OPU/DU and payroll

[NotCynicalYet]

Simply put, OPUs and DUs take a lot of people-hours, we don't charge for them, we're very fast, and they are a growing share of our sales. We're not given the payroll to compensate for this, from what I can tell. Look at Fulfillment or Service Advocate on the daily grid (for a somewhat busy store). Yowsah! We love that it brings in more sales, but I feel like it's disproportionate and kicking our butts. Would OPU/DU even be sustainable under the current model if we weren't (again, from what I can tell) gutting the rest of the store to support it?

 

[moninity]

Depends on the workload, we normally do 2000 per day and for the most part we don’t call many people to help us through the day. What would help people out is people not wasting their time looking for that one item that is hard to find when there are numerous orders waiting to pick and time is ticking.

 

[MrT]

Opu and drive up should be scheduled to forecast. There usually pretty accurate unless theres something going on like a big snowstorm or something like that. The difficulty can be when you have really big spikes during non peak hours when you don't have enough people on at that time.

 

[NotCynicalYet]

Opu and drive up should be scheduled to forecast. There usually pretty accurate unless theres something going on like a big snowstorm or something like that. The difficulty can be when you have really big spikes during non peak hours when you don't have enough people on at that time.

I mean, they are scheduled to forecast in theory...but there's not much more payroll. A sale on a drive up or pick up costs us a lot more than a sale at the checklanes, and if our payroll is not increasing much while sales are increasing and pick up/drive up are increasing as a percentage of sales, that means more work to do with less payroll. We also get less return on that payroll spent. And at the front end we have to maintain some sort of standard of service, so those hours have to come out of somebody's tuchus (we already struggle hard to keep lanes available). I can't comment on other areas but suffice to say everyone is getting pulled to fulfillment all the time and can't do their work. Like I said it just doesn't add up, and I think OPU/DU is a huge factor in why we're all getting our asses kicked every day.

 

[sunnydays]

Opu and drive up should be scheduled to forecast. There usually pretty accurate unless theres something going on like a big snowstorm or something like that. The difficulty can be when you have really big spikes during non peak hours when you don't have enough people on at that time.

my "forecast" is off pretty dramatically; last year i was doing ~1100 drive ups per week, this year i am doing ~1700 per week, same payroll, same forecast. "should be scheduled to forecast" doesn't mean anything when payroll is kept to a minimum despite increased volume

 

[lucidtm]

For OPU we've been getting nearly double our forecast almost daily. It's so unpredictable. Everyone's productivity is high. The problem areas for us arise when breaks start. When we lose the 1-2 people for a 30 min break we slide and have to start calling for floor help. It's also a scheduling issue. Our GM-ETL does the Fulfillment schedule and I truly don't think they even look at things like peak times and sales. They definitely aren't thinking about some people's breaks and if there is any coverage during them. It's usually the sales floor picking our standards and all of us on OPU.

 

[Anelmi]

My store doesn't get separate DU/OPU hours even though we are a very busy DU store. It's all lumped under Service and Engagement so we have to spread people around or use the Cleaning hours to staff it. Fulfillment is it's own clump of hours and those are only used for the TMs actually picking the OPU/SFS batches.

 

[Rarejem]

My store doesn't get separate DU/OPU hours even though we are a very busy DU store. It's all lumped under Service and Engagement so we have to spread people around or use the Cleaning hours to staff it. Fulfillment is it's own clump of hours and those are only used for the TMs actually picking the OPU/SFS batches.

Cleaning hours are going away at our store.

 

[Anelmi]

^^ as they should bc cleaning is a farce but those hours need to be relabeled to support the front end.

 

[sunnydays]

^^ as they should bc cleaning is a farce but those hours need to be relabeled to support the front end.

they wont be, once they're gone they will be gone

 

[Rarejem]

^^ as they should bc cleaning is a farce but those hours need to be relabeled to support the front end.

Cleaning has been a thing at our store with the expectation that the cleaning list in myDay is followed. I'm sorry to see it go. We got 2 covid notifications regarding vendors this week.

 

[IWishIKnew]

So, having done grocery picking for the last two nights, Target absolutely needs to start charging people for large OPU orders. People doing their $300 grocery shopping trips for free with drive up is fucking ridiculous.

 

[NotCynicalYet]

So, having done grocery picking for the last two nights, Target absolutely needs to start charging people for large OPU orders. People doing their $300 grocery shopping trips for free with drive up is fucking ridiculous.

No kidding, and it's such value for the guest that I can't even blame them. I'm okay with using drive up as an investment to build the brand, but like, you can't have it all. Something has to give, and to me, it feels like that something is payroll, because my lanes are not properly staffed and everybody on the floor is pulling OPUs every day. I don't have the wide view of how this all comes together, I just know something is very wrong and my guess is the cost of OPU/DU is really hurting us.

