Archived New-ish in role APL struggling

[looking]

Hello,

A little backstory:

I've been with the company for 4 years now, moving from part time salesfloor tm to salesfloor TL (had various areas over 2 year period) and as of late last year, APL. I have pretty good relationships with my ETL staff, though we are going through an STL and TL (3 new in role in past month) transition at this point in time, and are a fairly high turnover store but I do pretty well with building relationships with new TMs as they come in and have the buy-in of most seasoned TMs/TLs.

I'm struggling for results, i.e. recoveries, apprehensions all of that stuff. We're getting back to best practice now that some of our problem leadership is gone so I'm not worrying as much about the operational side as I was but I still feel like there is just a crazy amount of stuff to get done in a 40 hour work week.

I've always excelled as a Target employee and I don't want to be lacking in this position at all. I've partnered with various people in the district to help shape my routines/ talk through how to best use my time, but my store is the furthest away from the rest of the district (a few hours away from the majority of stores) so the activity they're seeing is much different than what I'm seeing. I have been talking to LP management at local retailers to see what activity they have, but I'm still not getting the desired results.

Any advice?

Thanks!

 

[researchr]

As instocks I often notice that a whole bunch of something was there yesterday and isn't there today. I let AP know. Does your IS team do that? When you scan the same areas each day you get pretty good at picking up on those.

 

[Dr Laytex]

Stick to the routines, and follow best practices. You're safe as long as that's happening. Pay attention, seriously follow patterns.
Don't be afraid to dig in the trash (or make your TPS do it). Make your TPS stand at the freakin' door, I can't stress that enough.

 

[Rarejem]

As instocks I often notice that a whole bunch of something was there yesterday and isn't there today. I let AP know. Does your IS team do that? When you scan the same areas each day you get pretty good at picking up on those.

No. It could be gone for many reasons, not just AP reasons. If there is a label, scan it. It will show up on the drastic count report if it needs to be checked out.

 

[forgetfulSDA]

Stick to the routines, and follow best practices. You're safe as long as that's happening. Pay attention, seriously follow patterns.
Don't be afraid to dig in the trash (or make your TPS do it). Make your TPS stand at the freakin' door, I can't stress that enough.

APL's don't have a TPS. They are the sole AP TM in the building. My Advice look at your theft priority report and only spend time in that area. PM me if you would like some more advice. I'm an APL as well.

 

[Dr Laytex]

Stick to the routines, and follow best practices. You're safe as long as that's happening. Pay attention, seriously follow patterns.
Don't be afraid to dig in the trash (or make your TPS do it). Make your TPS stand at the freakin' door, I can't stress that enough.

APL's don't have a TPS. They are the sole AP TM in the building. My Advice look at your theft priority report and only spend time in that area. PM me if you would like some more advice. I'm an APL as well.

Ah, right... Sorry about that. Log enough incident reports so they give you a TPS next year. Then make it stand at the door and do receipt checks.

 

[tkd391]

I know the feeling big time!! When I was an APTL I went about two months without a TPS and barely made it out alive with a crappy STL before he got the can and even then it took a few more months of recovery. You HAVE to talk to people EVERY day to make it. By that I mean that you have to take on partners within your store to resolve operational issues so that you can focus on theft resolution and recoveries. I did this to solve a problem on my shortage indicator and it actually worked. My store was deep red (like 0 points) in the POS section for a full year. I literally talked to the GSA's and GSTL's EVERY DAY that I worked until they pushed it themselves and I was able to convert it from 0 points to full green within a month and have kept it that way with minimal involvement from myself. Be able to talk up what you are doing with your STL and APBP though. Keep the communication lines open. You have to fix the best practice basics before moving up the ladder to theft resolution.

Send me a message if you need more specific ideas with specific problems. You are in a tough spot that no one else can understand unless they are in AP or have been in the same position. I would love to help you out a little more because I didn't have good partners or advice when I was in the position.

 

[researchr]

As instocks I often notice that a whole bunch of something was there yesterday and isn't there today. I let AP know. Does your IS team do that? When you scan the same areas each day you get pretty good at picking up on those.

