Our new HR TL seems really inexperienced.

[Dream Baby]

I swear our new HR TL/ETL is not even 25.

Why would Target let them run HR in a store with over 150 employees?

I am in my 50's and have never worked anywhere that did that.

Thoughts?

 

[MrPerfectNot]

I`m in your same age range.....

Unless you have something specific about the new ETL`s performance, maybe wait and see how they do? Plenty of capable people out there, even some of the youngsters.

Plus you could be wrong about their age....

 

[Black Sheep 214]

Spot seems to value youth, inexperience, malleability and the willingness to drink extreme amounts of kool-aid far more than experience and the ability to actually get the job done properly. The former is also a lot cheaper than the latter, which is probably part of the attraction. My store had several young just-out-of-college ETL-HRs in rapid succession. Nice youngsters, but totally out of their depth and they didn’t last long. Not saying that young people can’t do the job, many of them are very capable, but our Spot didn’t seem to get those, and the ETL-HR job is a tough position to tackle with no HR background and little experience. Not a good thing all around.
Hope your new ETL-HR turns out to be one of the good ones...🤞😁

 

[tdude2020]

I don't know man, the last few stores I've been in had young adults that got to be store directors at 25, and they were absolutely amazing managers. They walked the floor, were understanding, and generally seemed like they knew how to run the business which is all the company cares about. This is one of those situations where age is simply just a number on a piece of paper. Like the post above me mentioned, target employs the persona that they are a young, trendy, yet upscale department store that values youth, and that inconspicuously translates to employees and management.

Now I do not work in your store, so I obviously cannot relate to your experience, but maybe you need to see more of him/her to assess their manager capabilities.

Also, yes. Target often hires managers out of college due to their internship program especially for HR, GM, SE, or SPS.

 

[StyleStar]

I swear our new HR TL/ETL is not even 25.

Why would Target let them run HR in a store with over 150 employees?

I am in my 50's and have never worked anywhere that did that.

Thoughts?

It's too bad that in your fifty plus years you havn't learned not to make assumptions based on appearance. I have had shitty ETL's who have been with Target for years, I have had great ETL's fresh out of college. Why don't you give this new person a chance, before assuming they aren't capable.

 

[Planosss]

Low self esteem.

 

[hufflepuff]

I agree with waiting to see how they do. See how they handle HR and how they take care of various situations before deciding if they're capable or not. It is possible that they turn out to be the best HR your store has had.

 

[versionDefect]

Our ETL HR is probably in her 40s but our new Non ETL HR is 20 and honestly he’s one of the kindest and most understanding person I’ve ever met. Take a chance on them. Just because they’re young doesn’t mean that they can’t do their job well

 

[BackupTL]

Our HRTM was 25 before they promoted to TL and they were more helpful than the various HRTLs and ETL-HRs we have rotated through in the last 5 years, and they were in their 40s-50s. It all comes down to willingness to learn and use that knowledge.

That TM dug into all the routines and policies, and if they didn't know then they'd find out. They were also helpful on the floor all the time. I'd say you should probably wait and find out if your ETL-HR will grow into the role before just seeing they're in their 20s and defaulting to "they can't do HR".

 

[60SecondsRemaining]

I swear our new HR TL/ETL is not even 25.

Why would Target let them run HR in a store with over 150 employees?

I am in my 50's and have never worked anywhere that did that.

Thoughts?

Our new flow TL is over 50.

Why would Target let them run Flow in a store with over 6 trucks a week. They might break their frail body.

I am in my 20s and never worked anywhere that did that.

Do you see how ridiculous this sounds?

 

[Dream Baby]

Our new flow TL is over 50.

Why would Target let them run Flow in a store with over 6 trucks a week. They might break their frail body.

I am in my 20s and never worked anywhere that did that.

Do you see how ridiculous this sounds?

So your new flow TL is over 50 and has 30 years of work experience which is good.

You say you are in your 20s and never worked anywhere that did that which makes no sense because you haven't been working very long.

According to Linkedin search our new HR ETL graduated in 2020 and this is their first job not counting two internships.

The point I was trying to make is they are to inexperienced to run HR in a store with over 200 employees.

 

[MrPerfectNot]

So your new flow TL is over 50 and has 30 years of work experience which is good.

You say you are in your 20s and never worked anywhere that did that which makes no sense because you haven't been working very long.

According to Linkedin search our new HR ETL graduated in 2020 and this is their first job not counting two internships.

The point I was trying to make is they are to inexperienced to run HR in a store with over 200 employees.

You THINK they are too inexperienced to do so.

Your store seems to have added 50 TMs in the last week. Maybe the new ETL is a terrific recruiter?

