Walmart graduates first class from Florence Training Academy
By Melissa Rollins, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
Early Thursday morning, January 12, a crowd gathered at the Beltline Drive Walmart in Florence. The crowd was not waiting for a sale, though; they were celebrating the official opening of the store’s new training academy and the graduation of its first class.
Fifty associates from the Hartsville Walmart graduated after going through two weeks of training. Week one consisted of training in the basics of retail. Week two was dedicated to the sales floor and the specifics of working each associate’s department.
Walmart Training Academy graduates march into the ceremony.
Several regional managers, store managers and other executives were present for the ceremony.
“It is a great day; an exciting day,” said Sean Real, regional general manager for Region 4. “It is an exciting day for our region, an exciting day for our company. This is the second academy to open in Region 4 and we have three more to open later this year; this is the 45th academy for the company. As our company makes a huge investment to make sure we have training standards, we will eventually open 200 academies across the U.S. this year.”
Those academies will train around 144,000 Walmart associates. Each academy must be certified.
“The academy certification is a very rigorous process,” Real said. “This store had to go through a 4,000 question audit. I’m proud to say that, so far, out of the academies that we have in this region, they are the only one to score one hundred percent on all departmental standards.”
Real said that making sure Walmart employees in every state receive the same level of training is key to ensuring customers have a great experience.
“As the environment changes in the retail industry, it is important that we continue to invest in our associates and that’s what the academy process is for,” Real said. “It is also about one best standard of excellence and how we train our associates.”
Eddie Bostic, market manager, echoed some of Real’s sentiments, while also letting everyone know how well the Florence academy did on its certification.
Tim Ringer, manager of the Beltine Drive Walmart in Florence, congratulates an associate on their graduation from the training program.
“It is a rigorous process and you think about outsiders coming in and looking at every part of the store, looking at every minute detail that the average individual won’t notice; it’s a big deal to go through and correct those,” Bostic said. “To have every department in the store certified and trained is a big deal. How big a deal was that in Florence? When this store certified, it was one of the top five in the company on the audit. In the company. That’s a big deal. Congratulations.”
Bostic encouraged the graduates to pursue their goals.
“There are 17 store managers in this room right now,” Bostic said. “Fourteen of the seventeen started out as hourlies. Think about our CEO Doug McMillon; he started out as an hourly. You won’t find that in many organizations across the country. So where is the future Doug McMillon? Where is the future Eddie Bostic? It is really about what you want to do and the choices that you make.”
As part of the ceremony, Walmart gave donations to the Pee Dee Coalition, Boys Scouts of America and the Boys and Girls Club of the Pee Dee.
Walmart Associates who graduated in the first class from the Florence Training Academy are:
• Makeda Allen
• Dain Anderson
• Kendrick Anderson
• Natalie Barr
• Jermaine Brunson
• Marzette Brunson
• Kiara Brown
• Sherry Calhoun
• Mary Canon
• Mildred Chandler
• Melissa Chavis
• Martin Cooper
• September Cox
• Ricky Daniels
• Shannon Drew
• Tamara Dukes
• Jennifer Fields
• Josh Gainey
• Lakenia Hargrove
• Ciera Henry
• Tracy Ingram
• Tina Johnson
• Sequoria King
• Sabrina Kirby
• Ricky Lenz
• Shriella Lindsey
• Priscilla McClary
• Tonia McCray
• Maurice McFaddin
• Janice Pauley
• Will Prehna
• Raven Rippy
• Kameshia Rouse
• Jeremy Scott
• Michelle Simmons
• Patricia Slater
• Deloris Small
• Hattie Spann
• Charles Stuckey
• Meaghan Tallon
• Bryant Washington
• Thomas Watford
• April White
• Jackee Williams
• Shana Woods
• Jerron Wright
• Stephanie Wright
