Shaun Mayo of Sam’s Club Leads Corporate Diversity As Wholesale Effort

Shaun Mayo, senior director of human resources of Sam’s Club

More than a decade ago, Shaun Mayo was working for Kohl’s when a supervisor had him take over human resources responsibilities for a store opening. A career was born that has taken Mayo, 34, to Bentonville, where he is the senior director of human resources of Sam’s Club.

Mayo had stops as an HR executive with companies such as Macy’s and Amazon before joining Sam’s. He earned a bachelor’s in business administration from Texas Southern University in Houston and, after finding success in HR, returned to school to earn an MBA from the University of Houston-Clear Lake.

Mayo is co-chairman of Walmart’s African-American Resource Group.

How can you make a difference in human resources?

Human resource professionals have a crucial role to play in designing organizational systems that help to promote fair and equitable outcomes for the workforce. HR also has a key role in breaking down biases that exist in the workplace and find ways to minimize them.

How important is it to increase diversity in management, to diversify a company to the very top?

Having a diverse workforce produces better outcomes because of the diversity of thoughts and experiences that each individual brings. People generally want to feel a connection to where they do business, so it’s important to have employees in positions throughout the organization who speak to the diversity of the organization. From an employee perspective, a part of building a diverse culture and increasing retention is being able to have an employee see someone who looks like them excelling in the organization.

How important is “modeling” to minority communities? And, along those lines, what does Kamala Harris’ nomination represent?

Modeling is extremely important, and it makes a big difference in giving others confidence. It’s so important for diverse individuals with responsibility, authority and influence to reach back into the community and tell their story.

Kamala Harris represents hope and opportunity. My little girl and so many other little girls around the country watching Kamala stand on the big stage running for one of the nation’s top jobs will grow up knowing that it’s a possibility for them. That’s what modeling does: It helps frame up the mental resilience to obtain the goal. For most people doing something that has never been done can be very intimidating, and you almost feel defeated before you begin. Knowing someone who has accomplished that goal gives you that hope that you can figure it out.

In July, the Northwest Arkansas Council released its diversity pledge, which was taken by many of the area’s business leaders. Do pledges like that improve things on the ground?

I think the pledges do a couple of things. They inform the community of who is standing in solidarity with the Black/African American community. I’m reminded of a powerful quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” While making a pledge is important, follow-through and action are even more important.

Have the national attention and protests that followed in the wake of George Floyd’s death had any impact in the corporate world?

I believe they have had an impact on just about everyone. Being at home with really nothing to do forced the world to pay attention to race relations. The death of George Floyd forced the world to acknowledge race-based outcomes that happen because of the way systems are designed. What happened to George Floyd isn’t the first time something like this has happened. But how the world has responded has me hopeful.