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Far better than most, the career section of Walmart's website has easy access to investor information, charity programs, employee profiles and benefits information. There's a jobs database, a way to submit resumes and the best spin possible on life in Northwest Arkansas.

Although Walmart employs over 1,000,000 "associates", the vast majority of those jobs can not be filled using the internet. (Even TGI Fridays moves waiters and waitresses over the internet.) Instead, one goes to the internet to discover that the best way to apply at Walmart is

Visit your local store's Personnel Manager for applications and more detailed information about this and other jobs.

In a way, that's okay. The rest of the functioning detail of the employment site is a contradictory and badly planned execution. If candidates actually used the internet to apply for a job, they'd encounter a maze of contradictions. For example:

• The "Hourly Employment" page may be the single longest and most confusing array of job descriptions on the net. "District Managers" and "Personnel Managers" will be pleased to know that this is where their job descriptions are housed.
• While it's reasonably clear that no one will ever be hired as a district manager by a local store manager. the normal "apply at your local store" text is a part of the job description.
• Many of the jobs listed in the hourly section can only be found by reading through the 17,000 words on that page.
• Although you can apply online, it means downloading an Acrobat file to fill out.
• Although there is a "submit resume" function, it is not tied in any observable way to the various job openings.
• Many of the jobs database entries tell you to email your resume to a headhunter.
• All of the database listings contain confusing and misleading internal status information.

Even in Northwest Arkansas, internet penetration is deep enough that the employment section of the Walmart page is the first encounter candidates have with Walmart as an employer. It's a very bad first impression.

While the corporate message is "We put our people first."

That is, of course, unless they use the internet to apply for a job.

Employment branding is far more about the experience of looking for work at a company than it is about good television ads. We'd suggest that Walmart pull the ads until their website is up to snuff.

- John Sumser, © TwoColorHat. All Rights Reserved.