Archived Why does Target seem to struggle to make ends meet. Especially with having enough employee

[Dragronak8er97]

its odd that a multi billion dollar company struggles to keep people around and get things done. What is it? Lack of hours? People? I find it irritating that my stl keeps the hours at the bare minimum so she can benefit financially. I mean why have a store struggle. Especially, when we have visits everyone is scrambling to MAKE things seem like they’re ok but everything isn’t . It’s ridiculous.

 

[NKG]

its odd that a multi billion dollar company struggles to keep people around and get things done. What is it? Lack of hours? People? I find it irritating that my stl keeps the hours at the bare minimum so she can benefit financially. I mean why have a store struggle. Especially, when we have visits everyone is scrambling to MAKE things seem like they’re ok but everything is. It’s ridiculous.

Welcome to Target Store Modernization 2017

 

[Backroom81]

I mean why have a store struggle.

so she can benefit financially.

You answered your own question.

In all seriousness, it's because there's always a push to cut more and more so the stock price and dividends can go up even further. The more stockholders get used to seeing the results, the less they will accept anything that might make their personal wealth drop a whole 1%.

 

[Kartman]

The people at the top are out of touch with the realities of what's really going on.

 

[SrTLall]

There is zero benefit for STLs to not use payroll that is distributed to their store. They cannot spend more payroll than is allocated, but don't go blaming the STL for keeping hours down because you think they get some sort of benefit out of it, because that is completely false.

 

[Fyi]

The easiest thing to cut is payroll, it makes an unprofitable company seem profitable

 

[BackroomBear]

There is zero benefit for STLs to not use payroll that is distributed to their store. They cannot spend more payroll than is allocated, but don't go blaming the STL for keeping hours down because you think they get some sort of benefit out of it, because that is completely false.

Well green payroll is a better bonus than red payroll for the year. Everyone assumes there’s a million hours to go around. Some weeks you can spend all the allocated hours and still be way understaffed

 

[VivaBean]

Especially with implementing end to end teams, now we are only allotted a certain amount of employees during certain times of they day. Most people are scheduled during the busiest times of the day. The system shows exactly how many hours are given for payroll and how many people you can schedule. It's not any hard feelings against employees, it's just what we are given. It may seem stressful, but store numbers nationwide have been visibly improving (YTD comps, NPS scores, etc.) It may feel crazy or understaffed, but there are reasons it is that way. New things take time to adjust to, but it is working. Just feels cruddy until we can all get used to it.

 

[jenna]

It may feel crazy or understaffed, but there are reasons it is that way. New things take time to adjust to, but it is working. Just feels cruddy until we can all get used to it.

uh, because it is crazy.
There's not enough payroll to complete all the tasks completely, quickly and efficiently.

no. it's not working.

 

[jenna]

The easiest thing to cut is payroll, it makes an unprofitable company seem profitable

this.

quickest way to trim costs is to cut payroll (v. cost of goods or other expenses.)

 

[VivaBean]

uh, because it is crazy.
There's not enough payroll to complete all the tasks completely, quickly and efficiently.

no. it's not working.

Target's whole point of this modernization is guests before tasks. I understand it's hard to get everything complete, and eventually there will be changes to help benefit the team members in some way or another. Change doesn't happen overnight. Not disagreeing that it's incredibly difficult, and basically impossible to get everything we need done. I can also agree having one team member running hardlines and trying to cover end to end breaks is not effective, as we don't finish tasks the way we need to. In the sense of what Target is trying to do, it is working. I can agree on the fact that higher up should compensate more hours for staff. Will they ever do it? Probably not :c

 

[jenna]

In the sense of what Target is trying to do, it is working.

I suppose if you consider that Target is trying to over work it's team members, and look good for shareholders - then sure, it's working.

-
My store is losing sales. How on earth can that be Target's end goal?

We are not zoned, no research is shot, no (or very few) Man Cafs are dropped/pulled (stockroom is full in some areas.)
ergo, we don't have what the guests want (Zero OH's,) and our zone is terrible, so it's difficult for the guests to find what they need.
PTM - what's that? doesn't happen
Purging the stockroom - what's that? doesn't happen
Everyone's cashiering - so they are not helping guests on the floor - just running around trying to cover the bare minimum (freight)

anywho.

 

[Rock Lobster]

Target's whole point of this modernization is guests before tasks. I understand it's hard to get everything complete, and eventually there will be changes to help benefit the team members in some way or another. Change doesn't happen overnight. Not disagreeing that it's incredibly difficult, and basically impossible to get everything we need done. I can also agree having one team member running hardlines and trying to cover end to end breaks is not effective, as we don't finish tasks the way we need to. In the sense of what Target is trying to do, it is working. I can agree on the fact that higher up should compensate more hours for staff. Will they ever do it? Probably not :c

The problem is at this point there is a HUGE disconnect between what the upper leadership thinks is happening versus what the stores are experiencing (and most stores are experiencing varying degrees of these problems). The GVPs and above (to the CEO) get a red carpet laid out in front of them before they show up. Stores know when they are coming, and STLs/DTLs move payroll to the stores that are going to be seeing the upper leadership to patch the stores back together most of the time. The upper leadership walks the store and sees a great building and then leaves.

