Should Target bring back Presentation TL position?

[Far from newbie]

Answer to original thread question:

Absolutely vital ! Who EVER thought deleting that position was even possible ?!

I never STOPPED being the presentation/pricing TL - couldn’t imagine it any other way.

There can be a LOT involved to have a successful transition -
from the pre-tie to planning a productive sequencing to validating and ensuring all is completed properly and ISM is up.

 

[swordfishtrombon]

Answer to original thread question:

Absolutely vital ! Who EVER thought deleting that position was even possible ?!

I never STOPPED being the presentation/pricing TL - couldn’t imagine it any other way.

There can be a LOT involved to have a successful transition -
from the pre-tie to planning a productive sequencing to validating and ensuring all is completed properly and ISM is up.

How do you find the time to truly validate that stuff is set properly? I do a quick walk at the end of the day (make sure everything looks correct when compared to POG images on device, pog pull completed, label strips changed, fixtures cleaned, etc) but I don't have time to do a really good audit. Especially when it comes to ISM. The last time toys reset for example I never received any of the ISM and going back through and auditing all of it and reordering is going to take forever to do so I keep putting it off. Really wish we didn't get rid of the signing specialist position.

 

[Far from newbie]

How do you find the time to truly validate that stuff is set properly? I do a quick walk at the end of the day (make sure everything looks correct when compared to POG images on device, pog pull completed, label strips changed, fixtures cleaned, etc) but I don't have time to do a really good audit. Especially when it comes to ISM. The last time toys reset for example I never received any of the ISM and going back through and auditing all of it and reordering is going to take forever to do so I keep putting it off. Really wish we didn't get rid of the signing specialist position.

absolutely agree that having a signing specialist would be much more efficient !

Since we are given exactly HALF the hours listed in the set workload calendar each week and there is NO dedicated signing specialist it IS difficult.
Like you, I also do a quick cursory walk/look through after the days work. What helps more is : I have the tm’s fill out the post planogram assessment so that I have a record of what has been finished, when and by who. If the assessment was completed accurately the setting tm will inform me if there are any missing parts/ism - if there is, I asked that they staple the pog to the assessment so that I can follow up. They can throw the pog instructions out if it was complete.

 

[Spotter]

I read in the April monthly planner that they will have a presentation delegate to do salesplans and revisions. Can wait to see if that come to light. I guess spot is realizing that having 1 person do many jobs that a specialty team used to do. Now bring back the backroom team!

 

[RedDog]

That my dear is “back to the good ole days“ !

Were you around 5 years ago when we had a TRUCK/FLOW team ? HUGE team - started at 2 am - unload and push - went home.
problem was: a lot less tm on the floor to help guests during open hours
Biggest benefit: we did NOT have the mess of Uboats/flats/pallets/boxes on the floor in guests way all day like we do now!

The stores I go to have people on the floor but they are not helping anybody just pushing stuff. Nobody has asked to help me in years in a Target. And I do not think zoning even exists anymore.

 

[NoTasking]

If they are so gung ho on making modernization work, they need to give the stores more payroll so the depts can be staffed open to close.

Hahaha we don’t even have open to close coverage for Tech or Fitting Room

 

[60SecondsRemaining]

absolutely agree that having a signing specialist would be much more efficient !

Since we are given exactly HALF the hours listed in the set workload calendar each week and there is NO dedicated signing specialist it IS difficult.
Like you, I also do a quick cursory walk/look through after the days work. What helps more is : I have the tm’s fill out the post planogram assessment so that I have a record of what has been finished, when and by who. If the assessment was completed accurately the setting tm will inform me if there are any missing parts/ism - if there is, I asked that they staple the pog to the assessment so that I can follow up. They can throw the pog instructions out if it was complete.

I always used the transition workload tool to plan, but whenever the STL didn't want to allocate the hours to complete the workload I just made them choose.

We can set everything, but not fill it.

We can set and fill but someone needs to pull the batches.

We can do X% of the sets (50% hours, 50% set).

