Walmart promotes roughly 500 employees daily — so there’s no shortage of opportunities to climb the ladder.
Workers who advance quickly tend to share two qualities, says Walmart chief people officer Donna Morris, who oversees the company’s workforce of more than 2 million people worldwide.
The first is staying focused on the job in front of you, she said. Morris said the employees who stand out are motivated to make a difference and excel in their current roles.
“They are focused as much, if not more, on being exceptional at what they’re doing today,” Morris told Business Insider.
Once you nail the actual job you were given, the next step might be proving you can take on responsibilities for the role above you — before you get the title.
“Be the type of person that takes on over and above what’s being expected of you,” Morris said. “Be the person that asks or provides volunteerism for new ideas or new initiatives.”
That also includes coming up with new ideas or volunteering to help with new initiatives. Morris said those actions show you can take on more responsibility.
In general, when hiring, Morris said she looks for evidence of the “grit that they had to persevere through.” At Walmart, where most of its 2.1 million employees begin in frontline roles, she also likes to see that candidates have had some frontline experience. The chief people officer said it doesn’t need to be in retail necessarily; it could be babysitting or helping out with a family business.
“If somebody has never really had to identify with what it’s like to be a frontline hourly worker, it’s going to be very hard for them to lead,” said Morris, who started working at 13 at a dry cleaner’s before taking a job at a drugstore two years later.
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