If they really wanted to see what the buildings look like most of the time, go to a visit announced and then turn around and go to the same building 3 days later when they cut all the payroll back down to normal levels and let the store fall back apart.

If they want an accurate picture, all stores are struggling right now. It is glaringly obvious that payroll has been reduced (and not evenly I'll add, still not sure why) across all stores over the last few years. While some things have been done to add it back, its still absurd. I had a 4100 hour week in a building after the "added" payroll for grocery and end to end stuff (we figured this would have been 3800 for a Super Target which is dumb). The buildings have not received enough resources or improvements to processes to allow for a reduction to this degree, yet that is what we are getting. I could keep going on this topic for a while, but really they should ask one question... What changes has the company made improvement wise to make our jobs easier and has the payroll be reduced proportionally? I would say no.

 

[HRZone]

There is zero benefit for STLs to not use payroll that is distributed to their store. They cannot spend more payroll than is allocated, but don't go blaming the STL for keeping hours down because you think they get some sort of benefit out of it, because that is completely false.

He's right you know, infact STLS who don't use payroll are questioned by their leaders for it. It's a metric they are judged on.

Finally if you don't use payroll one year, you lose payroll the following year so ask any STL/ETL HR they want to make payroll by no more than 20 hours a month, otherwise it's a waste.

but store numbers nationwide have been visibly improving (YTD comps, NPS scores, etc.)

This is somewhat debateable... Don't forget they lowered expectations this year (Salesgoal is different from sales forecast) - by lowering the bar it's a bit easier to hit your goals.

The problem is at this point there is a HUGE disconnect between what the upper leadership thinks is happening versus what the stores are experiencing (and most stores are experiencing varying degrees of these problems). The GVPs and above (to the CEO) get a red carpet laid out in front of them before they show up. Stores know when they are coming, and STLs/DTLs move payroll to the stores that are going to be seeing the upper leadership to patch the stores back together most of the time. The upper leadership walks the store and sees a great building and then leaves.

Amen to this, the visit culture is toxic! I post this all the time but I can't say how many times we loaded our grid for a visit, then found out they weren't going to "make it" to our store that day.

 

[StargazerOmega]

Amen to this, the visit culture is toxic! I post this all the time but I can't say how many times we loaded our grid for a visit, then found out they weren't going to "make it" to our store that day.

Plus, ETLs/STLs getting their TMs all prim and proper, giving reminders about goals, RCs, zones etc. all for naught. Anti-climatic and annoying.

 

[AJH212]

I dunno about other Target stores, but mine seem's to be doing pretty well. Typically I get about 35+ hours per week and other TM's are getting around 20+. Brining in 70 Seasonal Hires for the holiday season.

 

[Bosch]

its odd that a multi billion dollar company struggles to keep people around and get things done. What is it? Lack of hours? People? I find it irritating that my stl keeps the hours at the bare minimum so she can benefit financially. I mean why have a store struggle. Especially, when we have visits everyone is scrambling to MAKE things seem like they’re ok but everything is. It’s ridiculous.

Why I give no fucks about visits, clearly leadership don't care so why should I.. They don't want to see what a real store looks like.

Especially with implementing end to end teams, now we are only allotted a certain amount of employees during certain times of they day. Most people are scheduled during the busiest times of the day. The system shows exactly how many hours are given for payroll and how many people you can schedule. It's not any hard feelings against employees, it's just what we are given. It may seem stressful, but store numbers nationwide have been visibly improving (YTD comps, NPS scores, etc.) It may feel crazy or understaffed, but there are reasons it is that way. New things take time to adjust to, but it is working. Just feels cruddy until we can all get used to it.

Like shoes that don't fit. They will hurt and hurt and hurt and hurt. Until they destroy your feet. What this E2E bullshit is.. Tired already of doing the softlines break out so I can find orders that are sitting in the shipment but no one has actually opened the damn boxes. And we are talking in the afternoon not 4am when they start unloading the truck..

