How is it being a HR Expert?

[Snapeeee]

How is it? What’s the pay?

 

[HRTMKendall]

How is it? What’s the pay?

It is something you have to know how to multitask with. You have to know how to deal with different personalities. It is a good job (depending on the store). My experience has been mostly positive but depending on the store, there can be negative things.

 

[Yetive]

Pay is the same as any other team member.

A lot will depend on your ETL. You will be their only team member.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Are you an outside hire?

 

[boringClerk03]

I'm not sure if you're interested in an HR role or not, or if HR is where you want to end up, but take it from someone that's in HR and has been for a while that somehow ended up an HR Process TL for a while., avoid HR at Target or retail in general. Retail HR positions aren't what you think they are. They're not considered real HR positions, and they're really HR/floor operations roles. You only make your store or district's starting wage as the expert, which can be $15-$18 (whatever the starting pay is for your district/store), and you're supposed to be all hands on deck. This means that you're expected to help wherever the TLs and ETLs want you to be which could be push, fulfillment, or cashiering on top of your HR duties.

The role itself also doesn't translate very well into HR at another company. Normal HR progression is HR Assistant-HR Coordinator-HR Specialist-HR Generalist-HR Manager-to various strategic partner roles like Sr. Generalist/Sr. manager, VP of HR, HR Business Partner, etc.

Your ETL-HR likely isn't going to be a true HR professional (as they probably move from another floor operations-level position), so it will be hit or miss for how well they run the department and if they follow policy or not. Double points if they even know what HR really is about and if they're familiar with relevant labor regulations, state legislative processes, wage laws, etc.

Further, your job duties aren't going to be what an HR professional should be involved with in general, minutes daily recruiting and timekeeping. First of all, your main tasks are to be an office coordinator and a recruiter. You'll likely be in Workday all day long doing whatever and you're expected to keep the clerical area spic and span and to keep tabs on what needs to be ordered and whatnot. You are not involved with LOAs, pay/benefits, full-cycle recruiting, strategic HR, talent management, etc. All of those stupid posters and memos that no one reads or cares about also become your problem. NO OTHER company worth anything has their HR staff involved with coloring, decorating, and playing office bitch; it's a waste of time and hinders your career progression. You also plan all of the volunteer/food events. If all of this sounds like BS to you (as it should), then don't bother, but if this sounds good to you, then you better make sure you know how to phrase your resume and speak to your "business" once you decide to move on in interviews and potential positions. You're going to be very busy from August until December, then expect to be put to the floor to support the team instead of being in HR. HR payroll looks very different from Q3/Q4 to Q1, and there's not going to be a lot of time to justify you sitting at your desk and doing nothing really.

This is not to say that all stores treat their HR clerical staff the same; all stores are different, and I have talked to and networked with former HR experts, TLs, ETLs, and even business partners that have all had deviating experiences; I'm only speaking to what I know and have been exposed to at Target. Every place is different and some ETLs and other leaders are better at managing their human resources departments than others, but do be warned. You're far better doing HR somewhere else than retail.

 

[MrT]

I'm not sure if you're interested in an HR role or not, or if HR is where you want to end up, but take it from someone that's in HR and has been for a while that somehow ended up an HR Process TL for a while., avoid HR at Target or retail in general. Retail HR positions aren't what you think they are. They're not considered real HR positions, and they're really HR/floor operations roles. You only make your store or district's starting wage as the expert, which can be $15-$18 (whatever the starting pay is for your district/store), and you're supposed to be all hands on deck. This means that you're expected to help wherever the TLs and ETLs want you to be which could be push, fulfillment, or cashiering on top of your HR duties.

The role itself also doesn't translate very well into HR at another company. Normal HR progression is HR Assistant-HR Coordinator-HR Specialist-HR Generalist-HR Manager-to various strategic partner roles like Sr. Generalist/Sr. manager, VP of HR, HR Business Partner, etc.

