Where to start. I am a 20 hr/week (voluntarily part time) BR closer, worked for less than a year. TL's ETL's and STL all have told me they've never seen anything like my pull times and ability to come clean with the workload left for me when I come in. I know I do a good job but I still can't compute this. Approached by STL and HR the other day asking me to take over Flow TL (current is on his way out whether by choice or force). I have no real experience with Flow and it seems my only qualification is being a beast in the BR. Should I feel proud of my work or worried that if I took it the position, none of the 20+ that would be on my team were worth considering taking over their own department? I only took the current job I'm in for some excercise and pocket money. Should I be this concerned about flow TL?
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Depends on the store if Flow is going to be a terrible time adjusting to or not. As the BR closer it's totally the opposite schedule for you, early morning or very early morning. The biggest part with Flow is being able to keep a team working hard to come clean and current. Sounds like you have work ethic and workload management skills being able to consistently come clean for the back and set the line etc. Your biggest question is if you can manage a team of people. That is the job with flow, a smaller part of it for flow TL is showing up and working hard. A good part of it is assessing areas of the workcenter that can be changed to improve the productivity like changing how the unload is done etc, but that only goes so far and once that's done there not much more to do. The largest part of the job is assessing/developing talent and working with the people to make them into the TMs target needs or cut them loose. Keeping a team motivated to show up to work and work at a respectable pace is the biggest part of the job. Without those TMs there is no team and Flow needs a team to run well.
The money can be there for you depending on the store. The biggest thing i'd do if you seriously considering it is ask to be moved help run an early morning process team, either Flow or Backroom to see how managing people works out for you. If the team culture is terrible on flow going in there is going to be a lot of work, if the culture and work ethic is already there it will be less of an initial hurdle.
The money can be there for you depending on the store. The biggest thing i'd do if you seriously considering it is ask to be moved help run an early morning process team, either Flow or Backroom to see how managing people works out for you. If the team culture is terrible on flow going in there is going to be a lot of work, if the culture and work ethic is already there it will be less of an initial hurdle.
HRZone
Former ETL HR
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Yeah flow TL you cannot just put yoyr uead down and work fast. If the people around you arent fast you will be blamed for the shortcomings. Do you feel like you can train others? If so great. If you think you're just going to work hard and pray that you get the job done you will burn out if you don't fail.
SFSFun
Ship from Store: Don't call it Ship To Store!!
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Closing BRTM to Flow TL is a big change. Some questions you might want to consider:
Can you handle the hours? Your shifts will start 30 minutes before the rest of the team starts coming in at 10pm, 4am, or 6am (depends on your store).
Why is the current flow TL leaving?
Why are they not moving the BRTL over to flow and asking you to take over the BR? My store always moves the BRTL to flow when the flow TL quits.
Can you motivate, coach, and lead a team of 20+ people?
We also have a beast BR closer who was also asked to take over flow at one point, though it didn't end up happening (not sure why).
Can you handle the hours? Your shifts will start 30 minutes before the rest of the team starts coming in at 10pm, 4am, or 6am (depends on your store).
Why is the current flow TL leaving?
Why are they not moving the BRTL over to flow and asking you to take over the BR? My store always moves the BRTL to flow when the flow TL quits.
Can you motivate, coach, and lead a team of 20+ people?
We also have a beast BR closer who was also asked to take over flow at one point, though it didn't end up happening (not sure why).
I asked that question (about the BRTL) and they said he's good in that role, it's his niche. Everyone seems to have a problem with the TL currently in that position. I'm just wondering why, after I have shown no interest in taking any leadership roles as a part-time closer, why they are coming to me and if that says something about any lack of motivation for the team I'd be leading. I've also head horror stories about taking on Flow TL and if I were to take a leadership role is this what I'd want to start off with?
Our TL have 40 hour work weeks. Flow Team starts early, we start at 4 am. Flow has the highest turn over rate in my store. They quit faster than we can hire them, flow also always has meal compliance issues at our store because they have shorter shifts. I don't know about other stores, but I would never want to be a flow TL at our store. I have worked at another store and they had a pretty amazing flow team and flow TL.
HRZone
Former ETL HR
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Yeah our flow TLs are the most likely to hit overtime.
Like you said flow is tough for HR, we don't really overlap hours so we count on their leaders to make sure they don't hit compliance and understandably because they work so early in the morning they often miss punches, or punch in twice lol.
The biggest challenge is the turnover a lot of our people get termed for no call no show, our most recent abandons were flow and morale can be low if your STL or other ETLS don't appreciate them. Some stores will do food for the day side team if they meet a red card goal, overnight team will get the leftovers.
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I agree with this. They have it rough sometimes. One day I worked overnight along with two other TMs to get our holiday supplies organized and prepared and we opened up Starbucks and made them coffee. They were so happy and the ETL-Log was really thankful we did that for them.
I do see the flow team for an hour or so in the morning sometimes. I try to come in early one day a week so if any flow TM have an issue, I can help them. I can't stand the attitude some of our Team Members have towards the flow team. They treat them like they are second class Team Members. Flow isn't an easy job, it's early in the morning and very fast paced. Very physical work. When I plan a food event I make sure I set up early enough for flow to have a chance and get some food. I screen flow applicants very carefully and have been able to get our Flow TL some awesome people who are getting cross trained to other areas so they can get hours and stay with us. Our Flow TL turned her attitude towards me around very quickly when she realized that I care about her team and that I am working with her -not against her- to reduce turn over and compliance. I haven't been in the HR position very long but I want to do my best and show that I care about the store and every team.
HRZone
Former ETL HR
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I never thought of that, cross-training them dayside. At my store we typically send dayside people overnight if they need to pickup hours, not the other way around. The big issue at my store is the disconnect between new flow members and old ones, our old-timers criticize the new people for being slow. I think to myself, I'm sure you weren't as quick as you are now when you started.
Our flow is so understaffed we take almost anyone who applies, for dayside positions we might have 7-8 people interview for a single position before we hire someone, lots more screening.
Glad you got the Flow TL on your side, I feel like the TL who dislikes me the most is our flow TL, mainly because he hates when we schedule day people as flow.
What we do is extend flow team members. Let's say they start at 4 am. Usually they would be off at 9 am but we have them staying until 12:30 pm for a full 8 hour shift. Some cashier until 12:30 pm, some work in the backroom and some work Flexible Fulfillment. Not all flow team members want to do it, but the ones who do, get about 35 hours a week because they come in for cashier shifts, backroom, Flexible fulfillment on non truck days as well.
Having Flow cross trained helps with the turnover as well. Before we cross trained flow, turn over was really high because who can live off 9-12 hours a week when we only have three trucks a week? Flow still has a higher turn over than other departments but the flow team members who cross trained stick around.
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