New Hire Observations

[Send me a sign]

There are other rewards than hourly rate of pay.

Isn’t the point of working diligently, to deserve a decent hourly rate as a reward? Sorry, but the nicely gift wrapped bs “You’re really fast or you know these processes so well, so you might as well go ahead and do the work of others that can’t ... at the same pay”, just seems to fall short of rewarding. So I am on team Sbrando7 with this. Going above and beyond is not worth the effort it once was.

 

[Tessa120]

And in your example, the bike wasn't on the floor, so that specific tm was relevant to the purchase. What if no other tm or another competant tm was around? Guest leaves with no bike.

No. A TM is relevant. Not a specific TM. The only way the TM made a difference in sales is if absolutely no one else in the store would have gotten the bike. If even one other TM would have gotten that bike, then the TM who got it did not make any difference to sales for the day.

To qualify as having made a difference on the bottom line, to having made a difference in daily sales, you have to rise above all your peers and have made a sale that none of your peers could have made had they been there. Otherwise you are just another cog in the sales machine. You have to be special, or you are just part of working together for a combined goal.

When a woman wanted cleaning wipes to clean baby toys, and the other TM was stumped and asked me, was I special in selling pacifier wipes? Nope, because other experienced TMs likely would have, had they been there.

When another woman wanted white jeggings, and careful questioning revealed her daughter was wearing a somewhat sheer costume dress and I sold her on slip shorts, did I personally add to the bottom line? Nope, because other experienced TMs would have found a solution.

When I stopped thefts at the fitting room, and a few times it was a few hundred saved (I think the term was recovery), did I personally save the company money? Maybe the time that another TM waved sisters with cosmetics in and I gave the mom glare to the first woman who came out (and then went back in and came back out again with a full basket), since the other TM let the basket in. Otherwise, no, an experienced fitting room attendant would have been able to prevent similar losses.

No one is so much the retail demi-god that they can make sales no one else can and do so somewhat regularly. Any upsell anyone can do, there's probably quite a few more at their store that are just as good. So no one person increases daily sales by a noticeable amount. Any one person, any day, their efforts are statistically insignificant.

 

[flow4areasonuno]

There are other rewards than hourly rate of pay.

Like more hours and decent shifts. And not treating you like an imbecile just because you can't do the work of four people

 

[sbrando7]

Uh. Many guests do NOT ask for help with items not on the salesfloor. After awhile, the guest stops shopping at our store.

Or - when they ask a tm - there's a good chance the tm doesn't know the answer or doesn't want to go the distance to provide the answer.

And in your example, the bike wasn't on the floor, so that specific tm was relevant to the purchase. What if no other tm or another competant tm was around? Guest leaves with no bike.

You are correct - many guests do not ask for help. But many guests will refuse help and just say "just looking" when asked by an employee. I rarely ask for help when shopping and would prefer to search myself rather than ask or accept help.

You are incorrect that guests will stop shopping at a store. There are many guests that will continue to shop at Target no matter what.

Most team members can find a specific item in a zebra when a customer knows exactly what they want. Doing so is not increasing sales. That is doing the bare minimum of the job.

I said he would have been irrelevant if the bike was on the floor. The bike had not been pushed yet so he was relevant. However, he was just the warm body who got asked by the guest to get the product from the back. If the guest came in at another time, a different team member would have been the warm body who got the product from the back.

 

[sbrando7]

But what if I wasn't that specific area's DBO? How would the comps be today? If the rest of the store is struggling (save a couple of style areas and one hardlines area) - then who's to say what would have happened?

I am the DBO. Comps are positive. What if every DBO in my store ran their dept the way I do? I am on top of everything in my area. Bet there would be a positive impact on sales.

So since you have been the DBO (another stupid title to make team members feel more important), sales have gone up.

But are they up because sales were down from previous team member's poor performance and lack of interest? Or are they up because you are doing such a great job?

Are your area's sales at an all time high? Or are they returning to previous year's highs?

How much are you sales up in your area for the month? year? What is that dollar amount in gains compared to the total sales of the store?

What are you going to say if your area's sales level off next year when compared to your performance this year?

Since you are having a hard time understanding, let me give you an example:

Target's stock (TGT) closed 2007 at $50 per share.

Target's stock (TGT) closed 2008 at $34.53 per share.

Target's stock (TGT) closed 2009 at $48.37 per share.

Target's stock (TGT) closed 2010 at $60.13 per share.

2009 was a positive year. However, 2009 was positive because 2008 saw the financial crises negatively affect stock prices.

2010 was a positive year. 2010 went above 2007's closing price.

You think you are doing a great job with all these positive comps.

Are you 2009, getting positive comps because 2008 was negative? Or are you 2010, getting positive comps on top of 2009?