The Tribe Report 5. The Non-Desk Worker Issue | Page 6

BEST PRACTICES

BY KARA BULLOCK

BIG BOX
COMMUNICATIONS
So how does Walmart — the employer of one percent of the working
population in the United States — reach out and connect with so
many non-desk employees? It starts with identifying the goals of
the communications department itself.
“We help our associates do their jobs quickly and efficiently

right person versus shotgunning it and sending out mass

so we can deliver great customer satisfaction,” said Lee

communications to different people who may or may not

Anne Mills, Senior Director, Associate Communications

have a role in execution.”

for Walmart. “That’s the mission of our team. When you
drill it all down, the internal communications department

Mills went on to explain how Walmart reformatted the

is here to enable execution.”

information being delivered.

One of the ways Walmart does that is by targeting their “We put our communications in single-page templates
communications to specific positions throughout their

that tell our associates, ‘Here’s a summary, here are the

U.S. stores.

actions we need (because they’re operators and need to
execute) and if you have any questions, the information

“If we have a message that only needs to be delivered to a

is below.’”

certain group of people, we try to be more effective in that
delivery by doing what I call ‘rifling’ our communications,” Even with their current model, deciding when and how to
explained Mills. “We try to get the communication to the

6 | TRIBE REPORT

deliver these communications is a challenge in and of itself.