institutions: Clark Atlanta University, Florida A&M University, Hampton University, Prairie View A&M University, Southern University, and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
- Walmart joined the OneTen Coalition as part of a commitment to upskill, hire, and promote one million Black and African American individuals over ten years into family-sustaining careers. Walmart leads OneTen’s retention and advancement work streams.
- We support early career candidates across a broad portfolio of schools, including minority-serving institutions. We support candidates through mock interview programs, resume writing workshops, and career fairs. To help college students prepare for job interviews and their first careers, we offer programs like the World of Walmart Bootcamp and the Diversity Leadership Summit. These summits bring prospective associates to Northwest Arkansas for professional development workshops, networking opportunities, and social engagements with leaders, associates, and campus recruiters.
- We leverage diverse media channels via strategic recruitment marketing campaigns and attend dozens of events and conferences to connect with diverse candidate pools.”
Ref: Walmart Equity & Inclusion at Walmart & Beyond Web Page 2023
Work-Life Balance
✘ Does the company demonstrate a commitment to providing support and/or time off for women with children?
Information regarding this criterion was unavailable or incomplete.
✘ Does the company provide child care support for employees?
Information regarding this criterion was unavailable or incomplete.
✘ Does the company offer subsidized child care?
Information regarding this criterion was unavailable or incomplete.
✓Does the company offer paid maternity leave for birthing parents?
“Earlier this year, we expanded our Parental Pay Policy for salaried associates from six weeks to 12 weeks. So, when an eligible associate welcomes a child through birth, adoption or foster placement, they can now take up to 12 weeks of paid time off. This also means that eligible birth mothers can now receive up to 22 weeks of paid time off when parental leave is combined with maternity leave.”
Ref: Walmart Celebrating and Supporting All Paths to Parenthood at Walmart 2023
✓Does the company provide paid parental leave that extends beyond birthing parents to include surrogacy, adoption, and paternity leave?
“Earlier this year, we expanded our Parental Pay Policy for salaried associates from six weeks to 12 weeks. So, when an eligible associate welcomes a child through birth, adoption or foster placement, they can now take up to 12 weeks of paid time off. This also means that eligible birth mothers can now receive up to 22 weeks of paid time off when parental leave is combined with maternity leave.”
Ref: Walmart Celebrating and Supporting All Paths to Parenthood at Walmart 2023
✓ Does the company demonstrate a commitment to supporting the health benefits of its female employees?
“The many roles parents take on – mentor, confidant, educator, consoler – all add up to play a crucial role in fostering future generations and communities. That’s why providing quality, comprehensive and affordable health care for our Walmart and Sam’s Club associates, especially when it comes to supporting the many paths to parenthood, is incredibly important to us.”
Ref: Walmart Celebrating and Supporting All Paths to Parenthood at Walmart 2023
✓ Does the company offer women-specific health benefits for female employees?
“One fantastic example is our new Center of Excellence for fertility care that we had the privilege to launch last year. Associates and their family members enrolled in most Walmart medical plans now have coverage for high-quality fertility treatments, including intrauterine insemination (IUI), in vitro fertilization (IVF), egg freezing and donor services. We know this benefit is impactful, as more than 1,300 associate families have used the program within the first seven months of launch…Additionally, eligible associates have access to up to a combined $20,000 towards adoption and surrogacy expenses – even if they’re not enrolled in a Walmart medical plan. Before, during and after pregnancies, associates on a Walmart medical plan can connect with a registered nurse for guidance on a range of topics from preconception to early childhood, or, in select areas, a Doula for emotional and physical support.”
Ref: Walmart Celebrating and Supporting All Paths to Parenthood at Walmart 2023
Workplace Standards
✓ Does the company have a policy listing prohibited behaviors, such as harassment and retaliation?
“We are committed to a workplace that is free of harassment and discrimination. We do not tolerate any behavior that diminishes the dignity of a person, inappropriately or unreasonably interferes with work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or otherwise offensive work environment based on an individual’s protected status. We also do not tolerate retaliation against anyone who raises a concern about harassment or discrimination.”
Ref: Pg. 22, Walmart Code_of_Conduct_English_US 2023
✓ Does the company mandate all employees to undergo harassment and discrimination training?
“Harassment and discrimination prevention: All global officers receive regular discrimination and harassment prevention training. Ethics training also addresses discrimination and harassment prevention, and, beyond our regular Ethics training, Walmart assigns discrimination and harassment prevention and sexual harassment prevention training to all U.S. based associates every two years, unless the associate works in a state that has a specific training frequency requirement. Market training and awareness teams also developed awareness campaigns focused on sexual harassment prevention. The campaigns featured executive leadership messaging and used multiple communication channels and collateral material including market intranet sites, emails, and posters.”
Ref: Walmart Ethics & Compliance Web Page 2023
✓ Does the company have a defined harassment policy that includes promptly addressing reported incidents?
