Archived The GSTL struggle of development

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So...here's a bit of an issue. My STL and HR tell us that we should always be training and mentoring at least one person to take our place. The problem I have is when I develop high performing "talent" they take them from the front end and move them to a different department. Every time I get a few of my cashiers trained to pull product (since the BR team won't pull our stuff) or set salesplanners or scan outs, etc they get moved. All my Redcard superstars get moved to Electronics.

And then, the STL sticks the bottom performers on the checklanes instead of just making the other TLs or ETLs "manage" their "talent". A sucky hardlines tm that doesn't come to work isn't going to start performing because you gave him cashier shifts. So, I have a revolving door...great team members go out and bottom performers come in. So...who am I to develop? Suggestions?
 
Most of the time, the stick the bottom performers on the front lanes, so the gstl can watch them like a hawk. So they can the coach & babysit at the same time. Cashiers should not be pulling br stuff without being certified.
 
The bottom performers are suppose to be at the front lanes, if not fired. It's a picking ground. When the GSTL finally does get someone good, and develops them they're supposed to be taken to another department. That's the way it's been as long as I have worked with Target and every store I have worked at. You should continue developing people and be proud of yourself whenever someone gets taken from you.
 
You're in a tough situation. Typically, tms who learn other areas want to go to those areas because cashiering tends to be kind of boring. The idea of bottom performers going to the front end is awful though. I can't believe, especially with Target's concentration on conversion and the VIBE, that this is still going on. I would challenge anyone making that decision. Could you negotiate and offer to share your top performers? If they won't let you keep them, I would go straight to your STL and tell them you are grooming them to "replace" you. Tell them what your 30-60-90 plans are for the team member. Great job on your awesome development skills, you should be proud. While, I disagree that moving said team members is best for your store, I do think that you are making your store a better place by developing your team. Keep it up.
 
As a GSA, I thought I did a pretty good job with encouragement, teaching, and general development of new cashiers. During the 4th qtr, I had several cashiers/SDTMs that I had personally trained get pulled for other departments because they were so good. Two to electronics, one as a cosmetics brand TM, and another to the BR.

It was frustrating to see all of my "good" TMs get taken just because they were good at the vibe, had great attention to detail, etc.
 
The bottom performers are suppose to be at the front lanes, if not fired. It's a picking ground. When the GSTL finally does get someone good, and develops them they're supposed to be taken to another department. That's the way it's been as long as I have worked with Target and every store I have worked at. You should continue developing people and be proud of yourself whenever someone gets taken from you.

that is so ridiculous. Why should the bottom performers go to the front lanes? Their team leads should manage their talent and deal with it in their dept.
 
Circumstances like these are why I laugh when others assume that front end "has it easy". We were always the dumping ground for SF flotsam & it was up to us to performance them out because the other TLs "didn't wanna deal with them".
Meanwhile, they'd give our cashier hrs for SFTMs whose areas were cut but then pull them to the salesfloor within minutes of reporting for their shift. They'd ALWAYS say "Oh, we'll send 'em up for backup" but we'd end up not seeing them for the rest of the shift.
 
The bottom performers are suppose to be at the front lanes, if not fired. It's a picking ground. When the GSTL finally does get someone good, and develops them they're supposed to be taken to another department. That's the way it's been as long as I have worked with Target and every store I have worked at. You should continue developing people and be proud of yourself whenever someone gets taken from you.

that is so ridiculous. Why should the bottom performers go to the front lanes? Their team leads should manage their talent and deal with it in their dept.


Im not saying I agree with it, it's just the way it is and probably the way it always will be.
 
that is so not the way it is at my store and i feel extremely bad for any GSTL that has to deal with that crap.
 
@Hardlines I make sure they get certified before going in the BR

@Isis My STL is the one who decided to put the bottom performers on the CL. He says its better for them there b/c they can keep an eye of them, but then rags on me about guest firsts, etc when they dont come to work or are still horrible. He says "If you cant cashier then there's nothing else you can do in our store" which I have found to be wrong. I had a horrible cashier, but when I cross trained him in Electronics he is now a top performer.

@AllThingsTarget101 The problem I have with this is my team is clearly struggling with the new conversion expectation. So what sense does it make to take a TM from the front who gets 5-7 REDcards a day and is holding my team afloat and put them in Market or Softlines???

My last ETL-GE, who got promoted to STL, said if I train and hire an entire amazing team then they can't possibly take them all. Uh...yea, quite unrealistic.
 
MrGSTL

I'm sorry you have a STL who not only has such a low opinion of cashiers, he also doesn't seem to have much respect for you.
 
He says "If you cant cashier then there's nothing else you can do in our store"

This is disgusting. He's insulting the front end team when he says this and throws bottom performers up there. Cashiers are an integral part of the team. There's not a single workcenter that isn't important to the success of the team. I'm just so aggravated by his statement.
 
Cashiering is important, because its the last impression a guest receives for the store.

However aside from Cart Attending its the easiest work area to learn, and the easiest work area to be under direct supervision for most of your shift. Some individuals need the supervision because they can't cut it by themselves on the Sales Floor, and need that "Go To" person to be there. These type of people tend to be labeled as bottom performers since they lack self-efficacy, and get stuck on the front end to be babysat.

MrGSTL's STL does have a point in the fact that if somebody can't handle cashiering, there isn't much else (save carts) that they would be able to do.

