So I've finally decided to join the break room looking for advice! Our current softlines team lead just put in their two weeks. I'm currently a hardlines team lead. Any thoughts on the transition or any challenges? Softlines would be completely new for me, but a lot of the teams support the move and would like to see me do it.
Archived HLTL to SLTL?
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sigma7
Former ETL-All the Things
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After my rotation as CTL I'm now covering part of hardlines and part of softlines. It's a lot more visual merchandising than hardlines. You have to think on the fly a lot since you are kind of at the mercy of HQ for what product you get. You get to be a lot more creative though...sometimes you have to. My biggest issue was learning how long it should take to complete tasks and how long it takes to zone different areas. I like it so far. I like it a lot more than I thought I would at first.
I would love being able to do hardlines and softlines but I would probably be too overwhelmed with all the tasks. The only thing I've really done is help with the mannequins, which is actually kind of fun. But I would also be leaving a strong team that I've gotten up to speed to where I need them to be, to a team that I've only helped out here and there. What are the main roles of a softlines team lead and how hectic can it be?
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This may help some:
http://www.thebreakroom.org/index.php?threads/softline-specifics.9183/
http://www.thebreakroom.org/index.php?threads/softline-specifics.9183/
sigma7
Former ETL-All the Things
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My store is trying this out with me. We have six SFTLs right now, and for the past year it's been 1 CTL, 1 SLTL, and 4 HLTLs including the ElecTL. But since really we're all supposed to be Sales Floor TLs it's something I got them to try out for my development. So far so good. I'm soon to be a SrTL, so I don't know how well this will all work out with LOD shifts thrown in there. Then I'm also going overnight for a remodel later this year.
(Plans have changed and I'm graduating a lot sooner than I thought, so enlisting in the military just doesn't make sense...possibly officer though, but in the meantime I have nothing planned bc I thought it would be another couple years before I had my degree).
(Plans have changed and I'm graduating a lot sooner than I thought, so enlisting in the military just doesn't make sense...possibly officer though, but in the meantime I have nothing planned bc I thought it would be another couple years before I had my degree).
Thanks Hardlinesmaster! I'll probably get stuck in intimates mostly because all the girls in softlines are gonna laugh at me working there, but other than that they all want me as their lead. Also my STL thinks this is a good move for me to help me on my way to SrTL. Our softlines team lead was a Sr and we just lost another one not too long ago. So we will only have one daytime right now. And it's only me and one other HLTL. I would love to have that many team leads to work with!
sigma7
Former ETL-All the Things
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All I have is men's and baby are right now. Baby are is basically hardlines and men's is probably one of the easier areas in softlines they're easing me into it. But I try to help out in all the areas I can.
Working with that many TLs is not all it's cracked up to be. I barely get to work with TMs unless I'm closing or it's the weekend. We basically have no dayside shifts for TMs in hardlines. You also have everyone trying to do their own projects all day instead of working on daily tasks after 11 or 12.
And with only getting around 210 hours for Hardlines, 3 TLs take 120 leaving the rest of the team to split 90 hours. Electronics gets 110, but since we're over headcount 40 of those go to support a TL leaving 70 for the rest of the team. Consumables is the only one that doesn't get shafted when it comes to hours, but 40 of those still go to support a TL. If we could have 1 or two less TLs, that's an extra 40-80 hours for TMs. That's an extra 2-4 team members. Then we could actually spend time with our team, developing and training them. Our headcount has us at only be 5 Sales Floor TLs. We have to be there by September I think.
Working with that many TLs is not all it's cracked up to be. I barely get to work with TMs unless I'm closing or it's the weekend. We basically have no dayside shifts for TMs in hardlines. You also have everyone trying to do their own projects all day instead of working on daily tasks after 11 or 12.
And with only getting around 210 hours for Hardlines, 3 TLs take 120 leaving the rest of the team to split 90 hours. Electronics gets 110, but since we're over headcount 40 of those go to support a TL leaving 70 for the rest of the team. Consumables is the only one that doesn't get shafted when it comes to hours, but 40 of those still go to support a TL. If we could have 1 or two less TLs, that's an extra 40-80 hours for TMs. That's an extra 2-4 team members. Then we could actually spend time with our team, developing and training them. Our headcount has us at only be 5 Sales Floor TLs. We have to be there by September I think.
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