nn B. is an hourly supervisor at a Walmart store in Connecticut; she is also a single mother trying to advance her career by pursuing college through Walmart’s LiveBetterU (LBU) educational benefits program. Through the program, Ann can pursue any of over 100 high-quality, in-demand degrees or credentials debt-free while also receiving the ongoing support of a personal coach to ensure she stays on track and successfully balances work, family, and school obligations. “Walmart has been good to me through the last 17 years. To know that my employer cares so much about their associates with these personal growth programs is fantastic. I cannot appreciate the company enough for their generosity.”
Amid the COVID-19 crisis, workers like Ann, with little to no college education, face dramatically increased pressures. In April 2020, U.S. unemployment rates peaked at 14.7%, with over 23 million Americans out of a job. According to the Lumina Foundation, “The need for universal post-high school education is rooted in the global shift from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy. The vast majority of jobs being created require education beyond high school, and that trend shows no sign of abating.” Recovery from the devastating impacts of COVID-19 and the 2020 recession requires employers to rethink the role we can play in upskilling and reskilling employees.
What Is LiveBetterU?
In 2018, Walmart launched the LBU program to improve performance for the company while building opportunity for its employees. With LBU, Walmart took a pioneering step toward providing all associates—part-time, full-time, salaried, or hourly—access to debt-free education, including free high school and language programs, college degrees, career diplomas, and certificate programs for just $1 per day. Completion, rather than enrollment, is the most critical success metric, making LBU unique when compared to traditional education benefits programs.
Every element of LBU has been designed to help maximize student completion rates, including personalized, weekly student success coaching provided by partner Guild Education; careful selection of educational providers that demonstrate best-in-class results for adult working-learners; and articulation of Walmart internal training for college credit, accelerating students through their degrees. All the programs are carefully selected to prepare Walmart’s employees for the future of work, whether at Walmart or elsewhere, in areas such as IT, business management, supply chain, and health care.
Employers like Walmart are committing substantial capital to these types of investments due to several trends in the economy:
• Economic growth in areas such as data science, IT, health care, and ecommerce are driving talent shortages and therefore high cost to hire.
• The cost of turnover, both for frontline and management employees, is significant; offerings that encourage employees to stay for the long-term drive important cost savings.
• Complex businesses often find that developing and career pathing internal associates drive improved business outcomes, as experienced associates tend to perform better than their peers.
By designing learning & development programs to deliver on long-term talent strategies, companies can ensure return on investment, sustainability, and long-term impact. And, as we have recently seen, COVID-19 has only accelerated our nation’s need to reskill the workforce to meet the rapidly shifting employment landscape.
How LBU Has Adjusted to Meet the Needs of a COVID-19 World
In June 2020, three months after the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States with full force, Walmart announced the expansion of LBU to provide even more opportunities and growth for its associates.
The program added the following trade credentials: HVAC/R, Plumbing, Electrician, General Construction, Industrial Maintenance, and Facilities Maintenance. Walmart offers both online coursework and placement paths to ensure employees receive the hands-on training needed for career success. Upon completion of these programs, employees will either be placed in a role within Walmart Realty or Supply Chain or within its large contractor network. These programs will build “future-proof” skills; projections indicate faster-than-average employment growth in these industries, with millions of positions open due to retirements.
Walmart also implemented a suite of 18 short-form digital credentials, including design thinking, product management, data science, agile team leadership, and UX/UI. The demand for these “future of work” skills continues to grow, even in the face of coronavirus; millions of jobs nationwide remain unfilled as employers struggle to find, recruit, and retain employees with these capabilities.
LBU recently announced a partnership with SkillUp, a nonprofit dedicated to reskilling and placing workers who lost jobs due to coronavirus. Furthermore, it has begun a review to better understand program outcomes based on racial, ethnic, and gender diversity. While 47% of LBU students are associates of color and over half are women, Walmart wants to ensure that all associates achieve successful and equitable outcomes.
Outlook for Employers, Educators, and Policy Makers
The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the need for rapid evolution of U.S. education and workforce development systems. The following five areas will require significant focus and investment in the next 1-3 years:
1. Transition HR systems and processes to focus on skills first. Traditional hiring, promotion, and learning and development programs have relied on resumes, the ability to self-market, and the relative subjectivity of assessors. Often these processes are systemically biased and inaccurate, and drive inequitable outcomes at the expense of both people and organizations. One promising solution is for employers to move to a skills-first system in which skills become the “common currency” of the talent marketplace. With skills, education, and assessment transparency, employees will better understand how they can advance in their careers. Employers too will benefit from data-driven and accurate talent management systems.