“We implement formal, written policies to clearly articulate the company’s expectations on how to conduct the organization’s business, what we expect from suppliers and other third parties and how to apply them across our operations. Ethics and compliance expectations are set forth in our Code of Conduct, in topic-specific policies, and in documented procedures and guidance. We design risk-based controls to help ensure business processes are executed in compliance with our expectations. Risk reviews (including regulatory change monitoring and control testing) help us confirm that our policies and controls cover relevant risks and are effective. These include financial controls to detect and prevent unauthorized transactions. In order to keep ourselves accountable, we periodically review and update the guidance we have published to help our associates and applicable third parties make the right decisions. Additionally, in many compliance areas, we oversee third-party relationships (for example, suppliers, vendors, and outside counsel) using risk-based controls, including due diligence on higher-risk business partners and audits within our supply chain.”
Stakeholder Engagement
✓ Does the company demonstrate a commitment to helping external stakeholders address gender equality issues?
[1] “So what does supporting women look like within the world’s largest retailer? It looks like including women in positions of leadership within the company, including on our board of directors. It looks like providing all associates, including women, with the opportunity to gain training and advance their careers. And it looks like empowering women suppliers to effectively work with us while growing their own business.
Over seven years, Walmart spent nearly $30 billion with women-owned businesses (for merchandising and services combined) through our supplier inclusion program. We’re proud of that number, but we know there is more work to be done as we strive to have our suppliers better reflect the communities we serve.
[2] “Additionally, since 2017 the Walmart Foundation has awarded grants of over $86 million to benefit smallholders in India, Mexico, and Central America; these grants are expected to reach over one million smallholder farmers, of whom over 50% are women. These grant programs aim to enhance farmer livelihoods and value chains, encourage the adoption of sustainable agriculture practices, unlock access to finance, grow formal market linkages, strengthen Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), and empower women farmers in FPOs. Walmart and the Walmart Foundation announced a new commitment to fund projects in India designed to help build capacity and advance the economic livelihoods of one million smallholder farmers by 2028, with at least 50% women.”
[1] Ref: Walmart Opening Doors for Women 2020
[2] Ref: Walmart Equity & Inclusion at Walmart & Beyond 2023
✓ Does the company offer and support initiatives that promote gender equality in the community?
“Walmart continues initiatives to source from women-owned businesses and support related initiatives such as the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) Student Entrepreneur Program, the NextGen program (nurturing millennial and Generation Z enterprises), and the Women of Color program (aimed at increasing their competitiveness for inclusion in corporate supply chains).
We will continue to integrate efforts to support gender equity throughout our business, ranging from responsible sourcing standards and social auditing practices along the supply chain to internal gender equity policies, practices and commitments.
In 2019 the Walmart Foundation awarded a second grant to the Aspen Institute to support its ANDE program. This time, as part of the Partnership for Sustainable and Inclusive Small and Growing Business program, ANDE will build strong and inclusive agricultural entrepreneurial ecosystems in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. The work includes understanding the gender profile and gender inclusion performance of small and growing businesses and farmer producer organizations; and then using these insights to develop customized training, advice, and tools to help advance gender inclusion in these organizations and to track and measure change.”
✓ Does the company demonstrate a commitment to helping internal stakeholders/employees address gender equality issues?
“Live & Lead. In 2022, Walmart launched Live & Lead, an enterprise-wide continuous learning experience focused on women associates and their allies providing support and development for each stage of their career. Live & Lead, in partnership with NextUp, creates targeted development opportunities through quarterly learning content, networking events, and Meet the Expert sessions, all with a consideration for female nuances and gender bias.”
Ref: Walmart Equity & Inclusion at Walmart & Beyond 2023
✓ Does the company offer equity-focused trainings, speaker programs, or events for employees?
“The CDEI Learning & Leadership team develops and curates resources and training to help upskill Walmart associates as inclusive leaders. Recent examples include:
- Culture, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (CDEI) Institute. The CDEI Institute, launched in 2020, is a virtual development program designed to cultivate inclusive leadership skills for CDEI advocacy. Associates who participate in the five-week program examine five major areas: promoting values-based leadership, exploring the power of diversity, mitigating unconscious bias, fostering a sense of belonging, and creating equitable environments. After completing the program, associates are encouraged to remain engaged and help integrate key learnings among their teams. Approximately 800 associates participated in FY2023.
- Inclusive Leadership Education eModules and Race and Inclusion Learning Paths. All U.S. associates have access to a collection of self-paced eModules and curated Race & Inclusion learning paths on Walmart’s ULearn learning management system. Available eModules include Cultural Competence, Disability Inclusion in the Workplace, Leading Across Generations, Introduction to Unconscious Bias, and Unconscious Bias in Hiring. The eModules were completed by more than 8,600 associates in FY2023. Available Race and Inclusion learning paths include Expanding My Circle, Cultural Competence, Becoming a True Ally, Conversations and Dialogue, and Becoming an Inclusive Leader. The learning paths had more than 86,000 views in FY2023.
- Live & Lead. In 2022, Walmart launched Live & Lead, an enterprise-wide continuous learning experience focused on women associates and their allies providing support and development for each stage of their career. Live & Lead, in partnership with NextUp, creates targeted development opportunities through quarterly learning content, networking events, and Meet the Expert sessions, all with a consideration for female nuances and gender bias.”