Your ETL-HR likely isn't going to be a true HR professional (as they probably move from another floor operations-level position), so it will be hit or miss for how well they run the department and if they follow policy or not. Double points if they even know what HR really is about and if they're familiar with relevant labor regulations, state legislative processes, wage laws, etc.

Further, your job duties aren't going to be what an HR professional should be involved with in general, minutes daily recruiting and timekeeping. First of all, your main tasks are to be an office coordinator and a recruiter. You'll likely be in Workday all day long doing whatever and you're expected to keep the clerical area spic and span and to keep tabs on what needs to be ordered and whatnot. You are not involved with LOAs, pay/benefits, full-cycle recruiting, strategic HR, talent management, etc. All of those stupid posters and memos that no one reads or cares about also become your problem. NO OTHER company worth anything has their HR staff involved with coloring, decorating, and playing office bitch; it's a waste of time and hinders your career progression. You also plan all of the volunteer/food events. If all of this sounds like BS to you (as it should), then don't bother, but if this sounds good to you, then you better make sure you know how to phrase your resume and speak to your "business" once you decide to move on in interviews and potential positions. You're going to be very busy from August until December, then expect to be put to the floor to support the team instead of being in HR. HR payroll looks very different from Q3/Q4 to Q1, and there's not going to be a lot of time to justify you sitting at your desk and doing nothing really.

This is not to say that all stores treat their HR clerical staff the same; all stores are different, and I have talked to and networked with former HR experts, TLs, ETLs, and even business partners that have all had deviating experiences; I'm only speaking to what I know and have been exposed to at Target. Every place is different and some ETLs and other leaders are better at managing their human resources departments than others, but do be warned. You're far better doing HR somewhere else than retail.

I know it can be a ASANTS thing but hr at Target is imo actually a very good entry into the hr world. I've had 3 ETL hrs just from my store move onto HR roles in other major companies around my area. HR tm is definitely the more basic hr/office role for sure but there are a lot of resources to learn. They deal with laws and regulations because that is the job. ETL HR definitely does real HR work I'm really not sure why your term it that. Idk why you think stores with 100s of employees wouldn't be real HR work compared to other places. Granted the HRBP will definitely handle following new legislation more then an ETL level role sure. Thinking a company doesn't have "real" HR 🤣 that has 100s of people under them or even the HRBP level has 1000s. You sound really pretentious thinking retail is what it was 20 years ago. My experience is actually the opposite although my experience outside of spot is with smaller companies but HR there was basically a glorified secretary, even more so then a minimum wage hr tm that works at target.

 

[Ashfromoldsite]

I'm not sure if you're interested in an HR role or not, or if HR is where you want to end up, but take it from someone that's in HR and has been for a while that somehow ended up an HR Process TL for a while., avoid HR at Target or retail in general. Retail HR positions aren't what you think they are. They're not considered real HR positions, and they're really HR/floor operations roles. You only make your store or district's starting wage as the expert, which can be $15-$18 (whatever the starting pay is for your district/store), and you're supposed to be all hands on deck. This means that you're expected to help wherever the TLs and ETLs want you to be which could be push, fulfillment, or cashiering on top of your HR duties.

The role itself also doesn't translate very well into HR at another company. Normal HR progression is HR Assistant-HR Coordinator-HR Specialist-HR Generalist-HR Manager-to various strategic partner roles like Sr. Generalist/Sr. manager, VP of HR, HR Business Partner, etc.

Your ETL-HR likely isn't going to be a true HR professional (as they probably move from another floor operations-level position), so it will be hit or miss for how well they run the department and if they follow policy or not. Double points if they even know what HR really is about and if they're familiar with relevant labor regulations, state legislative processes, wage laws, etc.

