Archived Anyone ever make schedules for their store and how are the schedules made?

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Do the ETLS of every area make the schedule for their team? Do they see a name and go I want her to close this day that day and that day. Do they even look at the avalibility?
 
It depends on the ETL/store. At my store it's becoming more common for the ETLs to do scheduling than their TLs. First our ETL-Log started doing all the schedules and now our ETL-Hardlines is doing the majority of theirs. Previously all the TLs did their own, but I guess the ETLs wanted a more direct hand in things. And for your second question, they are trying to make the best business decisions within everyone's availability to keep the store staffed.
 
I make my team's schedule. I'm given a certain amount of hours to use for the week (some times not enough for what's forecasted, but make the most of it), then create the schedule according to the workload on my Price Accuracy Forecast (which more often than not, is completely wrong, but again have to make the most out of a bad situation).
 
mostly team leads at my store do the schedule. The ETL-log does the schedule for flow/truck. Wednesdays are not a pleasant day since every time you walk into TSC there is going to be a lead groaning about coverage, hours, etc. Though on the good side, the tl's are really good about checking with the tm's if they have to do something funky, like clopens or outside of availability.
 
Our TL does our schedule and basically knows who can/can't open/close on certain days. For example, Monday mornings are always a nightmare because offices are typically closed over the weekends so they play "catch-up" and we get swamped. We might as well shoot ourselves in the foot if we have certain people open on that morning because they simply can't handle the workload. We also know who works well together, who are like oil and water and have to have limited "exposure" to each other, that kind of stuff ;)
 
As a GSA, I had a lot of input on the schedule. I made it very clear who I did and did not want with me on a closing shift.

In my first store, I wrote the photo lab schedule and would give it to HR every wednesday to key in. I was just a photoTM, but I kinda captained it.
 
i write the schedule for the front end. Max creates the schedule and then i edit it. I do quite a few edits though and make the schedule how i want it to be.
 
also, i do look at people's availability but with that many people that i do the schedule for there are times where i mess up and schedule someone outside when they can work. This usually happens when i do edits and get carried away at the end with cuts or adding more hours. When this happens i take care of it for the TM and if it's more than 30 minutes or so i try and get those hours back for them if they want them at some other time in the week.
 
i write the schedule for the front end. Max creates the schedule and then i edit it. I do quite a few edits though and make the schedule how i want it to be.

Yep I do the whole GE schedule as well... kinda sucks to be honest lol! When we have enough staffing for it to pull to about 96% then it is a cake walk of a schedule, but as soon as we are short TMs it is a struggle to get it completed!
 
I do the scheduling for our front end, too. I just started and it's all kinda confusing to me. Why does it pull to 60% when we have plenty of TMs? Is it because we have so many TMs with weird availability? Out of the 75 or so GE TMs, 50ish have availability issues.
 
As a GSA, I had a lot of input on the schedule. I made it very clear who I did and did not want with me on a closing shift.

In my first store, I wrote the photo lab schedule and would give it to HR every wednesday to key in. I was just a photoTM, but I kinda captained it.

Wow, your ETLs must be complete push-overs.

So they let GSAs essentially decide who gets their hours cut and who gets more hours based on who the GSA is personally cool with? That's smart management if I ever saw it.

At my store, TLs don't even get a say in scheduling. If a GSA of all people started telling an ETL to schedule based on who he/she liked working with, that GSA would be slapped down so hard......
 
Max does the scheduling, then etl's or tl's will edit the schedule to a certain point based on payroll hours.
 
Here's how scheduling works at my store:

First, it's absolutely vital that you do not pay any attention to the schedule at all. That means consistently scheduling TMs outside of their availability. Target is far more important than school or watching your children. Also make sure that you have a skeleton crew on the weekends. That way, when people inevitably call in hungover, you can have no one available to work the lanes or push pulls, ensuring pissed off guests. Here's a secret you may not know: TMs love "clopening!" Try your best to schedule them until 11 pm, and then 6 am the following day. Trust me, they love it.

But here is the most important part: Never, EVER check the schedule from the week before. That way you can schedule your TMs 8 or 9 days in a row, even the full-time ones!

