- Joined
- Jun 12, 2011
- Messages
- 1,003
If anything goes wrong at my current store, it is flows fault. Overstocked? Flow did it. Wrong place? Flow did it. Stocked in only 1 location? Flow. Poor Guest Service? Flows fault. Breakroom a mess? That is surely flow.Wasting payroll? Hands down flow!
Truth is I have been working my backside off trying to change the perception of this flow team. I have been preaching on stocking, how full, multiple locations and FIFO. I do daily aisle audits on all of these items and also have my ETL walk some with me. There are some training issues to be sure, however what we found out was that the issues were divided between the closing team and the flow team. The night closing team because they are so short staffed were just shoving products in places, did not spend any time looking for second and third locations and zoning for looks not accuracy. But because the issues are found in the morning the flow team is the easiest target.
Our guest service scores have plummeted. Our hallway has all red scores currently. The ETL- GE spent over 10 minutes at our morning huddle berating the flow team for not answering call buttons or backups to the lanes. After huddle I reminded the ETL that the flow team does not wear walkies so they do not hear the messages.They do however speak to every guest who walks past them, if they don't they are coached. It is an expectation that service is first. I suggested that she listens who does answer, cross that with who has walkies on and you will find out who is ignoring the requests. No surprise to me the plano team (5 walkies per day) pricing (4 walkies per day) and instocks (3 walkies per day) did not answer one call button or back up at the lanes. They used the walkies to inquire about their breaks. That is it, no kidding. I offered to have a few flow team members wear a walkie to help respond but was told we could not spare them.
I decided to take the bull by the horns with the break room. Every Wednesday the flow team cleans out the fridge, restocks plates plastic wear and condiments. They also scrub the counters and back splashes. The flow team are the ones who are challenging other team members to throw out their old food, use splatter guards in the microwaves and clean up after themselves. So imagine how ticked I was when I overheard another TL say how the flow team destroys the break room everyday.
Then the old payroll question. Flows hours were cut just like everyone else. Funny thing is our trucks are as big as during Christmas. We are working trucks with 8 less team members but beating the goal times by an average of 50 minutes per truck. We are following Plano each day filling behind them. They set Valentines, flow filled it all. Bodega was filled completely by flow. See Spot Save and the Savor Spot was done by flow too. Guess who back stocked it all? Yep flow did. When it was brought up at the Team Lead meeting I challenged back with the extras the flow team had done not switching work centers. We are at the mercy of the DC and what size trucks we have. If we go over goal times I am responsible. When I hear ETLs and TLs talking about how we are eating the payroll it makes me sick.
My flow team has quite a few retired people. We have former teachers, accountants and managers. We have college students. We have some moms and dads trying to make some extra cash. It is truly a diverse group of people.These are not stupid people. They take pride in the job they do that many others will not do. Sure there are some dead weight people. These people deserve the chance to improve, if not they need to be gone.
My flow team works hard to make our store succeed. They try to help out where ever needed. I am sure there are other stores that have great flow teams too.
Sorry for the rant, I just think flow needs some respect.
Truth is I have been working my backside off trying to change the perception of this flow team. I have been preaching on stocking, how full, multiple locations and FIFO. I do daily aisle audits on all of these items and also have my ETL walk some with me. There are some training issues to be sure, however what we found out was that the issues were divided between the closing team and the flow team. The night closing team because they are so short staffed were just shoving products in places, did not spend any time looking for second and third locations and zoning for looks not accuracy. But because the issues are found in the morning the flow team is the easiest target.
Our guest service scores have plummeted. Our hallway has all red scores currently. The ETL- GE spent over 10 minutes at our morning huddle berating the flow team for not answering call buttons or backups to the lanes. After huddle I reminded the ETL that the flow team does not wear walkies so they do not hear the messages.They do however speak to every guest who walks past them, if they don't they are coached. It is an expectation that service is first. I suggested that she listens who does answer, cross that with who has walkies on and you will find out who is ignoring the requests. No surprise to me the plano team (5 walkies per day) pricing (4 walkies per day) and instocks (3 walkies per day) did not answer one call button or back up at the lanes. They used the walkies to inquire about their breaks. That is it, no kidding. I offered to have a few flow team members wear a walkie to help respond but was told we could not spare them.
I decided to take the bull by the horns with the break room. Every Wednesday the flow team cleans out the fridge, restocks plates plastic wear and condiments. They also scrub the counters and back splashes. The flow team are the ones who are challenging other team members to throw out their old food, use splatter guards in the microwaves and clean up after themselves. So imagine how ticked I was when I overheard another TL say how the flow team destroys the break room everyday.
Then the old payroll question. Flows hours were cut just like everyone else. Funny thing is our trucks are as big as during Christmas. We are working trucks with 8 less team members but beating the goal times by an average of 50 minutes per truck. We are following Plano each day filling behind them. They set Valentines, flow filled it all. Bodega was filled completely by flow. See Spot Save and the Savor Spot was done by flow too. Guess who back stocked it all? Yep flow did. When it was brought up at the Team Lead meeting I challenged back with the extras the flow team had done not switching work centers. We are at the mercy of the DC and what size trucks we have. If we go over goal times I am responsible. When I hear ETLs and TLs talking about how we are eating the payroll it makes me sick.
My flow team has quite a few retired people. We have former teachers, accountants and managers. We have college students. We have some moms and dads trying to make some extra cash. It is truly a diverse group of people.These are not stupid people. They take pride in the job they do that many others will not do. Sure there are some dead weight people. These people deserve the chance to improve, if not they need to be gone.
My flow team works hard to make our store succeed. They try to help out where ever needed. I am sure there are other stores that have great flow teams too.
Sorry for the rant, I just think flow needs some respect.
