Archived The Vibe is dead: Target is looking to hire 30% less seasonal this year over last.

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talan123

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Read it and weep.

It's nice to know that all of that training is completely useless to us now because we won't have time to create memories.

What is the thinking that is going on up there? These are mixed messages at best and condescending at worst because they actually think they can get away with giving two vastly different messages. Do they think that we are just ignoring the guests because we don't like them? Last year our store closed with 3 closers on the salesfloor and we were doing 3x our sales. Cutting that down to 2 is not only insane but not even close to safe.

Last year we had a couple of guests injured on black friday and that was when we were short staffed with all hands on deck. This year is going to be even worse with these two policies in effect because they are so contradictory.

Our STL/ETL were so excited about this because it felt like they were getting the message but this just seems like those that listened the finger.
 
I don't really see what the problem is here....

Maybe it was just my store, but in previous years what usually happened was this:

HR hires a sh** load of seasonals
Seasonals get near 40 hour weeks
Non-seasonal TMs suddenly see their weekly hours cut to 10-20

It seems to me that with less seasonals, that means more hours for non-seasonal TMs.

You are operating under the impression that if your store hires a ton of seasonals, you won't see your hours cut as a result..... Trust me, it's better for you that they hire less seasonal TMs.
 
I don't really see what the problem is here....

Maybe it was just my store, but in previous years what usually happened was this:

HR hires a sh** load of seasonals
Seasonals get near 40 hour weeks
Non-seasonal TMs suddenly see their weekly hours cut to 10-20

It seems to me that with less seasonals, that means more hours for non-seasonal TMs.

You are operating under the impression that if your store hires a ton of seasonals, you won't see your hours cut as a result..... Trust me, it's better for you that they hire less seasonal TMs.

You are assuming that the work place will be static without them. The numbers for every other retailer, at least that I could find said that 56% said they were hiring the same amount as last year and 43% were hiring more. Only 1% bet on the strategy that Target is.

We have several team members that are moving on which means their training is going to be at the same time as the rest of the seasonal which means they are as useful as the seasonal team members. We have team members that have been here for a year that don't know enough of what to do because they were never properly trained during non-seasonal times, IE time that wasn't hurried to the point of breakneck speed.

When it comes to cutting hours and team members, assuming the worst is really the only way to go because it's the most reliable way.
 
The only 30% number I saw in the article was in reference to how many seasonal hires stay on after the holidays. Even if only 80,000 seasonal TMs are hired, that's about 13% fewer seasonal hires than last year's 92,000. (80,000/92,000=0.130)

On the other hand, this can't be good. I've mentioned in another thread and I'll mention it now: the SL team I'm on is a skeleton crew right now and if we don't get any people hired soon who are going to do good work, we're going to be shafted this winter. In addition, the store's falling back on "oh, SL will go up for backup!" whenever backup is called for. SL TMs are getting stuck on backup for an hour at a time now and it isn't pretty when it comes to the zone at the end of the night. I think our biggest problem is that about 50% of our team consists of college-age kids who don't really care or who simply can't take more hours.
 
Yeah, I saw that number and confused the two.
 
I can't speak for everyone, but I can definitely say my store has more full team members right now than we did at the same time last year, so it makes sense we wouldn't need as many seasonals.
 
We have several team members that are moving on which means their training is going to be at the same time as the rest of the seasonal which means they are as useful as the seasonal team members. We have team members that have been here for a year that don't know enough of what to do because they were never properly trained during non-seasonal times, IE time that wasn't hurried to the point of breakneck speed.
Yeah, I've seen that problem with newer team members (especially hired this summer).
IE time that wasn't hurried to the point of breakneck speed.
That time exists?
LOL, sorry. I'm at an ULV and new-ish so I've yet to have much time without being insanely busy.
 
How do they figure the dates of "seasonal" hires from November through January?? January? Really!

talan123 did I read that correctly?
 
First off, this isn't really news. Target sent this information out about a month ago, prior to the vibe roll out. I think what's important is to see that we are still hiring more seasonal workers than any other retailer, namely walmart. It's no secret that walmart will do more business than we will fourth quarter, but we have commited to the guest experiance to hire more people. We did retain a lot more seasonal employees last year as well. I can only assume this is because of the economy. Also remember that a lot of stores have been hiring for remodels, and those Team Members were retained.

Pellinore, seasonal hires for the holidays always run November through January. It's not implying that the holiday will run through the entire month, but the offboarding process takes time just like the onboarding. This is just for bookkeeping purposes, so our numbers are accuratly reflected.

Lastly, if a seasonal team member is getting more hours than you there are only two reasons. Availability or Performance. Simple as that. If a seasonal team memebr who doesn't know squat has greater drive and potential in their position than you, they're going to get scheduled.

Bringing in massive new hires while rolling out the vibe was a great idea. You have fresh meat that is still pliable enough to mold them into the vibe culture. The vibe is not dead, it is very much alive
 
"A Target spokeswoman said Monday that the company's seasonal hiring is affected by current staffers' availability and whether those workers are seeking additional holiday hours."

Sounds reasonable to me. For me, at my store, staffing TMs for black friday is like trying to hold back a tsunami with action figures.
 
"A Target spokeswoman said Monday that the company's seasonal hiring is affected by current staffers' availability and whether those workers are seeking additional holiday hours."

Sounds reasonable to me. For me, at my store, staffing TMs for black friday is like trying to hold back a tsunami with action figures.

Great visual.
 
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