How Walmart works to retain employees, with the use of bonuses, automation and more
Cedric Clark, now evp of store operations for Walmart U.S., first joined the company in 2002 as an associate selling sporting goods. He worked his way through the company in an array of roles nationally ranging from asset protection to regional operations, ascending from carrying equipment from trailers in the cold to running operations for about 4,600 stores.
Aside from a brief two-year stint as vp of operations for PetSmart, Clark has been with Walmart for about two decades, meaning he knows firsthand how people can build a career within not only the largest retailer in the U.S., but also one of the largest companies in the world. In a one-on-one interview with Modern Retail at Shoptalk, Clark shared how the retailer has invested in technology and incentives to limit turnover and guide employees onto long tenures with the company, “leveraging technologies to simplify the work for our teams, to make it better for them to serve the customer.”
The company last year implemented a new bonus for hourly store associates based on how they drive sales and profit. Clark said employees received their first payouts from that program in March and that a majority of its associates received a bonus. “It was a large amount.” Additionally, the company said earlier this year that market managers can make up to $620,000 after stock grants and bonuses, and in 2024, it raised the average salary for store managers to $128,000 a year.
Pathways to high-paying leadership roles
Clark said 90% of its store managers started as hourly employees at Walmart and can serve as examples of others to pursue similar career paths.
“There’s no marketing plan on that outside of just making sure we make it the best place to shop and work and have those levels of opportunities they can achieve,” he added. “For the individuals that are experiencing [growth], when we make sure we’re putting them in the position to share that with their teams — which they do organically — it positions us for them to stay with Walmart.”
He explained that an employee could go from being an sporting goods associate to leading cashiers as customer service manager, to then getting exposure to the fresh business as a team lead in produce, and then becoming a coach — basically an assistant manager — before becoming a store lead and eventually a store manager. Walmart president and CEO Doug McMillon similarly started as an hourly associate in 1984, unloading trucks at a distribution center. After college, he rejoined the company as an assistant manager in an Oklahoma store while getting an MBA from the University of Tulsa and ascended through various roles to become CEO of Sam’s Club in 2005, which led to other leadership positions.
“I’ve went through pretty much every single one of those journeys myself,” Clark said, adding that the company wants employees to feel that the company is not only a great place to work but that there are career growth opportunities. “We’ve been very, very intentional in how we’ve approached that.”
YODA Retail’s Walter Holbrook, a former Kmart executive and retail leadership consultant, has noticed how Walmart has improved the employee experience. “If you go back 10 years ago, there was a lot of bad press about how many Walmart associates were on government assistance, and you were hearing all these things about [how] the world’s richest company is paying their people very, very poorly,” he said.
Now, store managers can earn a base pay of $90,000 to $170,000 — and in some cases more than $500,000 including bonuses — and as Clark said, most started as associates. “If I was going to give Walmart hell, it would be that they’re not promoting that enough,” Holbrook said.
Technology improvements to reduce employee headaches
Some examples of tech investments Clark pointed to as making employees’ lives easier included piloting electronic shelf labels in 600 stores so far to eliminate the mundane task of putting stickers on the shelves and get them spending more time with customers.
“If they follow through with that, it’s huge,” Holbrook said, cautioning that it’s possible some retailers would see that as an opportunity to operate on fewer hours. “That’s what you don’t want to do.”
Clark also noted the company has installed automation in freezers as well as new technology into its employee app: augmented reality technology called VizPick that tells associates how many items from the backroom to put on the shelf, as well as agentic AI that can guide employees in helping customers.
“Anything we invest in in automation and technology has to put the associate in a better position to where you’ve simplified work, and at the end of it, it’s truly a better job,” he said. “What we want to do is minimize arduous tasks or behaviors that don’t need to happen if we have the technology, which then frees them up to have more connectivity with the customer.”
Additionally, Clark said he and the leadership team aim to spend a lot of time in the stores, talking to employees about how they can make their experience better and learning more about the customers.
“When I’m making decisions that affect them, and I have that in mind and I have their anecdotes and insights, the marriage of that creates an environment where they feel good about where they work, and then ultimately, when they feel that way, they’re going to take care of the customer in the best way.”
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with additional information from Walmart about how much store managers can earn.