Karenann Terrell, EVP and Chief Information Officer at Walmart, sat for an interview with the Diplomatic Courier at "Talent Mobility & the Future of Jobs: The World in 2050".
[Diplomatic Courier:] How do you equip your workforce with IT skills?
[Karenann Terrell:] We really make it an expectation of everybody. So whether you are a front of the store cashier, the ability to use not just the register but to be ready for how customers come to you with mobile device, with requests for information for things that are online, we’ve got to actually make that as a broad requirement that we have across the whole spectrum of our business. It is a huge challenge to do that, because we operate in 27 different countries. We operate under 60-plus banners: Sam’s, Wal-Mart, Super Rama, EasyDay—a lot of different banners. The challenge for us is ensuring that people have why they need when they need it to respond to technology. I’ll just take it to the IT organization and the e-commerce organization. We just embrace lifetime learning as a function. No one ever stops learning once they get their college degree once they come to Walmart. It is something that goes on through a really long cycle.
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Karenann Terrell of Walmart: On Equipping the Workforce with IT Skills
February 27, 2014
Karenann Terrell, EVP and Chief Information Officer at Walmart, sat for an interview with the Diplomatic Courier at "Talent Mobility & the Future of Jobs: The World in 2050".
[Diplomatic Courier:] How do you equip your workforce with IT skills?
[Karenann Terrell:] We really make it an expectation of everybody. So whether you are a front of the store cashier, the ability to use not just the register but to be ready for how customers come to you with mobile device, with requests for information for things that are online, we’ve got to actually make that as a broad requirement that we have across the whole spectrum of our business. It is a huge challenge to do that, because we operate in 27 different countries. We operate under 60-plus banners: Sam’s, Wal-Mart, Super Rama, EasyDay—a lot of different banners. The challenge for us is ensuring that people have why they need when they need it to respond to technology. I’ll just take it to the IT organization and the e-commerce organization. We just embrace lifetime learning as a function. No one ever stops learning once they get their college degree once they come to Walmart. It is something that goes on through a really long cycle.
