Corporate leaders from major companies Walmart, Chipotle, and M&T Bank met virtually Tuesday to delve into an increasingly important factor when it comes to managing employees: upskilling.
During Fortune’s Brainstorm Talent discussion, the executives spoke with Rachel Carlson, Guild Education’s co-founder and CEO, about promoting a diverse work force through upskilling and redefining what education means for a majority of employees.
An increasing number of companies are realizing that having a diverse set of employees and managers isn’t just good to have—it also boosts business. Upskilling can help companies promote diverse employees from within, said Chipotle’s chief diversity, inclusion, and people officer Marissa Andrada.
“You can be an hourly employee and join at an above average minimum wage—we just raised our wages to an average of [$15 per hour]—and you can have a direct pathway to getting this middle-class life, a six-figure salary in three years,” Andrada said.
This broader workforce to manager pipeline is important to Chipotle, Andrada said, because 70% of the company’s workforce is diverse and 70% of the company’s managers come from its broader workforce.
But, before they can promote and improve workers, companies need to help employees see a path forward, said Walmart’s EVP and chief people officer Donna Morris. Managers need to encourage and cultivate workers so they look at their jobs as more than jobs.
“If we can adequately invest, it’s not just a job, it’s a career,” Morris said.
Morris pointed out that, ideally, upskilled employees would continue to work for Walmart but even if they leave for another company, they can always say got their start at Walmart.
For many employees, education is no longer limited to a four-year degree said Guild’s Rachel Carlson. Many of our biases about higher education came from a system that was designed for wealthy white men, but change is needed, said Carlson.
“When we unpack those biases, you can finally figure out how might learning need to happen for the 21st century,” Carlson said.
Part of diversifying away from four-year degrees for education and training requires offering programs that can be completed during the workday. For M&T Bank, that’s a lot of them, said Tracy Woodrow, the chief human resources officer for M&T Bank Corporation.
“Making sure that there is time for learning is, I think, core to our business,” Woodrow said. “Smart managers will make that time because their workforce will not only be more engaged, but they’ll be better.”
Woodrow said 1,000 employees are already taking advantage of an online technology upskilling program the company provides through a partner. With this training, customer-facing employees can find a path to a higher-paying, technology-related job within the bank.
Major employee upskilling, for the 100 million people in the next 10 years that are going to need it, begins with the initiatives Walmart, Chipotle, and M&T Bank are already putting into place, said Carlson.
Employers need to ensure that as they continue to roll out upskilling programs, they focus on a few key points that will make them more successful, Carlson said. This includes making programs affordable or free, and giving employees adequate time on the job to complete the programs, as well as encouraging employees and giving them the support they need.
“Those companies that are not just doing upskilling but also outskilling and being brave enough to have that conversation, they’re building trust in their employees so that they say, ‘OK this is a company that’s going to give me a job, but they’re also going to build me a career,’” said Carlson.
Correction, May 27, 2021: In a previous version of this article, Rachel Carlson’s name was misspelled.
