Walmart Celebrates Anniversary of Veterans Hiring Commitment by Guaranteeing a Job Offer to Even More Transitioning Troops
May 20 2015 - 7:00AM
Business Wire
Company expects to hire 250,000 U.S. veterans
over seven years
Today, Walmart announced the next step in its Veterans Welcome
Home Commitment by guaranteeing a job offer to any eligible U.S.
veteran honorably discharged from active duty since the
commitment’s original launch on Memorial Day 2013. The previous
commitment was for veterans within 12 months off active duty. In
addition to the Veterans Welcome Home Commitment, Walmart is
expanding its 2013 projection of hiring 100,000 veterans by 2018,
increasing the projection to 250,000 veterans by the end of
2020.*
Since Memorial Day 2013, Walmart has hired more than 92,000
veterans, and nearly 8,000 have already been promoted to jobs with
higher pay and greater responsibility.*
“We’ve experienced a tremendous response to the Veterans Welcome
Home Commitment in our first two years, and as more service members
transition out of active duty, we know we can do more,” said
retired Brigadier General Gary Profit, Walmart’s senior director of
military programs. “We believe veterans represent the largest,
diverse, talent-rich pool in the world and are an essential segment
of the next generation at Walmart.”
The Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
estimates 250,000 service members may separate from the military
per year over the next five years; the need for America’s leading
businesses to contribute to their transition will only
continue.
“Walmart’s Veterans Welcome Home Commitment assures our nation's
veterans that there is an opportunity available for them through a
much needed short-term job or the start of a long-term career,”
said James Schmeling, co-founder of the Institute for Veterans and
Military Families and managing director for programming. “Walmart,
Sam’s Club, and the Walmart Foundation, have been strong partners,
supporting IVMF’s work building impactful programs, including for
veteran and family business ownership, through the educational
institutions and communities where veterans and families are
preparing for important transitions in their lives.”
“I didn’t start out in the armed forces. I worked for Walmart,
joined the National Guard, and then deployed to Iraq,” said West
Bernhardt, a Walmart store manager in Tulsa, Okla. “Walmart offers
a military differential pay, and that kept me afloat while I was
deployed in the Army. Walmart also held my position while deployed.
On every military leave, I could come back to the company to work,
and I was promoted within two weeks of returning from my final
deployment in Iraq.”
Walmart is also extending its support for transitioning military
members and their families beyond the company’s operations and is
leveraging the size and scale of its supply chain to further
support programs that provide training, education and economic
opportunity.
- Coalition for Veteran Owned
Business: On May 5, Walmart participated in the launch of the
Coalition for Veteran Owned Business, which will work to create
opportunities for veteran and military-family owned businesses with
American businesses and supply chains.
- Walmart’s U.S. Manufacturing Summit
and Open Call: Walmart is also specifically encouraging
military and veteran-owned businesses to apply for its annual U.S.
Manufacturing Summit and Open Call to be held July 7-8, 2015 in
Bentonville, Ark. The summit and open call will provide an
opportunity to meet with Walmart’s buyers and facilitate meetings
for current and potential suppliers with key state economic
development officials.
In 2011, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation committed $20
million by 2015 to support veterans and their families with
assistance from programs that provide job training, transition help
and education. After delivering on this commitment in 2014 (one
year ahead of schedule), Walmart and the Walmart Foundation renewed
their commitment, announcing an additional $20 million through 2019
to support veteran job training, education and innovative
public/private community-based initiatives that address the
challenges many of our veterans face when returning to the civilian
workforce and their communities.
- Institute for Veterans and Military
Families at Syracuse University (IVMF): The Walmart
Foundation awarded a $1 million grant to support a three-year
initiative to pilot new ways in which non-profit, public, and
private sectors can better work together to serve veterans.
- The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for
the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. – Center for
Public-Private Partnerships (CP3): The Walmart Foundation
awarded a $500,000 grant to support The Veterans Metrics Initiative
(TVMI): Linking Program Components to Post-Military Well-Being
study. This five-year study will assess the well-being of 7,500
veterans 90 days prior to separation from military service to
within three years thereafter, and document and analyze the
components of the transition and reintegration programs the
veterans report that they use.
For more information about Walmart’s Veterans Welcome Home
Commitment, please visit: www.walmartcareerswithamission.com and
follow on Twitter @WalmartVeterans.
*Editor’s Note: These projections and reported hires/promotions
include veterans hired under our original and expanded Commitment
as well as other veterans hired by Walmart in this time frame.
While we think it is particularly important to support soldiers as
they make the transition to civilian life, Walmart believes all
veterans deserve our respect and support, no matter when they left
active duty.
About Walmart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) helps people around the world
save money and live better – anytime and anywhere – in retail
stores, online, and through their mobile devices. Each week, more
than 250 million customers and members visit our 11,462 stores
under 71 banners in 27 countries and e-commerce websites in 11
countries. With fiscal year 2015 sales of nearly $486 billion,
Walmart employs more than 2 million associates worldwide. Walmart
continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy
and employment opportunity. Additional information about Walmart
can be found by visiting http://corporate.walmart.com on
Facebook at http://facebook.com/walmart and on Twitter
at http://twitter.com/walmart. Online merchandise sales are
available
at http://www.walmart.com and http://www.samsclub.com.
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Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.Scott Markley,
800-331-0085news.walmart.com/reporter
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