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Donna Morris, Walmart

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Executive Vice President, Chief People Officer

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — As chief people officer of Walmart, Donna Morris is responsible for attracting, retaining and developing talent for more than 2 million associates around the globe. In that role, moreover, she leads an organization that is driving some of the most dramatic and impactful changes occurring in Walmart — changes that are moving the retailer forward and preparing its associates for the future of work.

Donna Morris Walmart

Donna Morris

Morris joined Walmart in February 2020 from Adobe, where she had worked for 17 years and ultimately served as chief human resources officer and executive vice president of employee experience. A native of Ottawa, Canada, she graduated from Carleton University with a bachelor of arts in political science.

At Adobe, Morris held leadership roles in an organization that has been at the forefront of the digital transformation of work. And a significant attraction of Walmart was the fact that the world’s largest retailer is in the midst of its own digital transformation. “It was an incredible opportunity for impact given the size and scale of the organization, and the fact that the business is going through digital transformation,” she says. “It was two of my passions — passion for people, passion for business impact — and was a great culmination of everything I had done, but at a whole different scale. I haven’t been disappointed.”

Morris joined Walmart at what is unquestionably an exciting time in the company’s history. Since 2015, when president and chief executive officer Doug McMillon unveiled a stunning investment in employee compensation, training and development, Walmart has in effect been in the process of transforming its relationship with its associates in an effort to harness their motivation, energy and talents to drive the company’s future growth. The People organization has a vital role in driving that transformation. According to Morris, it has four core areas of focus:

  • Digital — which means equipping associates with needed digital skills and tools to enhance ways of working to improve the associate experience.
  • Growth — which includes the personal growth and development of associates, and thus encompasses all training, education and development initiatives, such as the Walmart Academies and the Live Better U (LBU) ­program.
  • Inclusion — which goes beyond diversity in hiring and promotion and includes partnerships with North Carolina A&T, the nation’s largest Black college, and with McKinsey Co. to carry out a first-of-its-kind study, “Race in the Workplace: The Black ­Experience.”
  • Well-being — which encompasses physical, emotional and financial well-being. The unprecedented challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year have underlined the importance of this area of focus.

These efforts are bearing fruit. Morris can point to a plethora of figures that illustrate the gains in retention, development and growth of associates. For example, more than 2 million training programs have been completed in the 200-plus Walmart Academies, while nearly 28,000 associates are currently enrolled in Live Better U, Walmart’s dollar-a-day educational program.

The focus on diversity and inclusion is not limited to the store level, moreover. While 55% of the 480,000 new U.S. associates hired last year were people of color, at the officer level, representation of women and people of color ­increased.

The company is winning broader recognition for its transformative people initiatives as well. Morris points out with pride that, for the first time, Walmart was ranked by LinkedIn as one of the nation’s top employers, coming in ninth in the top 50.

For Morris, the most rewarding aspect of her work is seeing the real impact of these initiatives on the lives of associates. “Every company says ‘people are our greatest asset,’ ” she remarks. “The difference here at Walmart is that we actually have the potential to do that. “I couldn’t be more proud of being here at Walmart at this point in time. I think it’s really the place to be.”


ECRM_06-01-22


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