Wal-Mart plans to expand veteran hiring

Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.

Nate Waits wakes up before 3 a.m. four days a week to get to his job at a Bentonville distribution center for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., where the former Marine is among more than 92,000 veterans the company has hired in the past two years.

As the two-year anniversary approaches of the Veterans Welcome Home Commitment program the company launched on Memorial Day 2013, the retail giant announced Wednesday that it is expanding its original plan to hire 100,000 veterans by 2018 to hire a total of 250,000 recently discharged veterans by 2020.

Chris Sultemeier, executive vice president for logistics at Wal-Mart, said the company has been pleased with the skills that the veterans bring to a range of positions including retail, distribution and management. He said about 8,000 of the original hires already have been promoted.

“Veterans work. They’re disciplined; they’re teamwork focused. They have a hard work ethic. They’re typically committed and loyal,” said Sultemeier, who is an Army veteran.

If the company is successful, the 250,000 veterans would make up close to 20 percent of the retailer’s 1.3 million U.S. workers.