Archived Bench Team Lead

[Kartman]

I bet you can't play more than three chords!

lol

 

[kingpin003]

As a leader, I am not asking my team members to take on additional responsibility just for fun. It's because leaders want to see that a person has a greater understanding of the business. I don't care if someone is the best TM ever, that doesn't mean they should be promoted. The people we are working to develop have excelled at facets of being a team member, however, those are only a fraction of the things they need to know to be a good team leader. They have to have the capacity to identify issues, generate solutions, and have the attitude and communication skills to work with other leaders and team members to run a profitable business. When I am assigning my team members these additional projects, it is a teaching opportunity. I am exposing them to situations they would encounter as a team leader, and allowing them to decide how to handle it. I can then use my experience to guide them toward making the right decisions, and teach them to think critically and assess the impacts on the store.

It's not simply seeing how much work I can get out of them, it's an important step in setting them up to handle the responsibilities of a TL. It would be unfair to throw them into a team lead role without giving them opportunities to develop the skills necessary to succeed. A great team leader is not the person who can stock the fastest, zone the best, or get the most red cards. Target looks at all team leaders as being interchangeable, so they must possess the ability to lead effectively regardless of workcenter. Someone being prepped for the bench likely does those other things well, which was what drew initial attention from the leadership team, but they also need a chance to expand that knowledge to positively impact the store. They are getting time to work more closely with a leader, and make the decisions a team leader would have to make. When done properly, the team and store gets a better team leader out of it, and the team leader goes into the role more confident and prepared. It's a win-win.

 

[sher]

2 kids at my store have been on the bench for a long time. I think they're at 1 and 2 years of being benched. They did all the interviews. With that knowledge, I don't do anything outside of my pay grade, anymore. If someone in the store specifically gets paid more to do some sort of task, I won't do that task unless it's going to benefit a guest standing in front of me. I have no desire to be a tl or to be on an imaginary bench for 2 years, though. I think the people who desire to be benched may be required to jump through those types of hoops, and the person has to decide for themself how many hoops they're willing to jump through, and for how much time they're willing to spend jumping through hoops. I don't think it's up to people on a forum to say what you should do... We all have our personal limits.

 

[Flabbergasted]

I don't think you understand that at as a team member at Target, you were hired to do basically everything other than coach, develop and schedule team members.

I don't entirely agree with this. No one would expect the fitting room operator to clean the feces splattered on the restroom wall, or to run the front lanes, or to zone the bread in dry market.

Obviously, when you sign onto a certain job (e.g., cart attendant), there are expectations for your particular job. By no means are you "hired" to do "everything." That's reserved for members of leadership.

 

[GlitterBerries]

Also, you have to an open availablity, 7/24.

They have told me they can work with me and my availability and it isn't an issue so i don't know.

 

[GlitterBerries]

Having them take on other tasks that most TMs don't typically do is not what I see as taking advantage of them. The two TMs I'm developing do tasks within their core roles but I have them go into greater detail. I empower them to make decisions for the benefit of the business and the team and they run the work center when I'm not there. Having them do different tasks for them to develop their leadership abilities is beneficial for them wherever they go and I am confident that when they need to fall back on experience to answer interview questions, they will have plenty to choose from.

Yeah that's basically i think what's happening. I've taken it upon myself to learn a bunch of things with little instructions, train new team members without being asked to, have given the store numerous suggestions that they have put to use to make things easier etc.

 

[Yetive]

They have told me they can work with me and my availability and it isn't an issue so i don't know.

At my store, you can have some limits to availability.

 

[Tar Ghetto]

I don't entirely agree with this. No one would expect the fitting room operator to clean the feces splattered on the restroom wall, or to run the front lanes, or to zone the bread in dry market.

Obviously, when you sign onto a certain job (e.g., cart attendant), there are expectations for your particular job. By no means are you "hired" to do "everything." That's reserved for members of leadership.

Well really, no one would expect a team member not trained to clean hazardous materials, to clean feces. But if the lod tells the fitting room operator to zone bread in dry market, that team member has to do it. If they dont, it's insubordination. You can be fired for it, and you won't win in court.

 

[instockout]

Trust me, I've taken on those "extra" little responsibilities... Now I'm the instock "tl" while making tm pay. My tl literally has nothing to do with my team and I have all the responsibility without having any. Real say who is on my team besides a slight suggestion. All of the etls/stl go to me instead of my tl. I've gotten Vaca time denied because I'm too "important" do I get paid anymore? Nope, just what regular pay + my raise, so almost 11 dollars. Do I hate that I have this much responsibility? No I don't, I honestly enjoy running my instocks team, but I know when there is a carrot on a stick, and there's a carrot on the stick. I've run my team for ten months now, and been signed off for four months. All I hear is "trust me, your promotion is just around the corner!" "you're doing a great job, keep it up and you'll be running your own team in no time" then my tl gets recognition for having the top instocks team in the district, so he looks all the better. All I'm saying is, if you want the responsibility, take it you might love it. Just be careful with how much you take on. They started having me overshadow interviews last week.