I feel as if we're trying to live in magical fairy land, and reality will come crashing. We're already bleeding talent, at least in my neck of the woods. It doesn't feel like some sound business strategy, but more like being squeezed for the last drop of our motivation.

 

[gracefulfillment]

No kidding, and it's such value for the guest that I can't even blame them. I'm okay with using drive up as an investment to build the brand, but like, you can't have it all. Something has to give, and to me, it feels like that something is payroll, because my lanes are not properly staffed and everybody on the floor is pulling OPUs every day. I don't have the wide view of how this all comes together, I just know something is very wrong and my guess is the cost of OPU/DU is really hurting us.

I feel as if we're trying to live in magical fairy land, and reality will come crashing. We're already bleeding talent, at least in my neck of the woods. It doesn't feel like some sound business strategy, but more like being squeezed for the last drop of our motivation.

I'm sure most stores are like this, but my store has been pushing hard for us to pick more units per shift and per hour. Cutting back on hours and coaching whole shifts at a time for not meeting their new arbitrary numbers, despite being fine a week earlier. It's demoralizing.

 

[moninity]

Is any other store limiting how much you get for ship because there’s no one to clear carry over due to opu being out of control?

 

[BottomPerformer]

Part of the problem is not knowing exactly how many orders there will be for a given day. Mytime could estimate there will be x amount of orders, but Helen, Henry and Ethel might all need hemorrhoid cream that day, so it going to be busier then expected. Target is very stingy with payroll, so they would rather run tight instead giving "too much".

 

[Rarejem]

Part of the problem is not knowing exactly how many orders there will be for a given day. Mytime could estimate there will be x amount of orders, but Helen, Henry and Ethel might all need hemorrhoid cream that day, so it going to be busier then expected. Target is very stingy with payroll, so they would rather run tight instead giving "too much".

Then this should be part of the accountability. I don't know or care how, but the ARBITRARY number requirements are crazy.

 

[KarmaToBurn]

Depends on the workload, we normally do 2000 per day and for the most part we don’t call many people to help us through the day. What would help people out is people not wasting their time looking for that one item that is hard to find when there are numerous orders waiting to pick and time is ticking.

Cool, we do about the same or a little more volume every day and have two employees scheduled in Fulfillment.... suffice it to say trucks aren't getting unloade, POGs arent being set, freight isn't being pushed and so on... goddess help us if our SD actually comes back from "LOA"

 

[BurgerBob]

So intresting question. Both fullfillment calls for opu support and front end calls for more cashiers at the same time. Who gets more support?

 

[Priceslasher]

Fulfillment hands down! That’s where the money is made. Lol.

 

[IWishIKnew]

So intresting question. Both fullfillment calls for opu support and front end calls for more cashiers at the same time. Who gets more support?

At my store, GM all goes to OPU and Style goes to the front.

This would be GM, on top of any ETLs in the store and any sales floor TLs.

 

[sunnydays]

Fulfillment hands down! That’s where the money is made. Lol.

fulfillment is like 15% of most stores’ business; it exists primarily to drive loyalty and repeat business from people who, let’s be real, would just be shopping indoors anyway

 

[gracefulfillment]

Is any other store limiting how much you get for ship because there’s no one to clear carry over due to opu being out of control?

We haven't had any carryover/late at my store in a very long time. Now we will generally get support when we need it, but lord knows we never hear the end of it afterwards

Part of the problem is not knowing exactly how many orders there will be for a given day. Mytime could estimate there will be x amount of orders, but Helen, Henry and Ethel might all need hemorrhoid cream that day, so it going to be busier then expected. Target is very stingy with payroll, so they would rather run tight instead giving "too much".

I could understand that if it was an occasional issue where fulfillment needed support. But based off everything here and on reddit, either they need to seriously update their forecast models, or there's a ton of stores pillaging hours from flex and they're trying to squeeze more out of us to make up for it. A big part of it imo is the 2 hour promise... it's removed any ability for the spikes in OPU to be smoothed out. Once an order drops in, it needs to be taken care of or you wind up getting behind for the next couple hours.

 

[Guest Avocado]

So intresting question. Both fullfillment calls for opu support and front end calls for more cashiers at the same time. Who gets more support?

For us, whoever calls for backup first gets responses. Whoever calls second gets the leftovers.

Usually on the weekends, almost everyone is doing OPU, DU, or Cashiering, leaving the Sales Floor with barely any TMs outside of Tech.

 

[BurgerBob]

For us, whoever calls for backup first gets responses. Whoever calls second gets the leftovers.

Usually on the weekends, almost everyone is doing OPU, DU, or Cashiering, leaving the Sales Floor with barely any TMs outside of Tech.

Yea that's how my store devolves into... then poor tech tm is running around unlocking vacuums , tech stuff , and assisting at large in the store.