Further, your job duties aren't going to be what an HR professional should be involved with in general, minutes daily recruiting and timekeeping. First of all, your main tasks are to be an office coordinator and a recruiter. You'll likely be in Workday all day long doing whatever and you're expected to keep the clerical area spic and span and to keep tabs on what needs to be ordered and whatnot. You are not involved with LOAs, pay/benefits, full-cycle recruiting, strategic HR, talent management, etc. All of those stupid posters and memos that no one reads or cares about also become your problem. NO OTHER company worth anything has their HR staff involved with coloring, decorating, and playing office bitch; it's a waste of time and hinders your career progression. You also plan all of the volunteer/food events. If all of this sounds like BS to you (as it should), then don't bother, but if this sounds good to you, then you better make sure you know how to phrase your resume and speak to your "business" once you decide to move on in interviews and potential positions. You're going to be very busy from August until December, then expect to be put to the floor to support the team instead of being in HR. HR payroll looks very different from Q3/Q4 to Q1, and there's not going to be a lot of time to justify you sitting at your desk and doing nothing really.

This is not to say that all stores treat their HR clerical staff the same; all stores are different, and I have talked to and networked with former HR experts, TLs, ETLs, and even business partners that have all had deviating experiences; I'm only speaking to what I know and have been exposed to at Target. Every place is different and some ETLs and other leaders are better at managing their human resources departments than others, but do be warned. You're far better doing HR somewhere else than retail.

I have no experience in hr but I agree. A good friend of mine was etl-hr for more than a decade. A new store manager came in and forced her to move to LOGISTICS. so she tried to get hr elsewhere. She realized she had no actual hr experience that other companies expected from her. She ended up quitting, doing temp work while she took some hr classes, and ended up with a fantastic job outside of retail.

 

[boringClerk03]

I know it can be a ASANTS thing but hr at Target is imo actually a very good entry into the hr world. I've had 3 ETL hrs just from my store move onto HR roles in other major companies around my area. HR tm is definitely the more basic hr/office role for sure but there are a lot of resources to learn. They deal with laws and regulations because that is the job. ETL HR definitely does real HR work I'm really not sure why your term it that. Idk why you think stores with 100s of employees wouldn't be real HR work compared to other places. Granted the HRBP will definitely handle following new legislation more then an ETL level role sure. Thinking a company doesn't have "real" HR 🤣 that has 100s of people under them or even the HRBP level has 1000s. You sound really pretentious thinking retail is what it was 20 years ago. My experience is actually the opposite although my experience outside of spot is with smaller companies but HR there was basically a glorified secretary, even more so then a minimum wage hr tm that works at target.

Sure. You are correct that the Target brand is really good on a resume, and you're also correct that the ETL HR is more of the strategic/talent management partner in the business, but that's largely it. I, too, know plenty of previous HR staff that made transitions to other companies, but the problem lies within what I said before in that they basically have to start over on the totem pole. The Human Resources Expert and Human Resources Process Team Leader positions (minus small-format stores) are simply useless in most stores because leaders exploit them for other salesfloor duties. Over the years, Target has greatly reduced access points that make the role hard to manage. By this, I mean you're largely resorting to calling target pay and benefits for all LOA administration (minus personal LOAs), benefit enrollment inquiries (we don't touch benefits, and during open enrollment season, we're largely told to not be involved in that process besides telling TMs how to access the right sites), compensation metrics, and general payroll reporting when that's handled in-house for most companies.

You also don't have enough HRIS access in my opinion when doing your daily Workday reporting and recruiting. There's no reason why I had to call HROC for stupid things and why they constantly messed up employment information that would set back hiring for our store. Target is too large of a company to justify so many on-site HR staff. It can be such a detriment doing HR for a big company because everything is specialized and compartmentalized so that you're not going to get the true entry-level and mid-career level HR experience you need to progress your career in HR. It's mainly the small grievances that make the role ridiculous why can't I do employment verification, why can't I authorize a fucking BG check? Why can't I have complete control over the onboarding and talent acquisition process, why don't I get training in pay/benefits? It's because that's not how retail HR functions. Like dude, I said I was an HR Process TL. Most of my days were spent recruiting, doing policy communication, doing orientations, or in fulfillment/cashiering. My HR experts spent most of their time coloring and decorating shit, designing appreciating you calendars, making pointless flyers, dicking around in Canva, using the Cricut, planning food events, and maybe a little recruiting, lol. Even my ETL had a low opinion of the position.

