I just took over as the new Signing TM a few days ago. I have had little/no real training and was forced to use the wave this morning to take down all the plaid overheads despite the fact that I was never actually trained to use it. I'm actively dreading next week because I have absolutely no idea how to do much of anything that I'll be required to do. When I try to express this to my ETLs, I only seem to get a response that goes something like "just do the best you can" because all of them are absolutely clueless, too. Can anyone point me in the direction of a thread that might be the slightest bit helpful for someone in my position? At this point, even just a job description or a summary of my overall responsibilities/expectations would be immensely helpful.
Welcome, and prepare to do lots of Yosemite-Sam style swearing
🙂
I forget what the particular document is called, but there is a giant, like 10mb, PDF guide to all-things signing familiarity for all over the store, spanning city chain and super targets, and even includes part numbers. The guide itself seems to be designed for signing team members who are the first one for a brand new store, as if they are just being figuratively handed the keys after construction of a brand new store by the construction crew, but for me (this is my 3rd holiday season as signing specialist) there were a lot of built-up mysteries solved by the guide. I don't have workbench access from where I am now, but I'm preparing to take a trip up there shortly for an errand and will look it up and reply upon return.
I would suggest you speak with HR directly to report that you need Wave training and have it signed off, because you can get into some major problems if HQ learns you are operating it without training. It shouldn't take but maybe 10 minutes, if that.
General tips:
1. Ask your receiving dock person for where to find a black marker if you need one in the future, because you will. With this marker, write in easily readable letters down the side of a box what the box label says, and the date, such as "Lawn and Garden TRNS, 06.15" for any box in your stowing area. I have visited several stores and toured their signing areas, and the shape/design of these areas vary widely, so stowing tips for me may not be of use to you, but being able to read what a box is for without having to squint at a label is pretty much universally helpful. If you need to hold onto a box for some reason, write the reason as both a reminder to you and to anyone snooping thru your stuff that it is being held for the specified reason, instead of them thinking it's just old or you're too lazy to put it out. Also expect people to go thru your stuff when you're away and leave it trashed, constantly, and then getting the blame for having a junky area.
2. Process your weekly signing pallet as soon as you can when it comes off the truck, because several departments all over the store have things inside that they've ordered. Receiving, PMT/maintenance, cash office/guest service, Food Ave, Starbucks, electronics boat, and probably one or two others order things thru their Workbench and it comes to you on that pallet. Do your best to give them priority if you can, or load all of those things into a cart to be divvied out that day at least. Some things they ordered may be super urgent and they've probably waited at least 2 weeks to get it. Using what you know from No.7 below, consider kinda sorting like-labels together, or dividing things that say TRNS, SPLN, or OH/CSE into different subsections even if they have the same sticker color or seem to go to the same project. TRNS is transition, aka a POG reset of an area; SPLN is a salesplanner that a hardlines ETL or grunt will need to find on their own without asking you, and OH/CSE is Overhead or Coordinated Store Environment.. overheads hang from the ceiling generally, and CSE are the large poster-pictures that hang on the tops of backwalls of areas. Keep displays separate if possible, perhaps even stacked and wrapped on their own pallet stored elsewhere in the backroom steel for later retrieval all at once.
3. Personally invest in a tool that a hardware shop calls a "crow's foot" or "tack puller" (~$5-6). You may be viewed as a super hero by POG for possessing such a device, especially if you carry it with you every day. It looks like a normal screwdriver, except at the tip there is a bent-and-forked portion that looks like the back side of a hammer's head, and extremely useful for prying up xmas/canoe clips. I wonder if Super Targets might actually carry it, but it's used for roofers who need to pry up metal roofing tacks.
4. Expect a statistically significant number of people to think you're lazy, or don't do anything, or just walk around the store all day, when actually you've been hauling keister all day. Expect leadership to ask you, "why isn't this out yet" but also not listen or care when you offer a perfectly sensible explanation. Expect leadership to ask you, "This takes like 5 minutes to put out, why isn't it out?" when you have a list of ninety 5-minute projects, and had you done that one (s)he has in hand, they would have still picked up yet a different 5-minute project and asked the same thing. Also expect to be overloaded with projects with zero HQ communication, when the week before you were scraping up things to do.
5. Expect to not get what you need, from HQ-sent boxes that you didn't order. No large reset that I have ever worked had all of the signing I needed, and some of it will be extras that don't even apply to your store. Except to get blamed for not having the signing that HQ never sent (instead rather, the expect the belief that you merely misplaced the sign they believe HQ did send), and also being blamed for shipping of the items you ordered not getting there fast enough despite having no control over that.
6. Expect the people who stack the weekly signing pallet to have zero experience playing Tetris or Jenga in their entire life. In fact, go play a simple game called "Tower of Hanoi" (link below) and gradually realize just how much of your day is spent doing what amounts to this very thing instead of being able to work directly on the project items you need to do:
Tower of Hanoi
7. Go to Workbench and create quick links that go "Transition Communications", "Early Set Notes" (possibly combined), and "Monthly Signing Update," and then read all of those things diligently. At some point you will encounter a situation in which the items addressed therein will arise, all you'll have the answer already. Also visit Redwire each Monday/Tuesday and read the "Merchandise Update" which will usually have a Signing section with info you need to know about regarding upcoming projects. The ETLs are generally supposed to read these but in my experience rarely do, so you may get a good PR boost for knowing something they didn't.
8. Especially for the holiday season, be prepared to spend a bajillion hours just assembling cardboard upright shippers, via insert Tab A into Slot B method, and be prepared to swear when to realize the one you just opened contains a small screwdriver in it. Rejoice when one of the shippers is made by Hanes, because those shipper designers actually have a clue about what they're doing.
Previous post along these lines (by me):
MEGATHREAD - Signing Tips, Tricks and Quips (along with howls of dispair) | Page 114 | The Break Room