Since I didn't carry an actual "team" and used an amalgamation of team members based on which set I was doing, the team for any given set was generally very cross functional. They can stock quickly, they can typically work the backroom, they can do detail work like audits or research. Give me my hours and we will use them to be productive, if we finish early, we'll find something productive to do.

If you are stealing my hours then it is a two way street. I had to teach three new STLs this lesson the hard way before they got it through their thick brains that if we are forecasted hours then we require those hours. Sure we could work super hard and get it done but the the only reward for hard work is more hard work, so I would be kind of a shit leader to knowingly abuse a group's work ethic knowing they get nothing out of it.

 

[TargetsDaddy]

absolutely agree that having a signing specialist would be much more efficient !

Since we are given exactly HALF the hours listed in the set workload calendar each week and there is NO dedicated signing specialist it IS difficult.
Like you, I also do a quick cursory walk/look through after the days work. What helps more is : I have the tm’s fill out the post planogram assessment so that I have a record of what has been finished, when and by who. If the assessment was completed accurately the setting tm will inform me if there are any missing parts/ism - if there is, I asked that they staple the pog to the assessment so that I can follow up. They can throw the pog instructions out if it was complete.

I wish HQ knows how much signing gets thrown out before it reaches the floor. The VM only takes care of her own signing and leaves it up to old signing TM to clear hardline ISM. Some DBO don't bother to look for ISM. There's not a lot of accountability with signing at my store unless it's transition related.

 

[vendordontmesswithme]

I wish HQ knows how much signing gets thrown out before it reaches the floor. The VM only takes care of her own signing and leaves it up to old signing TM to clear hardline ISM. Some DBO don't bother to look for ISM. There's not a lot of accountability with signing at my store unless it's transition related.

Transitions don't always go up.

 

[Far from newbie]

I wish HQ knows how much signing gets thrown out before it reaches the floor. The VM only takes care of her own signing and leaves it up to old signing TM to clear hardline ISM. Some DBO don't bother to look for ISM. There's not a lot of accountability with signing at my store unless it's transition related.

Transitions don't always go up.

so much this !
Getting it SET is priority, getting it filled next, data accuracy next, signing is at the bottom of the list, IF we have time.
we haven’t had time in a year. This week I will throw out the stationary ISM that we saved since last year, hoping for a minute to put it up.
Transition signing goes up 25% of the time. SPL signing is 98% trash.
very sad. So much More $ wasted on printing & sending & trashing than the tiny bit of payroll it would take to actually put it up And increase sales from it being used.

 

[NXT]

I wish HQ knows how much signing gets thrown out before it reaches the floor. The VM only takes care of her own signing and leaves it up to old signing TM to clear hardline ISM. Some DBO don't bother to look for ISM. There's not a lot of accountability with signing at my store unless it's transition related.

#BringBackSigningSpecialist

 

[TargetSigningHo]

#BringBackSigningSpecialist

I miss doing the FOS overheads.

 

[Sparkle5]

Better choice would be to have a GM ETL be in charge of transition planning and then delegating salesplans and sidecaps out to someone.

Create a revision captain and have that person own revisions.

The GM ETL would then plan and coordinate major transition events, and then execute them either early morning or overnight depending with an appropriately sized group of team members.

This eliminates the need to carry a pog team while simultaneously allowing you to only use the strongest performers for your transition event. It's an everyone wins scenario.

I know this is a highly successful strategy because I did it in a high volume store for years, only difference being I was a TL and my ETL was a moron so I had to do his job as well.

aaaand....those designated competent team members are still making the same $$ as those other tm.s. Annnnd....the missed work of those competent tms sits. Not working at this location.

 

[Sparkle5]

I roughly plan out transition workload for the week since we've reinstated a POG team. I have a designated POG captain who is in the meeting with me, our ETL and the team lead over the department we're setting next week. We go over grids and the adjacency/pogs to be set and roughly draft it out that way. I pay attention to POG hours a little but for the most part we just look at if/what aisles are flipping, major changes and I generally assume any aisles that have a lot of small fiddly product will take more time than the POG suggests (toothbrushes, wet cat food) and bigger items take less time (car seats for this week for example). It's very much a rough draft though and ends up changing throughout the week depending on what loose ends need to get tied off from previous days. Recently their biggest setback has been large amount of discontinued and clearance product that we have nowhere to put. They've been able to finish early most weeks though and will set a few salesplanners/revisions or start on the next week's workload towards the end of the week. They're all experienced setters for the most part and were part of the old school pricing/plano team though so they're also good at knowing what all they can get done in a shift. My POG captain is our old signing specialist so he typically makes sure all the ISM is out on the last day of the set.

