Archived My theory on why Branch was replaced with Kronos.

[Bullseyerc]

Branch Pay: Forever Changing the Two-Week Pay Period, Branch Messenger Launches Branch Pay™ to Give Hourly Employees Instant Access to Earnings - https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180913005336/en/Changing-Two-Week-Pay-Period-Branch-Messenger-Launches

Rolled out shortly after Branch was replaced with shitty Kronos.

Target didn’t want to be a part of this. Why would, they, want to disrupt their pay cycle and advance a portion of their workers paycheck (up to $100) DAILY... they wouldn’t.

Not to mention the amount of potential liability of knowing when everyone in your store is working from your phone and stalking that work crush everyone has.

Jesus, the only thing that’s good about Kronos is real time schedule changes as they happen and a live time card.. the rest looks like a college kid who fucked up one of their first attempts at creating an app not to mention the terrible UI Kronos has.

Mystery solved. 🙂

 

[HRZone]

Wait they got rid of branch at the pilot stores? Disgusting...

 

[TTGOz]

Branch was so much better in design, UI, functionality, and usability. Why any company would make the switch so quickly after piloting Branch and go straight to kronos is beyond me. Branch actually worked. I could see very clearly who worked, what shifts needed coverage, and I could PM team members privately.

If this was the reason, I might scream.

 

[HRZone]

Yeah someone probably ruined it by trying to slide in their hot ETLs DMs

 

[NPC]

Yeah someone probably ruined it by trying to slide in their hot ETLs DMs

Whoops, my bad

 

[HRLady]

Wait they got rid of branch at the pilot stores? Disgusting...

Yep, every store transitioned over to Kronos.

I am going to be honest: nobody at my store liked Branch simply because it did not synch with myTime. If it did, then we would have liked it a lot more. Branch looked and functioned a lot better. However, you sure as heck could not trust it for accuracy unless you had someone who had enough time to reupload a new schedule into the Branch website after every change in myTime (super inefficient thing in my opinion). My store's ETLs had the ability to make changes to the schedule but none of them were willing help keep the Branch copy of the schedule consistently up-to-date even though they did not have me every day to update things for them. Without accuracy, nobody at my store trusted looking at Branch anymore and we all looked forward to Kronos.

 

[LearningTree]

Yep, every store transitioned over to Kronos.

I am going to be honest: nobody at my store liked Branch simply because it did not synch with myTime. If it did, then we would have liked it a lot more. Branch looked and functioned a lot better. However, you sure as heck could not trust it for accuracy unless you had someone who had enough time to reupload a new schedule into the Branch website after every change in myTime (super inefficient thing in my opinion). My store's ETLs had the ability to make changes to the schedule but none of them were willing help keep the Branch copy of the schedule consistently up-to-date even though they did not have me every day to update things for them. Without accuracy, nobody at my store trusted looking at Branch anymore and we all looked forward to Kronos.

This right here pissed me off as an ETL. I paid so much attention to my schedule and spent so much of my time and energy on it. The other ETLs just did not care about Branch and wouldn't even take 5 minutes to get themselves set up. Anytime I made a change to the schedule I made sure it was updated on mytime, branch, and the printed copy. I even made sure to give the TM a new printed copy with just their schedules. There's a lot of stuff y'all complain about ETLs doing or not doing, and most I don't agree with. But this right here I can agree with 100% : ETLs who don't update their schedules on all platforms when they make a change, are lazy as hell and just don't care.

 

[HardlinesFour]

Honestly — the sheer fact that people need instant, daily access to their earnings is the saddest part. No one has a nickel in savings or access to a credit card anymore.

And everyone is just one broken refrigerator or car breakdown away from financial disaster.

At least when I started many of my fellow TM’s could make it until next pay period. I’m terrified of what is going to happen during our next recession.

 

[IWishIKnew]

I miss Branch. Kronos is completely useless for shift swaps. My store stopped uploading schedules to Branch last year, because people could not get it through their heads that Branch wasn't to be trusted vs. the print/online schedule, but at least gave the chance for you to post your shifts manually and they'd review them and update the actual schedules. It wasn't great, but was way less work than shitty Kronos for swaps. I miss it.

 

[BullseyeStyle]

Also don’t forget... myTime is Kronos in disguise! So the Kronos mobile app automatically is compatible with myTime because Target was already using Kronos.

Although I think myTime Self Service is a Target-developed application, which explains why it often has a FAILURE RESPONSE FROM KRONOS SYSTEM error.

 

[signingminion]

I've got tl who think kronos isn't needed after we got workday....too many apps.

 

[hufflepuff]

😂😂😂

 

[superzonetone]

Our store has been using Branch still. No one ended up using Kronos for swaps and we put the paper swap board back up, and since we got shifts covered faster on Branch we made the switch. Also, I've used this same-day payment feature and it works like a charm. Money hit my account in seconds.

 

[GoatMama]

The reason explained by my STL and ETL HR was that Branch showed the schedules of other people. This caused issues with people calling in because of someone working, and people showing non-Target employees other TMs schedules. This is an issue. If TMs have restraining orders or have people in their lives that are harassing them, these people could find when the TMs worked. And apparently, according to my STL and ETL HR, that's exactly what happened. So Target had to bail on Branch, mostly to protect those who were getting harassed.

