Jennifer Buchanan’s passion for corporate learning and development is in how she can impact workers’ lives.
As vice president of operations and supply chain academy at Walmart Inc., Buchanan is positioned to be a critical leader in combining the learning organizations across Walmart Inc. into one global Walmart Academy, with the potential to be one of the largest learning ecosystems in the world.
Walmart employs 2.3 million people globally — and Buchanan’s leadership means she can help every one of them grow their careers. “It gives you an opportunity to really impact how associates feel and their passion about their jobs and what they do,” she says.
Buchanan’s background in education began when she earned a B.S. in family, child and consumer sciences from Florida State University, and then a master’s degree in elementary education and teaching from the University of South Florida.
After graduating with her master’s degree, she and her husband, Bart, moved to Ramstein Air Base in Germany for his career in the U.S. Air Force. Although she planned to be a teacher on the base, open teaching positions were in short supply. Luckily, the Department of Defense had roles open. For six years, Buchanan worked in training positions, deepening her knowledge of adult learning.
This transition to adult education was natural for her. “In both ways, you’re developing people and providing them the skills for now and in the future,” she says. After her time with the Department of Defense, she spent two years with American Express as the director of global regulatory compliance training.
Buchanan’s passion for ongoing development carried into her work with Walmart and Sam’s Club. She joined Walmart in 2015 as director of global anticorruption, training and awareness program. Within her first year on the job, she was promoted senior director of international ethics and compliance training and awareness.
“In both ways, you’re developing people and providing them the skills for now and in the future.
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In these roles, Buchanan spent more than four years working in a complex environment. Creating training across geographies, laws and cultures meant creating many unique learning experiences.
Over time, her roles with the enterprise have only grown in scope, and she’s making a tangible impact on the lives of associates.
Aligning values, creating a career
There were many values that Buchanan and Walmart share, which led her to apply.
One facet of Walmart that resonates with Buchanan is the enterprise’s interaction with the military community. As a former military spouse — Bart retired in 2017 — Buchanan understands the unique challenges associated with their careers.
“As a military spouse, you constantly have to stop and restart in your career as you move around, which can be really challenging,” she says, having moved six or seven times herself, “but one of the things that’s great about corporate education is that there’s always a need to help grow and develop private sector talent.”
During her time with Sam’s Club, Buchanan remained connected to the military community by serving as vice chair of SERVES, the associate resource group at Sam’s Club. She also is on the Walmart military programs governance board, leading the learning pillar. In these roles, she has been able to help other military veterans, families, spouses and allies see their potential career paths and where they can use their education and experiences, she says.
Customized training at Sam’s Club
In 2019, Buchanan became senior director II of field learning and development at Sam’s Club, leading the strategy design and development of learning for the frontline associates and overseeing “everything from functional training to developing leaders,” she says.
In this role, Buchanan created the Manager in Training program for high-potential team leads, which was in response to feedback from associates. Previously, training was in a 300-page binder. While conducting a focus group of associates, the organization learned that workers wanted customized development options that prepared them for future roles, didn’t want to be in training rooms for long periods and wanted their managers to be more invested in career opportunities.
Upon completion of this training, associates can even earn up to one semester of college credit through the Walmart Live Better U program, a tuition-free college program.
Another program Buchanan created is the Field Manager Quality program. MQ is a five-week blended learning program, in which associates go through a mix of instructor-led training, the flow of work for practice and videos for real-time reminders. All of this is available via associates’ handheld devices.
Buchanan describes MQ as a Lego block approach to training: Training is customized to the role, with foundational knowledge reaching everyone, then scaled up based on role and applicability, creating a seamless learning transition when moving through roles and advancing through the ranks at Sam’s Club.
“One of the things that’s great about corporate education is that there’s always a need to help grow and develop private sector talent.
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After the program, Buchanan says the organization hears from associates that they especially enjoy the training on effective communication and active listening. They also share that they like the flow-of-work approach to learning and the flexibility of being able to access training on their handheld devices.
