Do they really believe?

[sunnydays]

I was TOLD to performance out older people and people who were overweight. Yes you read that right TOLD TO DO IT. I have too much integrity to carry out my slimy STLs orders so I walked out.

you walked when told to do something that’s basically against the law. congrats for having integrity i guess?? not sure why this is something youre mad at corporate about

 

[Aredhel]

Years to come? There are no years to come. I’ve seen Walmart exercising an unload robot and it worked- well enough. Think about where you will work next. Because the times and the jobs are a changin.

 

[DBZ]

I believe modernization works in my workcenter, I have metrics and NPS scores that prove that. But as far as I know, the GM piece really needs to be fixed.

How does the front end run in the perfect modernization store? What do the advocates do when the SETL is there and what do they do when there is no SETL? I'm asking seriously....no snark. My ETL just unleashed some changes and I don't know if it is moderization or if my ETL just wants to freak out the team.

 

[DBZ]

Businesses are in business to make money. Most people understand that. However, what this company has done to increase their bottom lines is slimy. 2 short years ago they had a workforce that included older americans. Not so much anymore. Look around how many older team members are still around. I was TOLD to performance out older people and people who were overweight. Yes you read that right TOLD TO DO IT. I have too much integrity to carry out my slimy STLs orders so I walked out.
How many people do you have working at your stores that qualify for insurance? Hard to do that when you used to be scheduled 35 hours a week but now how many people in the stores qualify? I bet its only TLs.
How about just cutting people to 4 hours a week so they would quit, much like Milton in Office Space, it will work itself out.
There are companies that thrive with integrity. Some of them are locally owned, some are much much larger. It makes me sick when people hold up this shithole company as something so much better than Walmart. Its not, it is the same, maybe worse. How many of the team members less than TLs get any of the $$$$ Target is raking in? What they get for sweating their asses off is less and less hours and no benefits. But hey $15 is coming!
Sure $15 an hour at 20 hours a week is pretty good, but if you are realistic you know that their will be less payroll to offset that money and less hours to go around.
Spot needs to realize that you should always treat your employees how you want them to treat your customers.

I think that may be a your store issue. Who told you to do this? We have plenty of overweight and older people at my store. Really I think it is 50% older people. There are plenty of overweight among both groups and I have not seen a single person be performanced out.

 

[sunnydays]

My ETL just unleashed some changes and I don't know if it is moderization or if my ETL just wants to freak out the team.

like what

gotta elaborate

 

[gsa4lyfe]

How does the front end run in the perfect modernization store? What do the advocates do when the SETL is there and what do they do when there is no SETL? I'm asking seriously....no snark. My ETL just unleashed some changes and I don't know if it is moderization or if my ETL just wants to freak out the team.

Shouldnt change if they are present or not. You should be able to function without them. When they are there they should be observing, teaching and training and not a crutch to lean on. If you need help they are obviously there to help but you should rely on them as they are not always there

 

[DBZ]

like what

gotta elaborate

On a busy Saturday, there was no SETL and no one was allowed to "run the front", not even from SCO. The break schedule was posted and people were expected to just go on their break and when they got back, they could take over for someone who needed theirs. No one was allowed to answer blinkers unless they didn't have a guest. SCO isn't allowed to respond to them either. Most advocates don't need an SETLs help, but we are hiring and training new advocates.

 

[REDcardJJ]

team members are supposed to be self-sufficient and take care of themselves; the advocate at self-checkout should only need to step in for minor overrides (alcohol) and change requests.

i asked my team to keep a running list of every blinker that they answer when i'm not there so i can see where the gaps in training are, and it turns out that it's mostly just overrides and change requests so i was able to solve those by adding more team members with supervisor capabilities and moving the minors closer to self-checkout (so that team member can quickly assist). it's still very much a work in progress though.

right now, today, guest advocates should flex around the front end where they're needed. at the checklanes and see a line of guests at the service desk? they should turn off their light and go help over there. if there's a drive up here and that team member is unavailable, they should help with it. and they're supposed to do all of that without checking in with a leader. as the service and engagement tl, i (theoretically) exist to continuously observe the team and coach them for success.

