Tractor Supply, the No. 1 large company in this year’s Best Places to Work in IT rankings, cultivates and reinforces its innovation culture through company-wide events as well as a broad spectrum of training and education programs. Tractor Supply IT employees are encouraged to spend time in-store to get first-hand experience in what frontline team members accomplish on a daily basis. Job shadowing lets IT staffers to explore new roles they may be interested in. There are numerous online learning and training initiatives, including a Skills Development Academy that offers targeted workshops on essential topics such as AI or storytelling and business presentation skills.
In addition, Tractor Supply hosts regular hackathons and has forged close partnerships with universities to enrich career development, encourage innovation, and create a pipeline for next-generation talent.
Other opportunities to learn and grow include quarterly town halls and the week-long Learning EXPO-RAMA, a conference-style development experience. At one recent town hall, team members were encouraged to publicly share how they are using AI in their own work. When a public announcement was made that ChatGPT 5 would roll out to the entire organization three days after it was announced, 1,500-plus attendees burst out in rousing cheers, according to Rob Mills, Tractor Supply’s executive vice president and chief technology officer.