No. It could be gone for many reasons, not just AP reasons. If there is a label, scan it. It will show up on the drastic count report if it needs to be checked out.

You are correct and I do. I also let AP know asap so they can check the video and have a time frame of reference.

 

[Ace944]

I was an APL for awhile until I changed positioned and was quite successful on my results so PM if you have any questions.

 

[WalterWhite]

If you're not getting theft results, my advice is to focus as much on operational shortage as possible. Partner with In Stocks, Pricing, etc and make sure LODs see you having a positive effect on the store.

 

[TGTAP]

If you aren't getting apprehensions or recoveries then stay up on your theft priority report and just sit on those top five areas all day every day. You will get something if you just pay attention (which is hard after you've been waiting around for hours, I understand).

Internals? Never been my strong suit.

I will say though its much harder as an APL. There really isn't enough time to do it all. I'd tackle a few operational metrics you can directly impact (CRC aging, 999 sales) and then forget about the rest until you get your theft metrics taken care of. Then go back to tackling the harder stuff like in stocks. As long as you can speak to good results in theft metrics and a couple operational metrics, you should be fine. However, this is of course in addition to making sure your store is on BP with physical security like keys, alarm compliance, etc.

 

[looking]

Thanks for all the replies!

I've been doing well with operational metrics (999, CRC aging with 999 going from 7 points/month to the full 15) and the best practices pieces are beginning to move in the right direction. I have a fairly promising internal going on right now, hope to resolve it within the next week and a half (though I only have concealment during one shift out of a total 4 so far) and I'm identifying more external activity through KTRs. The past few days have been pretty good, it just is easy to get overwhelmed being the only one in the building.

I'll definitely stay focused on my top 5 and really push for improvement in Theft Metric/ Priority. It's definitely a whole new world though.

Thank you all again!

 

[AssetsProtection]

Stick to the routines, and follow best practices. You're safe as long as that's happening. Pay attention, seriously follow patterns.
Don't be afraid to dig in the trash (or make your TPS do it). Make your TPS stand at the freakin' door, I can't stress that enough.

APL's don't have a TPS. They are the sole AP TM in the building. My Advice look at your theft priority report and only spend time in that area. PM me if you would like some more advice. I'm an APL as well.

Ah, right... Sorry about that. Log enough incident reports so they give you a TPS next year. Then make it stand at the door and do receipt checks.

*cough* *cough* IT?

 

[GrumpyAP]

Nice to know my new position makes me a glorified Walmart greeter *new TPS*

 

[commiecorvus]

Nice to know my new position makes me a glorified Walmart greeter *new TPS*

"Hello, welcome to Target.
Do you need a cart?
Can I help you find anything?
Please don't steal.
Have a nice day."

 

[Dr Laytex]

*cough* *cough* IT?

LoL!!

Oh, come on, we all know they ain't human. Nothing can have shoes that shiny and live.

 

[ThatAPguy]

Thanks for all the replies!

I've been doing well with operational metrics (999, CRC aging with 999 going from 7 points/month to the full 15) and the best practices pieces are beginning to move in the right direction. I have a fairly promising internal going on right now, hope to resolve it within the next week and a half (though I only have concealment during one shift out of a total 4 so far) and I'm identifying more external activity through KTRs. The past few days have been pretty good, it just is easy to get overwhelmed being the only one in the building.

I'll definitely stay focused on my top 5 and really push for improvement in Theft Metric/ Priority. It's definitely a whole new world though.

Thank you all again!

APL is an 80 hr week crammed into a 40 hr schedule. I noticed you said you did 4 surveillance's on your internal. I'm not sure of the time frame for those 4, but if it was over just a week or two that is a great deal of your time. You should try reaching out to the IC. I have called them and they have done a surveillance for my store on several occasions when we have an active internal going on. I wouldn't try to get them to do fishing expeditions, but given you said you already have a concealment on this one it's solid. They are pretty good about helping out in that regard. Even if they could have done 2 of the 4 you've done so far that is a great deal of time you can utilize elsewhere. Like several people have already said build as many partnerships as you can and make sure you're looking at all the outside of the store resources as well. Email your cash auditor if you haven't done so just to introduce yourself and ask if they have noticed any trends at your location. When you reach out and show you care about your job and want to do good you'll be surprised at the help those resources will give you. Good luck!

