Walmart will start sharing ‘real time’ diversity stats twice a year

Walmart, the nation's largest private employer, will start sharing its internal diversity stats twice a year instead of annually, in the midst of a searing national debate over equality.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Also, we're also watching Walmart, because it is taking another step in the fight to promote diversity by being more transparent. Julia, you track Walmart closely. So what does this latest move look like?

JULIA LA ROCHE: Yeah, that's right, Julie. When you think about Walmart, it is the nation's largest private employer, employing more than 1 million people. And after the killing of George Floyd, the company, along with a lot of other companies, came out condemning systemic racism and talking about social justice and equity, including within the workplace, and that they committed to taking a number of steps.

And one of those is actually providing a more real-time picture of its diversity and inclusion data. Now, the company historically has put out this annual report. But now they're providing a better look into what the progress looks like.

And just to give you a bit of insight here, from fiscal year 2019 through fiscal year, year-to-date 2021, the company is seen a 7.42% increase in management to management promotions for people of color. That group now accounts for 44.6% of those promotions this year. That's according to the report.

The company has also seen a 2.97% increase in officers of color. Its 24.89% of those officer roles held by people of color. And the company also noted a 2.2% increase in US people of color new hires, now comprising more than 55% of the new hires.

But to be sure, the company certainly has a lot of work to do. They cited some of the areas, including promoting more women of color, whether it was hiring them, promoting them to different levels. They still don't account for quite as many of those roles. Women broadly account for 45% of management roles in the US, while women of color account for just over 17% of those roles.

The company officer positions are held by 30.9% of women and only 7.31% of women of color. So the company is making steps around its own hiring practices, including-- now it used to be for the officer role, but now broad based-- you have to have a diverse set of candidates and a diverse set of-- a panel assessing those candidates. I think that based on the data they've seen in recent years around the officer promotions that that would actually help.

So they're trying to find ways. Again, I mentioned more than 1 million people. 75% of management roles, those folks started out as hourly associates. So they're trying to really work from the bottom, work their way up, and promote and retain their talent.

JULIE HYMAN: And a theme that we've been talking about consistently is accountability when it comes to diversity. So transparency is certainly part of that picture. Thank you, Julia.