2. Create stronger connections between education, training, and work. Some of the most painful stories of the student debt crisis are those of low-income and working-class young adults who take on debt without completing a degree or credential, leading to unclear job prospects. Education providers should actively partner with employers to build pathways with clear career outcomes.
3. Focus on short-term credentials. With unemployment at record highs, yet employers struggling to fill roles in high-demand areas, we as a country must invest in short-term programs that build skills as quickly and efficiently as possible. In many cases, key skills can be learned in fewer than nine months of training.
4. Increase and simplify access to education. The U.S. educational system is notoriously opaque and difficult to navigate. From locating a high school transcript, to selecting a school, to applying and gaining acceptance, to enrolling in class—every step presents barriers and challenges that can dissuade even the most motivated of students. Programs like LBU have shown the power of providing navigators and coaches to support employees through these complex processes; this investment should be applied elsewhere.
5. Make reskilling affordable. The United States is suffering from a crisis of student debt and unaffordable education. More than 44 million Americans owe over $1.64 trillion in student loan debt. Education is a field ripe for disruption and more innovation is urgently needed. One clear shift amid the pandemic is a rapid move to online programs, which are cheaper, more scalable, and often high-quality.
Companies such as Walmart, Starbucks, Disney, Chipotle, and Discover see the potential of educational benefits programs, which deliver both for employees and businesses. As of July 2020, Walmart has over 16,000 active students within LBU and has already served over 25,000 students in the program’s first 2.5 years. It has saved its associates over $52 million in student debt to date.
This is just the beginning, however. Employed and unemployed workers across the nation are depending on employers, educators, and public servants to come forward with innovative solutions. We cannot let them down.
a global affairs media network
Employer-based Upskilling for the New Economy
August 5, 2020
Amid the COVID-19 crisis, workers with little to no college education face dramatically increased pressures. Recovery from the devastating impacts of COVID-19 and the 2020 recession requires employers to rethink the role we can play in upskilling and reskilling employees.
A
nn B. is an hourly supervisor at a Walmart store in Connecticut; she is also a single mother trying to advance her career by pursuing college through Walmart’s LiveBetterU (LBU) educational benefits program. Through the program, Ann can pursue any of over 100 high-quality, in-demand degrees or credentials debt-free while also receiving the ongoing support of a personal coach to ensure she stays on track and successfully balances work, family, and school obligations. “Walmart has been good to me through the last 17 years. To know that my employer cares so much about their associates with these personal growth programs is fantastic. I cannot appreciate the company enough for their generosity.”
Amid the COVID-19 crisis, workers like Ann, with little to no college education, face dramatically increased pressures. In April 2020, U.S. unemployment rates peaked at 14.7%, with over 23 million Americans out of a job. According to the Lumina Foundation, “The need for universal post-high school education is rooted in the global shift from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy. The vast majority of jobs being created require education beyond high school, and that trend shows no sign of abating.” Recovery from the devastating impacts of COVID-19 and the 2020 recession requires employers to rethink the role we can play in upskilling and reskilling employees.
What Is LiveBetterU?
In 2018, Walmart launched the LBU program to improve performance for the company while building opportunity for its employees. With LBU, Walmart took a pioneering step toward providing all associates—part-time, full-time, salaried, or hourly—access to debt-free education, including free high school and language programs, college degrees, career diplomas, and certificate programs for just $1 per day. Completion, rather than enrollment, is the most critical success metric, making LBU unique when compared to traditional education benefits programs.
Every element of LBU has been designed to help maximize student completion rates, including personalized, weekly student success coaching provided by partner Guild Education; careful selection of educational providers that demonstrate best-in-class results for adult working-learners; and articulation of Walmart internal training for college credit, accelerating students through their degrees. All the programs are carefully selected to prepare Walmart’s employees for the future of work, whether at Walmart or elsewhere, in areas such as IT, business management, supply chain, and health care.
