Your store may be different than mine, so this may not apply, but...
First of all, my store is a AA volume overnight store and bulk team members work from 9:30pm until 8:00am. We clear out receiving, set the line, and put everything back when bulk is done.
Our receiving area is very space constrained. Right now we are at capacity with bulk in the steel (no open pallet spaces) and as such have no space for any transition pallets. Price change, clearance, D-Code, Priority Pulls, vendor carts and pallets take up most of our floor space. The bulk team never gets to condense because we are so short staffed in other areas of the store. No one else seems to think this is a problem and no one partners with us to fix things. At any rate, transition that comes in off the truck in our store gets sent directly to the backroom to be backstocked, where there is more room. The exception to this is when we have nights where half the truck is transition for one area, like rear seasonal. Then that gets palletized (not sorted) and brought to our outside storage containers, if our STL hasn't sent them away yet. The POG team gets to sort the pallets most of the time as they are setting. They also have to pull all of their transition from the backroom. Ours is currently a really messed up, broken bulk process, so I doubt that above will be of much help. Our team leads, ETLs and STLs stopped caring about bulk to a large extent. Now we just sort the backstock off the line, work out the PIPO and assorted pet food pallets, put the bulk up in the steel after it's been worked, and then either work on the salesfloor as flow or in the backroom as backstockers until the end of our shift.
But... this is how we used to do it....which I miss a lot. We used to sort out transition by aisle. On the pick label, by the block number, there sometimes will be a B, P, or S. B = automatic backstock (like future salesplans, revisions, or aisles corporate feels don't need to be staged), P = automatic push (assortments, certain other high turnover areas), S = stage (this is what you need to look for...transition to be staged, not pushed or backstocked). Also on the pick label before the aisle number will sometimes be a T... as in TC36 (1) 4-5-1. That tells you that that item is transition for aisle C36. Look for the combination of that T before the aisle and the S by the block number. That is what we saved for transition. After the unload we sorted it by aisle....each pallet was its own aisle. That then went up in the steel or outside.
Sorting backstock will depend entirely on how your store's backroom is set up. Being that your are a backroom team member, most of that should come fairly easily. Just work on your speed with taking things off the line and knowing where you need to be. I look for the black line first, grab the box, then quickly read the department number (memorize those!), and then put it on the pallet. Be accurate. Putting things on the wrong pallet can cost a lot of time for your backroom team.
Make sure you print off your bulk list for the night before the unload, so you know what you need to palletize for bulk as it's coming down the line. Partner with your ETL or TL to learn how to print that if you don't know.
As far as our bulk process, we have one bulk person after the unload working out the PIPO pallets and assorted pet food pallets. The other bulk person puts up the pallets as they come back and works on bringing everything back into receiving that was taken out for the unload. If it's just you doing it by yourself, just work a pallet, then put it up...one pallet at a time until you are done.
If you feel comfortable with it, scan things into the steel using LOCU. If done correctly, you will always be updating at least the locations you use that night. That can get rid of some of the problems caused by poor backroom accuracy in bulk....which seems to always be in PIPO paper in our store. Just make sure you do it correctly.
Again... your store may be different. I hope it is... we used to have a really good process. We always had space, we always updated and condensed, we sorted and staged transition...etc. My store kind of lost its way.
