“Veterans and military spouses bring a great deal of value to their teams and to our company overall,” shares Brynt Parmeter, Senior Director Walmart Military Programs. “The challenges of 2020 have highlighted the importance of several characteristics that are essential to succeed during difficult times. These include leadership, cultural competency, agility, and resilience.”

With a rich history of supporting veterans over the years, starting with its first veteran, Walmart’s founder Sam Walton, earlier this year Walmart announced achieving the Veteran’s Welcome Home Commitment of 250,000 veterans hired since 2013. To date, Walmart has hired over 320,000 veterans and military spouses since the beginning of that commitment, and their focus on supporting and hiring veterans only continues.

According to Parmeter, military spouses, like veterans, have a wide range of unique experiences and perspectives that contribute to making Walmart’s team stronger and more capable.

“Our company has had to adapt and evolve very rapidly this year and our veterans and military spouses have been instrumental in helping to meet these requirements and continue to support our customers,” he shares. “There aren’t many populations or demographics that are as used to change and ambiguity as military spouses and these traits are very important as we work our way through the challenges of our time.”

Supporting Veterans and military spouses for generations, Walmart is proud to continue its efforts in many ways. With it’s four strategic pillars, including Employment, Entrepreneurship, Learning, and Health & Wellness, Parmeter believes these will drive Walmart’s programmatic work in line with business needs across the enterprise.

“In line with our broader business and people strategies, we will pivot from a primarily quantitative approach to a broader qualitative one that enables people to optimize economic opportunity and improve overall well-being,” he shares. “This approach will help grow and attract talent for the future and move the dial on diversity.”

The foundational activity in this strategy is the Find-a-Future platform. This platform will help military-related prospects audit their current skills, experience, and education and curate a wide range of information about future possibilities and aspirations as well as understanding how to build a road map to achieve those future aspirations.

“The platform engages in a relational rather than transactional way and helps people understand options and pathways around three interconnected outcomes: Employment, Education, and Entrepreneurship,” shares Parmeter.

In 2021, Walmart is planning to advance veteran and military spouse economic opportunity and well-being through various initiatives spanning across four focus areas including employment, learning, entrepreneurship, and health & wellness. Here are some of our new focus areas for the year ahead:

• Launching the Find-a-Future Platform: Launching early next year, this new platform will guide military-related prospects through an audit of their current skills, experience and education. It will foster conversations about a wide range of future possibilities and aspirations and then help teach them how to build a road map and the connections to achieve Walmart’s goals.

• Continued access to $1 a day education: Walmart will continue to offer veterans, and all frontline associates, the opportunity to work at Walmart and complete a debt-free education through the Live Better U program. This enables veterans to pass along service-related educational benefits with their families, while also upskilling for the future of work in a short amount of time.

• Entrepreneurship: Veteran-owned businesses (VOBs) offer a tremendous opportunity to empower veterans and to fuel economic growth. By connecting veteran and military spouse-owned businesses with organizations, resources and information Walmart is helping empower them to launch their products or bring their ideas to life.

• Increasing Access to Health Care: Walmart is increasing access to health care for veterans through telehealth when a VA facility is not easily accessible. In addition to great health care, Walmart is also focused on providing job opportunities for individuals well-suited for placement in the health care industry.

• Support from other veteran associates: Walmart has several Associate Resource Groups (ARGs) focused on creating communities of support. Walmart’s SERVES ARG for veterans, military families and allies is the first of Walmart’s ARGs that has expanded to include veteran associates working in stores, clubs, DCs and corporate offices. The SERVES leadership teams at the Home Office, Walmart U.S., Sam’s Club and the Supply Chain are organizing and preparing for a variety of initiatives related to recruiting, onboarding, learning, leader development and supporting each other and our communities.

For more information visit Walmart Shares Additional Plans to Support Veterans and Military Spouses or you can visit Careers with a Mission site.