Snark aside, the point most of the responses is trying to make is for you to give the noob a chance.

Also, DB, you seem to have totally whiffed on 60's inversion of your original post.

 

[FlowTeamChick]

Wait and see. I've done HR work in a different industry and agree with you in part. Someone pretty fresh out of school will be able to do the more perfunctory parts of the job just fine - conduct interviews (keep in mind that applicants are interviewed by more than one TL), maintain confidential information, track who's done their training modules, etc.
The part I'd have some question about is when problems arise - that's when some hard-won wisdom can be very useful and I'm not sure that a 25-year-old would have enough life experience yet. But that's not to say it can't happen. People can be wiser than their peers (just like they can be more foolish than their peers). Maybe this person will surprise you - give them the chance to do so.

 

[Dream Baby]

You THINK they are too inexperienced to do so.

Your store seems to have added 50 TMs in the last week. Maybe the new ETL is a terrific recruiter?

Snark aside, the point most of the responses is trying to make is for you to give the noob a chance.

Also, DB, you seem to have totally whiffed on 60's inversion of your original post.

Whiffed?

Please explain to this old dude!

 

[commiecorvus]

Whiffed?

Please explain to this old dude!

Whiff = The sound of a bat going right past the ball and not touching it.
A variation on ...

 

[dannyy315]

any substantive doubts about their qualifications besides their age?

 

[james0707]

HR TLs and HR ETLs are usually the laziest of the leads who drink all the kool-aid that Target dishes out.

Every lead I have worked with had been worthless and among the laziest people I have ever met. They all have been unqualified and incompetent.

It is better to stick the garbage in HR fill in the schedules with the required number of people than on the sales floor not doing anything and messing it up for others.

 

[Dream Baby]

any substantive doubts about their qualifications besides their age?

This individual graduated in with a bachelor's in 2020 and the only work experience I see is the Target internship and another (non-retail) somewhere else.

I gleaned this from Linkedin.

I will give her the benefit of the doubt as people suggested.

IMHO she is walking into a trainwreck due to the massive TL turnover and/or reshuffling in our store.

 

[Yetive]

Trial by fire ETL edition.

 

[60SecondsRemaining]

So your new flow TL is over 50 and has 30 years of work experience which is good.

You say you are in your 20s and never worked anywhere that did that which makes no sense because you haven't been working very long.

According to Linkedin search our new HR ETL graduated in 2020 and this is their first job not counting two internships.

The point I was trying to make is they are to inexperienced to run HR in a store with over 200 employees.

My point was moreso that age has very little to do with it - especially in HR.

Soft-skills, which is what really determines if someone is a good or shitty ground-level HR person, is really driven by two things:

Personality, and perspective.

You can have a 20 year old with incredible soft-skills, someone who is charismatic and empathetic enough to talk to people as a person, and make them feel like they're heard, and then follow through on that. Conversely, experience does help here, the more situations you've dealt with the more solutions you have in your pocket. But it isn't the end all be all.

You can have a 50 year old professional with terrible soft skills (I work with cybersecurity focused software teams now, let me tell you about bad soft-skills...)

Age is really irrelevant when it comes to HR leadership, outside of overcoming, no offense, people with the opinion you presented here. People who feel you are not qualified due to your age - it's a common stereotype, one that can be true (and I would probably say is generally true) - but should be judged individually.

 

[Frontlanegirl]

HR TLs and HR ETLs are usually the laziest of the leads who drink all the kool-aid that Target dishes out.

Every lead I have worked with had been worthless and among the laziest people I have ever met. They all have been unqualified and incompetent.

It is better to stick the garbage in HR fill in the schedules with the required number of people than on the sales floor not doing anything and messing it up for others.

I’ll be kind and hold back my unkind words. My ETL HR is one of the hardest workers in my store and often picks of the slack for the other ETL’s in my store. You need to learn to not over generalize.

 

[happygoth]

I’ll be kind and hold back my unkind words. My ETL HR is one of the hardest workers in my store and often picks of the slack for the other ETL’s in my store. You need to learn to not over generalize.

Ditto. My ETL-HR kicks ass.

 

[IWishIKnew]

Our previous HR-ETL was in her twenties, and rocked. She moved to a different ETL position at another store, and our former ETL-Log became our new HR-ETL. She's a little older, maybe early thirties, but is also awesome.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Ditto. My ETL-HR kicks ass.

Ditto. My etl hr kicks ass too. They run super fast in flex.

 

[Fix It]

I had a 24 y/o ETL HR and they kicked ass. Joke was on me for writing them off at first. It takes about 3 months for a new leader to get their feet under themselves.