Sports alert...we have no recognized pog hours or team. Soooooo the overdue is astronomical.

 

[Ashfromoldsite]

so much this !
Getting it SET is priority, getting it filled next, data accuracy next, signing is at the bottom of the list, IF we have time.
we haven’t had time in a year. This week I will throw out the stationary ISM that we saved since last year, hoping for a minute to put it up.
Transition signing goes up 25% of the time. SPL signing is 98% trash.
very sad. So much More $ wasted on printing & sending & trashing than the tiny bit of payroll it would take to actually put it up And increase sales from it being used.

I would do set first signing second. Screw filling it. But I was always pulled from my area to set everyone else’s shit.

 

[60SecondsRemaining]

aaaand....those designated competent team members are still making the same $$ as those other tm.s. Annnnd....the missed work of those competent tms sits. Not working at this location.

You realize a major transition even is like...2 days right?

It's not like some massive amount of work is going to build up in two days.

Unsure how those people making the same as other tms is relevant.

 

[Sparkle5]

You realize a major transition even is like...2 days right?

It's not like some massive amount of work is going to build up in two days.

Unsure how those people making the same as other tms is relevant.

I v not done one so no I don't realize how long it takes. I stated I m Training in April. Currently, TM s pulled from other departments at this store when tl delegates a presentation task in another department; don't get to complete their regular work for the day. It's left for them the next day. And we have double trucks 3 days a week. Seems it is a regular position divided among a few TM s who still have their daily duties now added upon for the same wage of other tms who do not . That's my point.

 

[60SecondsRemaining]

I v not done one so no I don't realize how long it takes. I stated I m Training in April. Currently, TM s pulled from other departments at this store when tl delegates a presentation task in another department; don't get to complete their regular work for the day. It's left for them the next day. And we have double trucks 3 days a week. Seems it is a regular position divided among a few TM s who still have their daily duties now added upon for the same wage of other tms who do not . That's my point.

Yeah - that's definitely not the way to go imo.

It has been some time since I worked for Target but I expect major transitions are still largely the same.

For a major even (like toys, or cosmetics) I would typically stagger schedule. 1-2 BR TMs 2 hours early who pull batches, gets stock ready. A few TMs 2 hours after the BR TMs who can set pogs well, from that area if I could. We didn't have "GM" so I would use sales floor TMs or electronics TMs if I could. I also had the TL for that area there as well. Then 3-4 flow TMs would come in 3 hours after the people setting and start pushing. BR TMs would push/back stock and then the people setting would loop back around to help stock. We cleaned up back stock as a team at the end of the day/night with the remaining TMs.

For large events that would take multiple days we just picked a spot to stop and if we finished early we went home, we never added more unless we knew we could get it done. Then we would have one small straggler day at the end with the hours we saved from leaving early. Seems inefficient and it is, but it made sure we were clean at the end of each shift.

 

[FlowTeamChick]

I'm in my 6th and last week of working on transitions for my two areas (OTC & Personal Care). The POGs drop in two weeks before they're due and I'm usually the first one in the box of label strips when I'm expecting them. My store provides a lot of support to the DBOs who are working on transitions - I still take care of my 1:1 batches and push my repacks, but other TMs have been pushing my case packs. (Which means my back room is a mess with product put in weird places and there's a lot of overstock on the floor, but I'll get it cleaned up gradually.) Signage is not my highest priority, but it doesn't get thrown away either.
Conversely, a DBO who doesn't do so great with POGs will get support with that, but they've been one of the TMs providing support to others.
As for a Presentation TL, one of our SrTLs fills this role for GM; it's something she does well.
It makes sense to me that the same person who pushes product in an area would also do the transitions. Just yesterday said to my SD that even though it's kind of a bother to adjust shelves etc., I was glad for the chance to make my life easier. Adjusting shelves upward for all those little pain-in-the-neck boxes of pain relief will make it a lot easier to push.