Employers like Walmart are committing substantial capital to these types of investments due to several trends in the economy:
• Economic growth in areas such as data science, IT, health care, and ecommerce are driving talent shortages and therefore high cost to hire.
• The cost of turnover, both for frontline and management employees, is significant; offerings that encourage employees to stay for the long-term drive important cost savings.
• Complex businesses often find that developing and career pathing internal associates drive improved business outcomes, as experienced associates tend to perform better than their peers.
By designing learning & development programs to deliver on long-term talent strategies, companies can ensure return on investment, sustainability, and long-term impact. And, as we have recently seen, COVID-19 has only accelerated our nation’s need to reskill the workforce to meet the rapidly shifting employment landscape.
How LBU Has Adjusted to Meet the Needs of a COVID-19 World
In June 2020, three months after the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States with full force, Walmart announced the expansion of LBU to provide even more opportunities and growth for its associates.
The program added the following trade credentials: HVAC/R, Plumbing, Electrician, General Construction, Industrial Maintenance, and Facilities Maintenance. Walmart offers both online coursework and placement paths to ensure employees receive the hands-on training needed for career success. Upon completion of these programs, employees will either be placed in a role within Walmart Realty or Supply Chain or within its large contractor network. These programs will build “future-proof” skills; projections indicate faster-than-average employment growth in these industries, with millions of positions open due to retirements.
Walmart also implemented a suite of 18 short-form digital credentials, including design thinking, product management, data science, agile team leadership, and UX/UI. The demand for these “future of work” skills continues to grow, even in the face of coronavirus; millions of jobs nationwide remain unfilled as employers struggle to find, recruit, and retain employees with these capabilities.
LBU recently announced a partnership with SkillUp, a nonprofit dedicated to reskilling and placing workers who lost jobs due to coronavirus. Furthermore, it has begun a review to better understand program outcomes based on racial, ethnic, and gender diversity. While 47% of LBU students are associates of color and over half are women, Walmart wants to ensure that all associates achieve successful and equitable outcomes.
Outlook for Employers, Educators, and Policy Makers
The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the need for rapid evolution of U.S. education and workforce development systems. The following five areas will require significant focus and investment in the next 1-3 years:
1. Transition HR systems and processes to focus on skills first. Traditional hiring, promotion, and learning and development programs have relied on resumes, the ability to self-market, and the relative subjectivity of assessors. Often these processes are systemically biased and inaccurate, and drive inequitable outcomes at the expense of both people and organizations. One promising solution is for employers to move to a skills-first system in which skills become the “common currency” of the talent marketplace. With skills, education, and assessment transparency, employees will better understand how they can advance in their careers. Employers too will benefit from data-driven and accurate talent management systems.
2. Create stronger connections between education, training, and work. Some of the most painful stories of the student debt crisis are those of low-income and working-class young adults who take on debt without completing a degree or credential, leading to unclear job prospects. Education providers should actively partner with employers to build pathways with clear career outcomes.
3. Focus on short-term credentials. With unemployment at record highs, yet employers struggling to fill roles in high-demand areas, we as a country must invest in short-term programs that build skills as quickly and efficiently as possible. In many cases, key skills can be learned in fewer than nine months of training.
4. Increase and simplify access to education. The U.S. educational system is notoriously opaque and difficult to navigate. From locating a high school transcript, to selecting a school, to applying and gaining acceptance, to enrolling in class—every step presents barriers and challenges that can dissuade even the most motivated of students. Programs like LBU have shown the power of providing navigators and coaches to support employees through these complex processes; this investment should be applied elsewhere.
5. Make reskilling affordable. The United States is suffering from a crisis of student debt and unaffordable education. More than 44 million Americans owe over $1.64 trillion in student loan debt. Education is a field ripe for disruption and more innovation is urgently needed. One clear shift amid the pandemic is a rapid move to online programs, which are cheaper, more scalable, and often high-quality.
Companies such as Walmart, Starbucks, Disney, Chipotle, and Discover see the potential of educational benefits programs, which deliver both for employees and businesses. As of July 2020, Walmart has over 16,000 active students within LBU and has already served over 25,000 students in the program’s first 2.5 years. It has saved its associates over $52 million in student debt to date.
This is just the beginning, however. Employed and unemployed workers across the nation are depending on employers, educators, and public servants to come forward with innovative solutions. We cannot let them down.
