How Long Does Walmart’s Coaching Last?

Working at Walmart is not a walk in the park. This reality hits hard when you get coached for arriving late or not completing your task. Now that you have received the coaching, you must consider getting rid of it as soon as possible.

So, how long does Walmart coaching last? Will it ever be erased from your employment history?

This post will discuss Walmart’s policy on coaching, coachable offenses, and the consequences and duration of coaching. Also, head to the last section to understand how to contest performance coaching at Walmart.

Walmart’s Coaching Policy

The retail company will not terminate your contract immediately if you don’t perform well at Walmart or show behavioral issues. Instead, you will be coached to address this lapse in productivity or behavior.

Note that although the company doesn’t fire its employees without warning, it reserves the right to do so without legal repercussions.

Be assured that these instances are rare, and most terminations happen after the employee has gone through the four tiers of Walmart coaching without improvement.

If your team leader or manager notices you committing coachable offenses, your manager may extend coaching.

Some examples of coachable offenses include:

1. Rudeness to customers.
2. Lateness for a shift.
3. Rude behavior with co-workers.
4. Failure to complete assigned tasks.

If you have a minor infraction, it will be considered a yellow coaching incident. However, you’ll receive orange coaching if the infraction is more serious.

Remember that if you receive another yellow coaching within six months of the first one, your coaching will be upgraded to orange. And if you repeat the same behavior within the next six months of receiving orange coaching, it will escalate to red.

How Long Does Walmart’s Coaching Last

Now that we know the coaching policy of Walmart and how each coaching color can impact your career there, let’s work on how you can get out of this disciplinary system after getting any of the three coaching colors.

The whole idea behind Walmart coaching is to improve employees’ conduct in the company. So, the coaching should only last as long as the behavior does, right?

The company observes six months to see whether the behavior improves. If the employee doesn’t commit the same mistake, the coaching will expire, and he can move ahead in his career.

If the employee’s immediate manager notices no improvement in behavior, he can issue a more severe coaching color. In such situations, the six-month count will be reset, and the employee will have to put his best foot forward for the next six months from the start of the worsened rating to get rid of coaching.

For example, if you received yellow coaching in June 2022, you will be observed for behavior until December 2022. Without worsening your coaching color, you have no room for more mistakes during these months.

If you still fail to put in the standard effort and another coaching occurrence happened in October 2022, you will get the orange color for coaching. The clock is reset, and you cannot repeat the behavior until April 2023.

Effects of Coaching on Your Walmart Career

Walmart coaching serves as a warning for the said employees, calls out their inefficiency and offers support and guidance to improve.

Plus, it also acts as a tier system, with advancement in every coaching color bringing the employee one step closer to the termination.

At Walmart, there are four levels of coaching, each building on the severity of productivity or behavioral issues. The initial stage is yellow coaching, which addresses minor lapses.

However, if the employee doesn’t show improvement, they will progress to orange coaching, then red coaching, which puts them on probation. The final stage of disciplinary action at Walmart is termination.

Besides improvement in on-job productivity, different levels of Walmart coaching have different impacts on the employee’s record and career progress.

A yellow occurrence only leads to a verbal conversation about the behavior that needs improvement and possible ways to counter it. It doesn’t impact the employee’s career through the limitations of transfer or promotion.

An orange occurrence results in a written warning. The manager is responsible for entering this information into the company’s system.

Once filed, the second tier of coaching will prevent the employee from transferring to other stores or advancing in their career.

The third level of coaching is a red occurrence, which puts the employee on probation. The employee may meet with a senior executive to discuss the behavior and a remedial path.

On the red level of coaching, you may also be asked to sign a warning, and not doing so may result in immediate termination of your contract.

Can You Fight a Walmart Coaching?

Note that Walmart coaching only applies to mistakes within your control.

If you think you were wrongfully coached or can prove that the situation was beyond your control, you should challenge the coaching and avoid a probationary period in your career.

Challenging the ruling on coaching is simple. First, you must go to your store manager and state that you don’t accept the coaching. You will also need to state why you did not accept your manager’s decision.

A better option is to use the Open-Door hotline to report your grievance. Note that you can only use this hotline if your store manager coaches you.

Your statement’s professional and calm presentation will increase the chances of just investigations.

Closing Word

Walmart’s coaching policy is a disciplinary measure that the company uses to ensure optimal employee performance. It navigates through three tiers before the possibility of termination.

If you have received coaching, you will be observed for the same behavior for the next six months. If you show improvement during this time, the coaching will be terminated.

On the contrary, this coaching can escalate to advanced tiers if you fail to improve and may result in termination.

Note that coaching is not a final decision, and if you think you are being wrongly coached, you can use the company’s Open-Door hotline to contest your manager’s decision.