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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