 

[sunnydays]

On a busy Saturday, there was no SETL and no one was allowed to "run the front", not even from SCO. The break schedule was posted and people were expected to just go on their break and when they got back, they could take over for someone who needed theirs. No one was allowed to answer blinkers unless they didn't have a guest. SCO isn't allowed to respond to them either. Most advocates don't need an SETLs help, but we are hiring and training new advocates.

well most of this seems ok and above board except for a couple questions i have like

why no setl? someone should be responding to blinkers (this should be sco tm's job, realistically), why is your etl expecting guests to just wait and suffer if someone needs an override or whatever?

jj has it right in that the team should be moving in the direction of self-sufficiency, so that you dont need to call an setl for each & every little thing. you should have team members who are trained and capable of supporting each other, but that also requires leadership that implements best practices and routines that make for a good guest experience. sounds like your etl... is not doing a good job of that...

i asked my team to keep a running list of every blinker that they answer when i'm not there so i can see where the gaps in training are, and it turns out that it's mostly just overrides and change requests so i was able to solve those by adding more team members with supervisor capabilities and moving the minors closer to self-checkout (so that team member can quickly assist). it's still very much a work in progress though.

as if i didnt already have enough on my plate, im going to steal this. thanks friendo

 

[RedcardReba]

Our front end has adjusted. Now our SETLs are out front on weekends. Otherwise, we are self sufficient.

 

[sfslackey]

We started the modernization right before remodeling and that is specifically hitting us hard in various ways. Hard to say what the leaders think about it when it is already so hectic around here. Plus they replaced some of the old ETLs with new ones so they have nothing to compare it too.

 

[DBZ]

I get the whole self-sufficient thing and it makes sense, most of the time. However, if the person responding to lights is supposed to be at SCO, then why are new people being trained at SCO?

 

[Leo47]

If the SCO person walks away to grab change or whatever then who helps the people that need help in self checkout? There’s always constant red lights in there.

 

[REDcardJJ]

If the SCO person walks away to grab change or whatever then who helps the people that need help in self checkout? There’s always constant red lights in there.

if that's happening frequently enough that it's an issue then you could just have a different team member who gets change requests. personally i have my drive up advocate get change requests, my self-checkout stays at self-checkout.

 

[Leo47]

if that's happening frequently enough that it's an issue then you could just have a different team member who gets change requests. personally i have my drive up advocate get change requests, my self-checkout stays at self-checkout.

That makes more sense! For us stores that have a separate OPU desk sometimes there’s lots of downtime. But on the other hand it’s really really far from the checklanes and I can’t really see any of them so I wouldn't be able to see any blinkers from the desk.

 

[can't touch this]

Are they all out of touch
Are they touching it too much
Are they on some kind of drug
That I haven't done enough of?

 

[Tessa120]

But what if someone has a light on because there is a question they can't answer? The poor guest has to just stand there until the guest decides not to buy and walks away?

 

[FlowTeamChick]

Years to come? There are no years to come. I’ve seen Walmart exercising an unload robot and it worked- well enough. Think about where you will work next. Because the times and the jobs are a changin.

Quite possible that a robot could manage the restock part of my job with bar codes on the product and shelf labels. But in the personal interaction part of the job, not so much. Had a guest looking in the women's deodorant section for a product called "Michellina" and she was sure she'd bought it at Target last time - ?? Turns out she meant Mitchum - don't think a robot would have figured that one out. Robots have been tried in other customer service tasks and failed miserably.

 

[Aredhel]

Quite possible that a robot could manage the restock part of my job with bar codes on the product and shelf labels. But in the personal interaction part of the job, not so much. Had a guest looking in the women's deodorant section for a product called "Michellina" and she was sure she'd bought it at Target last time - ?? Turns out she meant Mitchum - don't think a robot would have figured that one out. Robots have been tried in other customer service tasks and failed miserably.

*shouts at answering bot for bank*

 

[keynesian]

View attachment 8608

Yes, because the stock market is never wrong. Wall st is always right. And 2007-2010 never happened.

 

[Tessa120]

 

[REDcardJJ]

But what if someone has a light on because there is a question they can't answer? The poor guest has to just stand there until the guest decides not to buy and walks away?

that happens less often than you'd think. but there's still at least two service and engagement team leaders who can help the team member.

 

[Tessa120]

that happens less often than you'd think. but there's still at least two service and engagement team leaders who can help the team member.

On a busy Saturday, there was no SETL and no one was allowed to "run the front", not even from SCO.

Not in this case, no SETL and no one allowed to act on their behalf. So....what happens when there's an issue the cashier can't answer?

 

[REDcardJJ]

Not in this case, no SETL and no one allowed to act on their behalf. So....what happens when there's an issue the cashier can't answer?

there's a difference between "running the front" and answering a team member's question. "running the front" to me involves speedweaving, which you obviously can't do from self-checkout. someone was probably doing change requests that day so that person could also answer a team member's question. but the whole point is to get to a level where there AREN'T questions that the cashier can't answer.

 

[Tessa120]

DBZ also said that no one was allowed to help with blinkers unless they had no guests. So if all lines had at least one person...

And there's always new folks, and there's always folks who don't see a certain scenario for 6 months after training and don't remember from 6 months ago especially when put on the spot. Should each individual person get to that point? Yes. Expecting people to already be at that point no matter how little time they've been there or how unusual a certain situation may be is crazy, but that's what DBZ described.