Also its not fair for somebody who is highly competent and wants to advance to better opportunities to be stuck cashiering. Cashiering is an entry level position at Target, and most people don't want to be stuck there. Sure it sucks for the GSTL big time, but thats just how it is. Like it or not, you have to basically train these people up and watch them leave for better areas.

Instead of letting other workcenters steal your TMs, try and get them cross trained in Guest Service, and have all of your high-po service desk TMs rotate on cashiering on the schedule.
 
I'll agree that it's not that hard of an area to learn, but I would argue that there aren't many areas that are hard to learn. Most of the jobs are easy to learn, but it takes a while and some dedication to get good at it. Cashiering should not be the dumping ground for low performing tms. They are the one person a guest will interact with at the store for sure.

In fact, no workcenter should be the dumping ground for crappy tms. They should be coached and developed or performanced out by their TLs and ETL.
 
He says "If you cant cashier then there's nothing else you can do in our store"

This is disgusting. He's insulting the front end team when he says this and throws bottom performers up there. Cashiers are an integral part of the team. There's not a single workcenter that isn't important to the success of the team. I'm just so aggravated by his statement.

I second that. I'll admit that I'm not a top performer on the sales floor (i.e. I zone too slowly), but still, that's utterly ridiculous. Some of our top performing TMs in the whole store are cashiers who simply haven't expressed any interest in learning other workcenters.
 
He says "If you cant cashier then there's nothing else you can do in our store"

This is disgusting. He's insulting the front end team when he says this and throws bottom performers up there. Cashiers are an integral part of the team. There's not a single workcenter that isn't important to the success of the team. I'm just so aggravated by his statement.

I second that. I'll admit that I'm not a top performer on the sales floor (i.e. I zone too slowly), but still, that's utterly ridiculous. Some of our top performing TMs in the whole store are cashiers who simply haven't expressed any interest in learning other workcenters.

I'm a salesfloor TM and cashiering is probably my biggest weakness. I hate having to interact with guest after guest. I can handle helping someone choose a camera, answering a phone call, or helping someone with furniture; but cashiering no.
 
So...here's a bit of an issue. My STL and HR tell us that we should always be training and mentoring at least one person to take our place. The problem I have is when I develop high performing "talent" they take them from the front end and move them to a different department. Every time I get a few of my cashiers trained to pull product (since the BR team won't pull our stuff) or set salesplanners or scan outs, etc they get moved. All my Redcard superstars get moved to Electronics.

And then, the STL sticks the bottom performers on the checklanes instead of just making the other TLs or ETLs "manage" their "talent". A sucky hardlines tm that doesn't come to work isn't going to start performing because you gave him cashier shifts. So, I have a revolving door...great team members go out and bottom performers come in. So...who am I to develop? Suggestions?

my recommendation would be to bring up this issue at the tl meeting. tell them you would like to speak about team member development. lay it all out. this includes challenging the stl on holding all tl accountable for developing their team. on my team, you either perform or get fired. i'm not sticking them up front because they're too lazy to show up or do their job correctly.
the biggest issues i see with our tm development is that you should not be developing "all stars" to take your place. that mode of thinking (to me) is unproductive to your overall morale and store environment. plus, i regularly see top performers who get moved to bottom performers after a couple of months because they burn out and get tired of feeling like they're getting dumped on rather than developed. usually, the tls use them to do dirty work (not saying you are doing that!) and having them pull, push, clean, whatever. don't forget about vibe, #s, brand perspective, interviews, dress, the whole nine yards while you're developing.
start with level setting for your entire team. core roles. work with all tm equally. sure, they'll be working on different things at different paces, but your team will know you care about everyone, not just hipos. be proactive and recommend tm to other roles once they've mastered cashiering. take the time during contribution to update the tl/hr/stl on each tm's progress, always with the mindset that "hey, in about xxx months this tm should be ready to take on more responsibility and would be a great candidate for xyz". and after the move is made, partner with the tm and their new tl to follow up.
 
So...I've been stuck at front End for five years because i suck?

Have you ever tried to get out?

Put in for electronics, plano, price accuracy, instocks, HRtm [externally], and backroom TM all on separate occasions, always when there was an opening, always communicating to somebody directly involved. (i work very occasional hardlines to which I perform fine, literally always as a picked-up shift from the swap shift board) I've never been told by anybody I would be a poor fit for any of those positions. Either the stores' idealogies are different or I need to take a very hard objective look at myself.
 
I dont know you so I don't know. The front end team I was on did have a lot of people who were high performing TMs and seemed stuck as well. I guess it can just kinda depend on a lot of factors.
 
Put in for electronics, plano, price accuracy, instocks, HRtm [externally], and backroom TM all on separate occasions, always when there was an opening, always communicating to somebody directly involved. (i work very occasional hardlines to which I perform fine, literally always as a picked-up shift from the swap shift board) I've never been told by anybody I would be a poor fit for any of those positions. Either the stores' idealogies are different or I need to take a very hard objective look at myself.

I've been in the same boat for some time. I had to get on everybody's case a few times before I could even get trained in hardlines. Talk to the TLs, ETLs, STL, HR...and talk to them multiple times if you have to. Sometimes, you tell one person something, and they don't communicate it to others and eventually they completely forget about it.
 
My take on this is a little different, I was a GSA for a year and I say you are doing a great job.

It was pretty much the same for our store and me. Going to the floor before I made GSA was the next step. There is no Reason the best people you train cant someday take your spot. When it opens they will return.
 
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