 

[looking]

APL is an 80 hr week crammed into a 40 hr schedule. I noticed you said you did 4 surveillance's on your internal. I'm not sure of the time frame for those 4, but if it was over just a week or two that is a great deal of your time. You should try reaching out to the IC. I have called them and they have done a surveillance for my store on several occasions when we have an active internal going on. I wouldn't try to get them to do fishing expeditions, but given you said you already have a concealment on this one it's solid. They are pretty good about helping out in that regard. Even if they could have done 2 of the 4 you've done so far that is a great deal of time you can utilize elsewhere. Like several people have already said build as many partnerships as you can and make sure you're looking at all the outside of the store resources as well. Email your cash auditor if you haven't done so just to introduce yourself and ask if they have noticed any trends at your location. When you reach out and show you care about your job and want to do good you'll be surprised at the help those resources will give you. Good luck!

Yeah...I'm still an analog store so the IC can't help too much. I had that concealment but as we all know, I need to get to $20 or at least close to it. The subject is taking small things so it's been taking some time. All of these surveillances are at the instruction of my investigator and I'm happy to do it if it means I can close the case. Hopefully after tomorrow I can write my cover letter.

I have a decent relationship with my cash auditor and reach out to them as well as others in the IC whenever I have a new internal but this particular TM has never been on a register since orientation/ training.

I did have some good news yesterday after a visit from my APBP and GAPTL, they informed me that I was third in the two districts that my APBP covers for PMRs based on dollar amount! Now if only I could turn some of those into Apps..

 

[hardlines4]

Working in a store where you are the only AP team member might be best to have PMRs over apprehensions. I do admit, catching a shoplifter is more satisfying than forcing them to cough up merchandise and watch them walk out spooked. Can you branch out to other stores to get some TPS support? When I was a TPS I was sent off for support work at stores that didn't have the hours, and we used my store hours to cover it using a punch correction. Even if it is just one day a week.

As for results, one big thing I have driven around my store is use of fitting room checks and the empty package bin. I created a fitting room log, that the fitting room TM would check for empty packages or discarded tags every hour, then log it in a binder with a time found and DPCI. It's easy to review once you get the team members on board. Also, a good way to keep on top of the empty package bin is to use tags that you can place with the bin, and in all the work centers. These tags can be placed on the packaging that goes in the bin, and can be in the format of:
Date:
Time:
Where was it found:
Found by:
Was it logged in?:

As for your routines, if your store is near a highway or a train stop/major bus stop, it would be a good idea to add ORC items to your PITL. Things like razor heads, OTCs like diabetic test strips, baby formula, white strips, etc. If you do not see discrepancies in PITL after a month, change it up! Partner with in stocks and get them to clear out known thefts and any other discrepancy that you can't account for after a week or so. This helps keeps your PITL clean and easier to find future discrepancies. Make sure you are doing both sessions of the PITL also!

Another one that may seem like it's not your task, make sure you zone your top areas, and trending areas. This helps A LOT when it comes to video review. If merchandise goes missing and it was out of location, good luck my friend.

If these are routines you are already using, discard this long post, otherwise I hope it can help!

Been in AP with spot for 3 years, feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

 

[GrumpyAP]

As for results, one big thing I have driven around my store is use of fitting room checks and the empty package bin. I created a fitting room log, that the fitting room TM would check for empty packages or discarded tags every hour, then log it in a binder with a time found and DPCI. It's easy to review once you get the team members on board.

I'm totally stealing the fitting room log thing like I thought of it.

 

[mrknownothing]

As for results, one big thing I have driven around my store is use of fitting room checks and the empty package bin. I created a fitting room log, that the fitting room TM would check for empty packages or discarded tags every hour, then log it in a binder with a time found and DPCI. It's easy to review once you get the team members on board.

At my store, we keep an empty package log at Guest Service. We log the date/time, item description and DPCI, aisle (or checklane) number, and our name. We also scan the empty package in Smart Sort on the Guest Service registers.