The micro-learnings and ability to reference job aids in the moment of need are particularly helpful for staff. Buchanan says it’s all about “bringing the learning closer to where it happens” — on the job, as opposed to in a classroom.
Lorraine Stomski, senior vice president of associate learning and leadership at Walmart, credits Buchanan with being courageous to move from a traditional classroom setting for training to the blended approach and on-the-job practice.
“It has made a huge difference in the ability for our associates to actually learn more quickly, more pragmatically; and also, candidly, it frees up the capacity for them to serve our customers,” Stomski says.
Buchanan also led the launch of “Career Futuring: Finding your Future @Sam’s Club” in 2021. This digital experience helps connect the dots for associates to see their possible career paths within the enterprise. With career personas, the platform guides associates through a story of how their career progression could look.
Serving 100,000 employees in 600 locations, implementing these programs at Sam’s Club was no small feat. But Buchanan isn’t stopping there.
Connecting experiences for one global Walmart Academy
In April 2022, the L&D functions across the entire Walmart enterprise combined their strengths to create the global Walmart Academy. “There are so many talented learning professionals in this organization, and when we bring it together, we’re able to harness that power to move the program forward,” Buchanan says.
Buchanan says the goal is to create one connected learning experience for the associates, which also enables the business strategy and prepares associates for the future. The 2.3 million Walmart workers will all soon be able to access tailored retail training and leadership classes.
“We know our associates want more than just a job; they want a career path,” Buchanan says. “If we’re able to bring all of these learning programs together, it enables the associates to see a clear path for advancement.”
This transformation included Buchanan’s promotion to VP of operations and supply chain academy. Her responsibilities include designing the learning strategy and ensuring deployment to associates in the facilities and stores under the Walmart U.S. umbrella. In August 2022, this role is still very new for the organization and Buchanan.
“It’s a big lift and shift,” Stomski says, adding that she’s proud of the work that Buchanan has done.“I’m super, super excited at what she can do at a larger scale.”
With Global Walmart Academy, Buchanan and her team are focusing on three areas: frontline associate development for today to grow in the job they’re doing now, growing future functional skills and preparing for new roles in retail and future career opportunity and building leadership skills for managers to continually enhance service and customer and member relationships in the communities the enterprise serves.
“This global focus builds on the one billion dollar U.S. investment announced last year to provide associates with career-driven training and development over the next five years,” Buchanan says. This investment includes tuition coverage via Walmart’s Live Better U program.
“Ultimately, what we want to see is that we’ve increased tenure, reduced turnover and created amazing learning programs as some of the impacts,” Buchanan says. In fact, around 75 percent of salaried managers started out as hourly employees across the enterprise.
That’s her passion in the corporate training space: tying learning experiences to business outcomes. “If we can create learning experiences that translate to behavior change, and then ultimately to business outcomes, we can ultimately measure success,” she says.
When making the selection for Buchanan to head the one global Walmart Academy, Stomski says Buchanan’s digital transformation work with Sam’s Club was admirable and played an active role in her placement in the new role.
“When I was looking to fill this role, it was pretty easy for me to make that decision,” Stomski says. “What really makes it great to work with Jen is that not only is she a learning expert, but she also has a very pragmatic perspective around learning. I think she also has an associate-centric perspective.”
Stomski observes Buchanan sharing interest and passion for the operational aspects of the business, then translating business goals set forth by leaders to be actionable from a learning lens.
“If we can create learning experiences that translate to behavior change, and then ultimately to business outcomes, we can ultimately measure success.
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“When you have that level of passion, when you have that degree of passion for the business, it translates into ways that really produce fantastic work.”
Beyond work, Stomski says that Buchanan is fun, a good human and an incredible mom. Outside of her new role being a large focus, Buchanan is spending time with her two children, a 10-year-old daughter, Taylor, and a six-year-old son, Buck. This busy summer, Buchanan is taking her kids to summer activities such as dance, gymnastics, basketball and soccer.
