Walmart opens training academy in Williamstown

WILLIAMSTOWN – Holly Ford is proud to say she’s a graduate now.

Ford was one of 50 Walmart employees who graduated Thursday morning from a new training academy inside the Walmart store here.

The New Gretna native, who is a department manager in the lawn and garden section, has worked at Walmart for 22 years, the last five at the Williamstown store. She makes the hour-long commute each day from Burlington County.

“It was very exciting,” said Ford, who got to wear a cap and gown. “I never graduated high school, so to do this, it was like amazing. I never thought it would happen ever. I was excited. I was so proud. This is an amazing program, it really is, and everybody just needs to give it a chance. When you go in with an open mind, you have that chance.

The training academy inside the Walmart at 1840 South Black Horse Pike is the first in the state and one of four planned for the region. Two more are planned for North Jersey and one for New York.

The retail giant, which is also celebrating its 25th year of operations in New Jersey, plans to open 200 training academies across the country, which are all scheduled to open by the end of 2017.

Walmart opened its first New Jersey store in Turnersville in 1991 and now has more than 70 locations throughout the state with more than 20,000 employees.

The company’s plan is for the academies to give hourly supervisors and department managers hands-on training in the classroom and on the sales floor, which it says will help them gain retail skills and knowledge to run their specific departments, ultimately helping the people they supervise and improving the experience for customers.

"This is a really good learning experience for all of us. I’ve been with Walmart for over 33 years. The training academies are by far the best thing that I have seen Walmart do to train hourly associates, ever," said Thomas Underwood, Walmart regional general manager.

The crop of graduates from the Williamstown store all work at the location, but that won’t always be the case with the academy graduates. Each academy across the country will train associates from approximately 25 nearby stores in two-week sessions.

More than 140,000 hourly associates will be trained around the country over the course of a year. Each academy, located in or adjacent to a Walmart Supercenter, will have its own team of about 14 associates with retail operations experience to lead the training.

Jacqueline Williams, a Williamstown resident, also graduated early Thursday morning. A claims supervisor at the store, Williams said the training academy helped to reinvigorate her.

“I wasn’t really enthused about it at first,” said Williams, a 19-year Walmart employee. “As we were sitting in the class, it was what you’ve kind of been asking for, for a long time. If you know anything about Walmart, you have all these stores, all these departments. I could call four different stores for some help or advice and you might come up with four different answers. It wasn’t real cohesive. From the class, it reminded me how it was when I first started ...The company, they hear us. That’s like the best thing.”

Walmart, which has 1.5 million employees in the U.S. and 2.3 million workers worldwide, raised its minimum wage to $9 per hour in 2015 and $10 this year. According to the company, full-time hourly associates in New Jersey earn an average of $13.98.

The New Jersey minimum wage is $8.25. Recently, Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a minimum wage hike, which would’ve raised it to $15. The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009.

For years, the retail giant had been criticized for its low pay structure and labor practices, and has also faced legal battles with employees in the past.

In April, Walmart, Inc., lost its appeal of a multimillion dollar class-action lawsuit to employees from Pennsylvania who said they had to work through breaks. The 186,000 current and former employees had been owed $140 million of the $187 million they sought and are due $224 million with interest. The suit first came up in 2006.

Brandy Jordan, senior director of human resources for the Northeast Division for Walmart, said the training academies are not a reaction to anything.

“This is not a PR stunt. It’s not to address any of the negative concerns in the media. This is about it was the right thing to do for our associates," Jordan said.

“…Over the course of the last 18 months, Walmart’s invested over $2.7 billion into our hourly associates and we’re very proud that the academies are a portion of our investment.”

Said Underwood: “Something Doug McMillon, our CEO, is very much behind is making sure we offer our customers the best shopping experience we possibly can. This is one way of doing that.”

Walmart also offers a program called Pathways, which Jordan said is a computer-based training program that helps serve the needs of entry-level hourly associates.

“We’ve had that program in effect for almost a year,” she said. “We provide them entry-level skill set training. We also start to prepare them for their next role. The academies pick up at our hourly supervisor level for associates.”

Asked how it felt to pull that tassel over across her cap, Ford got a little emotional.

“I could’ve cried,” she said. “My mom was out there. It was very exciting. I can imagine what it would’ve been like to graduate high school. I didn’t get the chance to do that.”

Celeste E. Whittaker; (856) 486-2437; cwhittaker@gannettnj.com