Human resources is an office job, full stop; they are not backup cashiers, floor pushers, truck throwers, zoners, fulfillment experts, food production experts, Starbucks baristas, etc. You do not highlight helping other business areas on a resume/in your interview, they don't make you a marketable candidate because you spend so much time away from HR. If anything, target needs to either create an elevated, entry-level HR specialist position based on store business needs alongside the ETL that's closer to PG45 level. Then, retain the ETL-HR position and have them focus on HR ONLY. There's a reason why HR is considered a partner role at Target. Why don't they report to the HRBP like AP and PM do? I'm not saying Target is a shitty company for HR, it just can be absurd on the STORE side.

 

[MrT]

Sure. You are correct that the Target brand is really good on a resume, and you're also correct that the ETL HR is more of the strategic/talent management partner in the business, but that's largely it. I, too, know plenty of previous HR staff that made transitions to other companies, but the problem lies within what I said before in that they basically have to start over on the totem pole. The Human Resources Expert and Human Resources Process Team Leader positions (minus small-format stores) are simply useless in most stores because leaders exploit them for other salesfloor duties. Over the years, Target has greatly reduced access points that make the role hard to manage. By this, I mean you're largely resorting to calling target pay and benefits for all LOA administration (minus personal LOAs), benefit enrollment inquiries (we don't touch benefits, and during open enrollment season, we're largely told to not be involved in that process besides telling TMs how to access the right sites), compensation metrics, and general payroll reporting when that's handled in-house for most companies.

You also don't have enough HRIS access in my opinion when doing your daily Workday reporting and recruiting. There's no reason why I had to call HROC for stupid things and why they constantly messed up employment information that would set back hiring for our store. Target is too large of a company to justify so many on-site HR staff. It can be such a detriment doing HR for a big company because everything is specialized and compartmentalized so that you're not going to get the true entry-level and mid-career level HR experience you need to progress your career in HR. It's mainly the small grievances that make the role ridiculous why can't I do employment verification, why can't I authorize a fucking BG check? Why can't I have complete control over the onboarding and talent acquisition process, why don't I get training in pay/benefits? It's because that's not how retail HR functions. Like dude, I said I was an HR Process TL. Most of my days were spent recruiting, doing policy communication, doing orientations, or in fulfillment/cashiering. My HR experts spent most of their time coloring and decorating shit, designing appreciating you calendars, making pointless flyers, dicking around in Canva, using the Cricut, planning food events, and maybe a little recruiting, lol. Even my ETL had a low opinion of the position.

Human resources is an office job, full stop; they are not backup cashiers, floor pushers, truck throwers, zoners, fulfillment experts, food production experts, Starbucks baristas, etc. You do not highlight helping other business areas on a resume/in your interview, they don't make you a marketable candidate because you spend so much time away from HR. If anything, target needs to either create an elevated, entry-level HR specialist position based on store business needs alongside the ETL that's closer to PG45 level. Then, retain the ETL-HR position and have them focus on HR ONLY. There's a reason why HR is considered a partner role at Target. Why don't they report to the HRBP like AP and PM do? I'm not saying Target is a shitty company for HR, it just can be absurd on the STORE side.

Fair enough I've never asked an hr tm to push or cashier in my 10+ years at Target. I have seen them pick up a shift and I can count that on my hand with how many times that's been. I think your gripe is with the small format systems that imo spot has severely mismanaged. I'm really not sure what a store level target hr person would be recruiting for tbh. Talent acquisition is definitely going to be handled way above our paygrade. Your basically saying that hr team members should.juat have a different title at this point and not be called hr, when in fact they handle the human resources of the store I don't get it.