 

[TargetsDaddy]

Yeah - that's definitely not the way to go imo.

It has been some time since I worked for Target but I expect major transitions are still largely the same.

For a major even (like toys, or cosmetics) I would typically stagger schedule. 1-2 BR TMs 2 hours early who pull batches, gets stock ready. A few TMs 2 hours after the BR TMs who can set pogs well, from that area if I could. We didn't have "GM" so I would use sales floor TMs or electronics TMs if I could. I also had the TL for that area there as well. Then 3-4 flow TMs would come in 3 hours after the people setting and start pushing. BR TMs would push/back stock and then the people setting would loop back around to help stock. We cleaned up back stock as a team at the end of the day/night with the remaining TMs.

For large events that would take multiple days we just picked a spot to stop and if we finished early we went home, we never added more unless we knew we could get it done. Then we would have one small straggler day at the end with the hours we saved from leaving early. Seems inefficient and it is, but it made sure we were clean at the end of each shift.

Presentation process is not the same since you left. We no longer have backroom team members and toys transition isn't really that crazy big anymore. I could probably solo toys in 2 weeks or less. There more like glorified revisions these days. Thank God we no longer have to change backer paper.

 

[Far from newbie]

You realize a major transition even is like...2 days right?

2 days ??? A small transition like stationary can be 65 hours, a larger sporting goods/toys can be 80 hrs and a seasonal transition can be up to 300 hours.
We have never finished ANY transition in 2 days.
we have 1 or 2 tm’s setting - 3 if the TL helps.
At the MOST that is 21 hours work completed each day after breaks/meals are deducted from three 8 hour shifts
The DBO for the area does Not help set - they work on the truck freight, the 1:1 and most likely have SPL to set the same week
The GM TL avoids us when we set in their depts. because we inevitably complain about the overpush and salvage in the way.

 

[60SecondsRemaining]

2 days ??? A small transition like stationary can be 65 hours, a larger sporting goods/toys can be 80 hrs and a seasonal transition can be up to 300 hours.
We have never finished ANY transition in 2 days.
we have 1 or 2 tm’s setting - 3 if the TL helps.
At the MOST that is 21 hours work completed each day after breaks/meals are deducted from three 8 hour shifts
The DBO for the area does Not help set - they work on the truck freight, the 1:1 and most likely have SPL to set the same week
The GM TL avoids us when we set in their depts. because we inevitably complain about the overpush and salvage in the way.

I typically viewed 80hrs as a day. 8 TMs @ 10 hours.

 

[SigningLady]

I typically viewed 80hrs as a day. 8 TMs @ 10 hours.

8 TMs setting in one day is a pipe dream for any store these days. My store usually runs on 24 hours as a day, so 3 TMs to not only set, but also pull and fill back on their own. No extra help. Even on heavier transitions like seasonal.

 

[Sparkle5]

Wow. Today I was guided through the mydevice Set info. The aisle I m supposed to train on is "next week" and is listed under Transition with 0 hours alloted!! I walked the aisle today real quick it's in beauty with 4 sections 5 shelves . No one else mentioned if they are training me next week other then TL. A TM who did an endcap transition Sunday was told the assignment was a salesplanner but it came up under Transition and it took them 2.5 hours doing every step alone.They said the mydevice time allotment was 12 minutes and they got questioned why it took so long. Getting battle shy. Can I decline the training offer???

 

[Far from newbie]

I read in the April monthly planner that they will have a presentation delegate to do salesplans and revisions. Can wait to see if that come to light. I guess spot is realizing that having 1 person do many jobs that a specialty team used to do. Now bring back the backroom team!

Backroom team, backroom team, bring back a backroom team !!
ETL making the schedule last week had no spots for a few people because of limited availability- heard she scheduled them for ‘backroom‘ ! YAY.