This episode features an interview with Maren Waggoner from Walmart, and your host Sultan Saidov, Co-Founder and President at Beamery. Maren has 15+ years of progressive experience in HR as a business partner as well as center of excellence leadership roles in Fortune 100 companies across technology, entertainment, and omni-channel retail industries. She provides HR support, frameworks, tools, and processes to unlock and accelerate business strategy and transformation.
Maren discusses the importance of the synchronicity between talent and business, measuring success through data, and how to automate selection while keeping the human in human resources.
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About Walmart:
Sixty years ago, Sam Walton started a single mom-and-pop shop and transformed it into the world’s biggest retailer. Since those founding days, one thing has remained consistent: our commitment to helping our customers save money so they can live better. Walmart is reinventing the shopping experience and their associates are at the heart of it. Walmart has opened thousands of stores in the U.S. and expanded internationally. Through innovation, they’re creating a seamless experience to let customers shop anytime and anywhere online and in stores. They are creating opportunities and bringing value to customers and communities around the globe. Walmart operates approximately 10,500 stores and clubs under 46 banners in 24 countries and eCommerce websites. They employ 2.3 million associates around the world, and nearly 1.6 million in the U.S. alone.
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“I think that the key is, it has to start with the business strategy, cause there really isn't a separate talent strategy in absence of a business strategy.” - Maren Waggoner
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Episode TimeStamps:
*(01:31) - The scope of Maren’s role at Walmart
*(02:39) - The synchronicity between talent and business
*(05:06) - Measuring success through data
*(07:31) - Important retention strategies
*(09:46) - Scaling a sucessful pilot project
*(12:18) - How to automate selection while still staying personal
*(15:01) - The digital employee experience
*(19:38) - Knowing your talent to fill the job
*(21:14) - Why upskilling and reskilling have become essential tools
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Sponsor
The Talent Blueprint is brought to you by Beamery. Beamery's Talent Lifecycle Management Platform makes it possible for companies to deliver more human talent experiences and unlock the skills and potential of their global workforce using industry leading AI. Learn more at beamery.com.
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Links
Connect with Maren on LinkedIn
Connect with Sultan on LinkedIn