 

[superzonetone]

The reason explained by my STL and ETL HR was that Branch showed the schedules of other people. This caused issues with people calling in because of someone working, and people showing non-Target employees other TMs schedules. This is an issue. If TMs have restraining orders or have people in their lives that are harassing them, these people could find when the TMs worked. And apparently, according to my STL and ETL HR, that's exactly what happened. So Target had to bail on Branch, mostly to protect those who were getting harassed.

They made us download an update where only ETL's could see everyone shifts. I don't think that was the case.

 

[GoatMama]

They made us download an update where only ETL's could see everyone shifts. I don't think that was the case.

Really? When was that?

 

[skrepo1977]

The reason explained by my STL and ETL HR was that Branch showed the schedules of other people. This caused issues with people calling in because of someone working, and people showing non-Target employees other TMs schedules. This is an issue. If TMs have restraining orders or have people in their lives that are harassing them, these people could find when the TMs worked. And apparently, according to my STL and ETL HR, that's exactly what happened. So Target had to bail on Branch, mostly to protect those who were getting harassed.

On this though they could have changed the password to something other than the store #. I tried this with stores in New York, Florida, Alabama, etc. If i knew the T#### for a store I could see the schedule for every single team member that works in that store along with whatever pic they put on their profile. Frankly I just think management was lazy in changing the password to something unique for each and every store. Hell the passcode for most access doors into TSC or private areas, low and behold, is the store number. I am at a store that still has mydevices with the default password being "0000" not even the store number itself.

 

[LearningTree]

I am at a store that still has mydevices with the default password being "0000" not even the store number itself.

Yeah that's not quite the same situation as with the previous 2 you mentioned. Stores don't have any control over what the zebra passcodes are. They're supposed to update to the store number soon after setup but many of them get stuck on 0000.

 

[HRZone]

The reason explained by my STL and ETL HR was that Branch showed the schedules of other people. This caused issues with people calling in because of someone working, and people showing non-Target employees other TMs schedules. This is an issue. If TMs have restraining orders or have people in their lives that are harassing them, these people could find when the TMs worked. And apparently, according to my STL and ETL HR, that's exactly what happened. So Target had to bail on Branch, mostly to protect those who were getting harassed.

One could just post a photo of a paper schedule

 

[skrepo1977]

Yeah that's not quite the same situation as with the previous 2 you mentioned. Stores don't have any control over what the zebra passcodes are. They're supposed to update to the store number soon after setup but many of them get stuck on 0000.

Passcode should be able to be changed though regardless. Even the new zebras have the store number set into it without any having a "0000" formality like the older ones. Either way it a predictable passcode and when I talk of management I am not just exclusive to corporate but also store executives. Technically you should be able to change the passcodes on the doors as well. I was at store that actually did that.

 

[Spitfire]

Passcode should be able to be changed though regardless. Even the new zebras have the store number set into it without any having a "0000" formality like the older ones. Either way it a predictable passcode and when I talk of management I am not just exclusive to corporate but also store executives. Technically you should be able to change the passcodes on the doors as well. I was at store that actually did that.

I'm not sure what you're saying so this might be a useless reply, but we're not able to change Zebra passcodes at a store level. You could call CSC for every Zebra with a 0000 passcode and they might be able to help.

Also, changing the door PINs is really easy, your PMT can do it at the STL's request.

 

[ISMike]

Yeah that's not quite the same situation as with the previous 2 you mentioned. Stores don't have any control over what the zebra passcodes are. They're supposed to update to the store number soon after setup but many of them get stuck on 0000.

I'm not sure what you're saying so this might be a useless reply, but we're not able to change Zebra passcodes at a store level. You could call CSC for every Zebra with a 0000 passcode and they might be able to help.

If you go into the mysettings(I think is the name?) app, hit reset passcode (or something similarly worded). It'll lock the screen again after a few seconds and then the pin will be the store # instead of 0000.

 

[Amanda Cantwell]

Also don’t forget... myTime is Kronos in disguise! So the Kronos mobile app automatically is compatible with myTime because Target was already using Kronos.

Although I think myTime Self Service is a Target-developed application, which explains why it often has a FAILURE RESPONSE FROM KRONOS SYSTEM error.

myTime Self Service is just Kronos with a different paint job... it's not t developed, which is why it's missing functions that would make sense for target to have.

 

[Fix It]

On this though they could have changed the password to something other than the store #. I tried this with stores in New York, Florida, Alabama, etc. If i knew the T#### for a store I could see the schedule for every single team member that works in that store along with whatever pic they put on their profile. Frankly I just think management was lazy in changing the password to something unique for each and every store. Hell the passcode for most access doors into TSC or private areas, low and behold, is the store number. I am at a store that still has mydevices with the default password being "0000" not even the store number itself.

Having worked with a number of commercial retailers, Target tries to hide store numbers aggressively. Most of the time you’re googling Target XXXX it shows up as Target at XXXX Random St address rather than the actual location, plus it’s not advertised on any hour signs or receipts. There isn’t even a breakdown list of stores, numbers, or locations on workbench so I actively have to do a little research if I’m trying to connect with someone for anything.

 

[HRLady]

There isn’t even a breakdown list of stores, numbers, or locations on workbench so I actively have to do a little research if I’m trying to connect with someone for anything.

There used to be a list exactly like you described within Team Directory on Workbench. One day, its link just stopped working. They got rid of the useful document. 🙁