:wacko:
 
I do the scheduling for our front end, too. I just started and it's all kinda confusing to me. Why does it pull to 60% when we have plenty of TMs? Is it because we have so many TMs with weird availability? Out of the 75 or so GE TMs, 50ish have availability issues.

do you have TM's that consistently work the same schedule? If so you should give them a set schedule so it will always pull for that. You can still edit it if needed. This is what i do. Most of the time I don't need to do too much editing to SD, GSA/GSTL and Cart Attendant unless someone asks for a day off.
Also, does your ETL know that you have that many people with availability issues? If not bring it up to them so that they are aware and when you start hiring again you look to hire someone with either better availability or someone that fits in where are you lacking.
We have a huge issue right now with lack of people from 3-6 and every single HR, TL, and ETL knows that they are not to hire a front end TM if they are not available during that time period.

if you have any more specific questions about the schedule let me know!
 
As a GSA, I had a lot of input on the schedule. I made it very clear who I did and did not want with me on a closing shift.

In my first store, I wrote the photo lab schedule and would give it to HR every wednesday to key in. I was just a photoTM, but I kinda captained it.

Wow, your ETLs must be complete push-overs.

So they let GSAs essentially decide who gets their hours cut and who gets more hours based on who the GSA is personally cool with? That's smart management if I ever saw it.

At my store, TLs don't even get a say in scheduling. If a GSA of all people started telling an ETL to schedule based on who he/she liked working with, that GSA would be slapped down so hard......

Wow, so you mean the whole time I was only picking people I liked? Oh my god. I never realized it. I'm a terrible person!

No, not quite. My ETL-GE didn't even look at the schedule. My GSTLs wrote it. I went to my GSTL and told him exactly who I wanted to close with me because of their work ethic. I didn't pick my "buddies". I actually picked a bottom performer to be on my night with two top performers, hoping she'd improve based on who she worked with. Saturday nights I had an older woman - who liked to work every weekend night - who did the ad at guest service flawlessly. She always left guest service looking spotless for the sunday morning team.

I picked people who would work with me to get the front end looking like the best store ever. I was able to follow-up on my promise to my TL, and he gave me the freedom to pick who I closed with.
 
As a GSA, I had a lot of input on the schedule. I made it very clear who I did and did not want with me on a closing shift.

In my first store, I wrote the photo lab schedule and would give it to HR every wednesday to key in. I was just a photoTM, but I kinda captained it.

Wow, your ETLs must be complete push-overs.

So they let GSAs essentially decide who gets their hours cut and who gets more hours based on who the GSA is personally cool with? That's smart management if I ever saw it.

At my store, TLs don't even get a say in scheduling. If a GSA of all people started telling an ETL to schedule based on who he/she liked working with, that GSA would be slapped down so hard......

Wow, so you mean the whole time I was only picking people I liked? Oh my god. I never realized it. I'm a terrible person!

No, not quite. My ETL-GE didn't even look at the schedule. My GSTLs wrote it. I went to my GSTL and told him exactly who I wanted to close with me because of their work ethic. I didn't pick my "buddies". I actually picked a bottom performer to be on my night with two top performers, hoping she'd improve based on who she worked with. Saturday nights I had an older woman - who liked to work every weekend night - who did the ad at guest service flawlessly. She always left guest service looking spotless for the sunday morning team.

I picked people who would work with me to get the front end looking like the best store ever. I was able to follow-up on my promise to my TL, and he gave me the freedom to pick who I closed with.

That's great you can be objective, but the problem is not everyone else is. Once ETLs start letting GSAs or anyone else pick who works with them (basically, pick who gets hours and who doesn't) you introduce the possibility that personal factors are going to be used to make those selections. Again, you might be 100% fair.... can you say the same for all GSAs at your store or all other GSAs in the company? I can guarantee you there are plenty out there who wouldn't give a 2nd thought to picking people they personally liked. So, it is smart to avoid this problem all together by leaving it up to ETLs.

Furthermore, GSAs are not management. They are just TMs. If ETLs are going to let some TMs influence the schedule, but not others, you also have a conflict of interest. ETLs should be handling the schedule and in some situations TLs. No one else. If an ETL-GE isn't capable of figuring out what schedules works best without a GSA telling him/her, then that person shouldn't be an ETL to begin with.
 
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In the last year, we've had half our ETL line-up change.
The first thing they do to 'assert' themselves is announcing that they'd take over the scheduling.
After 2-3 weeks dealing with a raft of complaints from TMs ranging from availability to hrs, they'd quickly drop it.
 
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