 

[Times Up]

Target's whole point of this modernization is guests before tasks. I understand it's hard to get everything complete, and eventually there will be changes to help benefit the team members in some way or another. Change doesn't happen overnight. Not disagreeing that it's incredibly difficult, and basically impossible to get everything we need done. I can also agree having one team member running hardlines and trying to cover end to end breaks is not effective, as we don't finish tasks the way we need to. In the sense of what Target is trying to do, it is working. I can agree on the fact that higher up should compensate more hours for staff. Will they ever do it? Probably not :c

I don't believe that an overworked and overwhelmed TM is fully attentive to the guest. While the TM is interacting with the guest, the TM is thinking I still need to get done tasks A, B, C, and D. While the interaction was pleasant, and the TM increased the basket size because the guest added in that belt, possibly the basket would have been even larger if the TM had the time to suggest an additional top (s)? As much as we want to helo the guest, we also worry about the flak we are going to catch for not having all of our tasks done. Corporate needs to think seriously about the end game. Just sell the extra belt, or a belt AND a top. Then make sure we have the tools (hours, equipment, etc) to carry that out.

 

[Backroom81]

There is zero benefit for STLs to not use payroll that is distributed to their store. They cannot spend more payroll than is allocated, but don't go blaming the STL for keeping hours down because you think they get some sort of benefit out of it, because that is completely false.

Than I would love to know why our sister store, whose sales are almost identical to ours (less than $5,000 difference on average), gets about 30% more payroll than we do.

 

[Backroom81]

Target's whole point of this modernization is guests before tasks.

If Target truly believed that, they would schedule more people. Having more TMs on the floor means nothing when cashier hours are slashed so badly that most of the store is on the lanes all day anyways.

What changes has the company made improvement wise to make our jobs easier and has the payroll be reduced proportionally? I would say no.

Fucking this. Especially this.

All the talk of modernization, yet all I see is a similar process with far less hours. If anything, the way E2E is done in my store is less efficient than the previous process. We zone, shoot outs, pull the resulting batches, than work the truck. As a result, anything that's on the truck but was already in backroom is being touched twice as much as before. I'm not even going to go into the god-awful flex process my store is doing that's resulting in freight sitting in location in the stockroom. The unload process is mostly the same minus scanning in the truck. Autofills/CAFs are the same, setting POGs is the same, setting up the ad is mostly the same, etc.

What I have noticed is that no one is able to specialize in their job anymore. Trying to make everyone a jack-of-all-trades means no one can truly become great at any specific task. An ETL recently noticed how quickly I can pull a batch and knock out backstock and remarked that I needed to show people how it's done. I told him that no one is going to learn how to do it as well as I can in just an hour a day. I got great at backroom over the course of several years working it full time. One of the most basic concepts of economics deals with specialization of labor and how it increases output.

 

[GrandTheftAutumn]

I don't believe that an overworked and overwhelmed TM is fully attentive to the guest. While the TM is interacting with the guest, the TM is thinking I still need to get done tasks A, B, C, and D. While the interaction was pleasant, and the TM increased the basket size because the guest added in that belt, possibly the basket would have been even larger if the TM had the time to suggest an additional top (s)? As much as we want to helo the guest, we also worry about the flak we are going to catch for not having all of our tasks done. Corporate needs to think seriously about the end game. Just sell the extra belt, or a belt AND a top. Then make sure we have the tools (hours, equipment, etc) to carry that out.

Yeah when I came on E2E was just starting and I've always felt like I couldn't afford to go overboard with salesmanship and upselling because if I do that for every guest I would never be able to get all of the autofills, freight, backstock, manuals, stray, research, and zoning done for the day. Obviously I still do everything I can to help them but in the back of my mind I'm stuck thinking "holy moly please just say thanks so I can finish xyz task". And "hey I might not have got everything done but at least I was able to help every guest effectively" wouldn't cut it as an excuse to my leadership.

Idk what the old way was but from how it was described to me I feel like I would have all the time in the world to just focus on helping guests when they need it, which is hilarious considering E2E goals.

 

[SrTLall]

Than I would love to know why our sister store, whose sales are almost identical to ours (less than $5,000 difference on average), gets about 30% more payroll than we do.

In addition to sales, there are numerous factors taken into consideration when calculating payroll for individual stores. I can assure you that STLs do not receive any benefits for not using up all of their payroll.

 

[NPC]

In addition to sales, there are numerous factors taken into consideration when calculating payroll for individual stores. I can assure you that STLs do not receive any benefits for not using up all of their payroll.

Bullshit.

 

[Backroom81]

In addition to sales, there are numerous factors taken into consideration when calculating payroll for individual stores.

I have a hard time believing those factors truly account for the total workload difference in the stores. We get the same number of trucks, similar foot traffic, similar shopper demographics, similar floor setups, etc., etc.

So what "other" factors account for a 30% difference in hours when store sales are less than 5% apart?

I can assure you that STLs do not receive any benefits for not using up all of their payroll.

Unless said STL is gunning for a DTL position.

 

[Kartman]

Bullshit.

I've had more than one STL/ETL ask me if I wanted more hours for the week or to stay late because if they didn't use up the allotted hours then in the next period Spot would take those hours away.

And, of course, we were making sales.