 

[boringClerk03]

Fair enough I've never asked an hr tm to push or cashier in my 10+ years at Target. I have seen them pick up a shift and I can count that on my hand with how many times that's been. I think your gripe is with the small format systems that imo spot has severely mismanaged. I'm really not sure what a store level target hr person would be recruiting for tbh. Talent acquisition is definitely going to be handled way above our paygrade. Your basically saying that hr team members should.juat have a different title at this point and not be called hr, when in fact they handle the human resources of the store I don't get it.

Well, then you're one of the better leaders. It seems like your store or the stores you've encountered operationally utilize its HR staff differently than the ones I used to work at then, a true ASANTS scenario.

For me, HR departments staff/recruit for all positions, process all terminations, and are involved in the front-house talent acquisition and onboarding experience. Leaders gave us their staffing and development plans, would do the interviews and that was it. We did all of the phone screens, processing, and paperwork. Sometimes at my stores, corporate got involved and did PG35 and PG45 recruiting (not sure why, sometimes they run out of stuff to do I guess). From there, HROC works on employment information and Accurate works on the BG check so new employees are hired correctly and on time. We can't be involved in pay & benefits or back-end employment verification and profile administration. This was one of my biggest issues because a lot of times in order to get hired, employees need letters of employment intent, or have questions about their benefits before they want to start; we're specifically told we can't be involved with this process period which would delay orientations and anger new hires. Most regular companies will write letters of authorization with no problem and will sit down with staff to go over their benefits in detail before they're hired. I do understand the liabilities with this though; we also DO NOT get involved with references whatsoever. I'm sorry, I know you're just defending the role, but unless you've been in HR, I don't think you can accurately speak on it because you don't see it.

I'm saying HR should focus only on HR and that reporting to the HRBP and being centralized to HR only would solve a lot of my issues. All other partner roles at Target do so. HR ratios/HR-to-employee statistics based on organization size should always follow industry trends. An average Target store only averages 50-300 employees with high-volume sites employing 300-600 at most. For the average case, you don't need more than 1 HR personnel, and if they're only in HR and not playing back-up floor associate, then they can really focus on their role and do well. For the higher volume stores, maybe having the ETL-HR and 1-3 PG45 HR specialists would do wonders and they could really work on store culture and own the HR business. Just my opinion though.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

I am confused. Do you did get answers from the stores on these threads? Did you get the job with the bank?

I'm Lost! - Hiring question

To make a long story short. I applied for a position for seasonal, completed video interview. Had technical issues which held up doing the interview, application was moved to no longer considered but still was able to do video interview. Called the store, did a meet and greet interview with the...

www.thebreakroom.org

Best TL position to apply for and be in?

This. You work for the PMBP, and if you have any problematic ETLs or SD, your boss can drop by unannounced to them for the harshest visit that they’ll fill the DSD on, then pull them in the office after and set them straight, you’ll have a ton of exposure to the PMD (although you probably will...

www.thebreakroom.org

Flexibility

So I’m starting full time in a few weeks with a bank working from home and looking to get into Target part time. How flexible are they with part time?

www.thebreakroom.org

Salary expectations of SETL

What could I expect the salary range for SETL?

www.thebreakroom.org

 

[Dream Baby]

The HR Expert at my store does OPUs a lot!

 

[can't touch this]

HR pay at Target is pathetic compared to pretty much every other company in the industry and out of it, tho I will concede that there’s a trend of eliminating HR altogether and replacing it with a faceless Hyderabad hotline where they are pleased to be addressings of your concerns, thank you come again

If I had to guess I would say Target is very likely to follow suit and I will be very surprised if there’s still such a thing as storeside HR in five years. It’s already miraculous enough that hourly PMTs haven’t been phased out in favor of third party contractors who smoke meth in their work trucks, but you can bet that if Target Corporate finds a way to make anything suck more they will absolutely jump on it