Wal-Mart plans to create 250 new IT jobs during the coming year, filling the majority of the positions with graduates rather than experienced IT veterans. The retail giant also plans to promote about 25% of its existing IT personnel.
“We like the idea of bringing in strong, young minds,” Wal-Mart CIO Linda Dillman said at the recent Forbes CIO Forum in New York.
Most of the new employees, including IT staff, will work out of Wal-Mart’s Arkansas headquarters, where salaries and housing costs are lower than in other parts of the US. Wal-Mart also wants to retain centralised control over IT, Dillman says.
The company has tried, and largely rejected, IT outsourcing because it didn’t deliver as advertised.
“We tried offshore development and we weren’t very successful,” Dillman says.
“We found that the hourly rate was less, but that it took more hours [to complete projects].”