Donna Morris
Donna Morris has one go-to question that helps determine whether she’ll hire you — and knowing it in advance won’t help you script the perfect response, she says.
The question is: “If I was to ask people who’ve worked for you before, what will they tell me?”
As executive vice president and chief people officer at Walmart, Morris oversees the largest private workforce in the US. She interviews leaders looking to join Walmart or transition within the company. That includes a wide range of positions such as merchants, tech leaders, product leaders, and HR executives.
She told Business Insider she likes this question because it’s open-ended.
“You can’t really rehearse for it, even if you knew the question,” Morris said.
The reason why, she explained, is because the candidate’s response naturally leads to a larger discussion. Morris, who spent more than 17 years at Adobe before joining Walmart, said once the candidate answers, she probes them further to find out more about how they position themselves in the workplace and interact with others.
“Are they really a team player? Are they self-aware? Is there humility built into that?” Morris said.
The Walmart executive said that the company’s purpose and values are “paramount.” The 63-year-old company employs two million associates globally in roles ranging from cart pushers to meteorologists to food scientists to corporate workers.
The retailer has a reputation for providing opportunities to build careers from the ground up, such as through training programs like Walmart Academy. Its CEO, Doug McMillon, who started as an hourly worker unloading trailers, is an example of such.
Recently, the retail giant has been working to reinvent itself as a global tech giant, a shift that has come with major changes to how its workforce is structured and organized. In addition to rolling out AI-powered tools across its workforce, the company has cut a number of jobs and simultaneously opened new roles that align with its growth strategy.
Morris said when she’s scoping out a new hire, she wants to know that the person will align with the company’s culture and understand it’s a service-driven business.
“We set the bar high in terms of expectations that we have for others,” Morris said. “So how we think about people interacting? Super important.”
The post Walmart’s chief people officer shares her go-to interview question appeared first on Business Insider.
