They're the same job

I don't know why we haven't done this before.

This is a story about Walmart, innovation, and choosing the right words. We can explain it best by imagining two workers at different companies:

1. First, meet Fred. He works at Spacely Space Sprockets. Some of the key skills in Fred’s job include inventory management, leadership, and teaching.

2. Second, meet Susan, who works at Coswell’s Cogs. Key skills in Susan’s job include things like stock management, people management, and merchandising.

Ready for the punchline? It’s like that meme from The Office that people sometimes share: They’re the same job.

The only differences are in language. Each employer uses different language to describe similar skills.

So, Fred’s “merchandising” ability and Susan’s “display management” prowess are really the same thing.

Granted, different words for similar skills and jobs might seem like a mildly interesting quirk, like how British people say “lift,” “lorry,” and “football,” when they really mean “elevator,” “truck,” and “soccer.”

But the differences can mean a lot to big employers, since they’re continually trying to recruit, train, and retain the best people. Companies and potential employees can miss out on opportunities if they don’t use the same terms to describe the same things.

That’s why I found it interesting that Walmart has recently teamed up with an organization called the Burning Glass Institute to create overlap and common language with a working group of seven other big employers: Bank of America, Blackstone, PepsiCo, Nordstrom, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, and Microsoft.

This week, they announced that they’ve agreed on common language for nine job titles, representing the work done by 11 million workers across the United States, including:

• Retail salespeople

• First-line supervisors of retail sales workers

• Sales managers

• Warehouse managers

• Customer service representatives

• Customer service managers

• Financial and investment analysts

• Product managers

• Software developers

Of course, nobody can require companies to use the same language. But the hope is that if enough companies start doing it and see an advantage in recruiting and retention, others might join on as well.

And there’s good reason to imagine that will happen.

Because, from the very first I heard of this whole program, I thought immediately of how some other big institutions have teamed up to do something like this in another part of American society.

I’m talking about the more than 1,100 colleges and universities across the United States that use the Common App as part of their admissions process.

Along with other factors, the fact that aspiring college students can do the work of putting together one application, and then use it to apply to several or even dozens of colleges at the same time, has resulted in hockey stick growth in terms of the number of applications at many colleges.

(In fact, I think I’ll share something I feel pretty passionate about regarding that subject tomorrow.)

We’re at a beginning stage with the initiative Walmart is talking about.

Still, you can imagine that if companies start defining some roles similarly, and realize they have more to gain by working together than by keeping their recruitment practices 100 percent separate, a “common app” for employment might not sound far-fetched.

Imagine if you were a product manager applying for a job at one company, but in the process were alerted to similar opportunities for the same job description at 10 other companies?

Or else, imagine if you were running a company that needed to hire retail salespeople, and you automatically get a pipeline of qualified applicants who might never have otherwise considered applying to work for you?

Both sides would still have to compete, of course, and there would be things that might make a well-qualified worker a better fit at one company over another.

But, much like colleges have done, it would mean easing a lot of friction and removing the barrier of just not knowing about the opportunity from the process.

So far there are about 200 employers interested — most of whom attended the annual Retail Opportunity Network event in Bentonville, Arkansas to talk it through.

Spacely Space Sprockets and Cogswell’s Cogs weren’t among them, although that is not surprising since those are fictional companies from the 1960s cartoon The Jetsons.

That’s one of the reasons I love the audience of this newsletter, by the way. I’ll bet at least half of you understood those references.

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7 other things

• A Russian ballet dancer who was an outspoken critic of Russia’s war in Ukraine has mysteriously plunged to his death from the fifth floor of a building. Vladimir Shklyarov, a married father of two, plummeted around 60 feet to the ground from a building on Saturday, a spokesperson for the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, where the 39-year-old was the highest-ranking dancer, told Fontanka. Russian authorities initially labeled the fall an accident. (NY Post)

• McDonald's is investing $100 million to bring customers back to stores after an outbreak of E. coli food poisoning tied to onions on the fast-food giant's Quarter Pounder hamburgers. The investments include $65 million that will go directly to the hardest-hit franchises, the company said. (AOL News)

• The Associated Press is cutting 8% of its workforce, with some staffers offered voluntary buyouts as cuts in media hit the longstanding news agency. Less than half of the staff reductions are impacting the news division, according to an internal memo. (The Wrap)

• On Monday, millions of Swedes will start receiving copies of a pamphlet advising the population how to prepare and cope in the event of war or another unexpected crisis. “In case of crisis or war” has been updated from six years ago because of what the government in Stockholm calls the worsening security situation, by which it means Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The booklet is also twice the size. Neighboring countries Finland and Norway are also doing something similar. (BBC News)

• After years of financial losses and a failed merger attempt, Spirit Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday. The low-cost carrier announced it has reached a deal with its bondholders to restructure its debts — and expects to continue flying as normal during the bankruptcy process. The airline says it will continue to honor all tickets, credits and loyalty points. (NPR)

• Americans are expected to set a new record for Thanksgiving travel, with nearly 80 million to hit the roads, catch flights and board cruises over the holiday period, travel group AAA said on Monday. About 1.7 million more people will travel this year from Tuesday, Nov. 26 to Monday, Dec. 2, compared to a similar period in 2023. (Reuters)

• A Texas father was moved to tears after his son surprised him with the car of his dreams — a 1967 Chevrolet Camaro almost identical to the one he had to sell over 40 years ago to pay for his kids’ diapers (and, I assume, other things). (New York Post)

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Thanks for reading. Photo by Declan Sun on Unsplash. I wrote about some of this Inc.com. See you in the comments!