 

[instockout]

I've also gotten used to other tms going, wait who even is your tl? Aren't you the tl? 50% of them don't know who my tl is, 30% only know because I've told them, and the other 20% doesn't even know what team I'm on...

 

[Coqui]

I doubt her TL or ETL are shifting their duties on her and to imply that challenging TMs to take on new tasks because their manager is trying to get them to do their job is ridiculous. We can pull up core roles and show you how many things that most TMs and even TLs and ETLs think "aren't their job" actually is. I don't expect my team to write the schedule, sit in my visits with my Starbucks DM, write performance reviews, document conversations for me etc, that is taking advantage and them doing what they aren't paid to do. Going into greater detail of the work you already do is excelling as an employee. If people are satisfied being mediocre, then cool, you do what makes you happy but don't shit on someone else's parade because you feel you're getting shafted. @PassinTime

 

[Tar Ghetto]

Or, go above and beyond if they want that extra 15 cents an hour .

Idk why I didn't notice this the first time I read it. 15 cents isn't even a realistic quote. An Excellent review will get you 4%, and I believe an Outstanding is 5%. Minimum wage is $10, so at the very least you're getting 50 cents with an Outstanding, as long as you aren't topped out.

 

[glo]

Idk why I didn't notice this the first time I read it. 15 cents isn't even a realistic quote. An Excellent review will get you 4%, and I believe an Outstanding is 5%. Minimum wage is $10, so at the very least you're getting 50 cents with an Outstanding, as long as you aren't topped out.

On this, I gave 1 O this year and she got an 83 cent raise.

 

[instockout]

On this, I gave 1 O this year and she got an 83 cent raise.

I got an excellent and only got a 33 cent raise.

 

[Coqui]

3 of the TMs that I gave EXs to got 55 cent raises.

 

[Frontendguy]

I am currently being "pipelined" Basically being shown the other areas of my store and the store and how they operate.... also learning the details as far as sales go as well as "basket size" ect. My team lead told me that this was part of preparation for my Team Lead Bench interviews later this month.

 

[TheBeastPMT]

I am currently being "pipelined" Basically being shown the other areas of my store and the store and how they operate.... also learning the details as far as sales go as well as "basket size" ect. My team lead told me that this was part of preparation for my Team Lead Bench interviews later this month.

Good luck, they arent the hardest thing, hopefully whoever preps you, preps you well with stories.
In my District, it was 2 Interviews with 2 STLs in each interview, and then either the DTL or the HRBP for the final.

In which I got the HRBP when I went for it, and I saw he was a sports fan. EASIEST interview ever from there.
If you spot something in their office that you know a little something about, before it gets to the questions, mention it, sets a nice personal and relaxed environment.

 

[SilentCrow]

So pretty much you're in the development stage. They'll ask you to captain a project/area. Once you display you can handle that when your store is doing TL interviews you'll be one of them that does it. Once you pass the interviews you'll be on the bench. They'll make you wait for a spot to open up and look to see if your performance dips while on the bench (it's an endurance test). When a spot opening you'll become a TL.

 

[MasterSchutz]

So since this seems to be the thread for it, I am looking at getting on the bench myself. If I get on the bench and a position is open in another store, would I be able to get that position even if that store is in another district?

 

[NKG]

So since this seems to be the thread for it, I am looking at getting on the bench myself. If I get on the bench and a position is open in another store, would I be able to get that position even if that store is in another district?

Yes

 

[allnew2]

No, it sounds like they want to promote @GlitterBerries, and they want to give her more responsiblities to see if she can handle the heat before they send her to assessments (the "tests" her leaders told her about.) Once all that is passed and cleared, she can apply for a TL position. Doesn't sound like there is any carrot dangling going on here.

Actually it does sound like dangling to me. I wasn’t even asked to become a tl , all the sudden I was being prepped by my etl log , than a chat with my etl-hr , and an other chat with my stl as we were sitting in the backroom after that chat my stl said I need to go to the district office and meet with our dtl went over had a chat about my goals , spoke of what i was doing at target which at the time I was a softlines team member knew nothing about logistics . He sent me back to my store and my stl told me your training at so and so store starts tomorrow and that was it. I immediately became a key carrier for logistics. Never applied never showed interest but I said I can do and master any position in the store. They chose you and things rolls immediately from there.

 

[Fluttervale]

I've been on the bench for 8 months. There are five others in my store on the bench. Two positions have come up in the last year.

I AM a strong candidate and am waiting and waiting.

 

[allnew2]

It's not taking advantage of the empolyee. You don't get an outstanding review without going above and beyond. You especially don't get promoted without going above and beyond.

But you get those by doing it and them seeing it and comunícate that’s how you get the tl position , you don’t wait for them to give you a task , you take initiative and show how you got it done . It’s how I’ve always done it and look at my downfall they won’t even let me transfer because they don’t want to lose me.