Archived Tips for coaching FLOW team members on sense of urgency.

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Hello,
So at my store, as well as other stores, I have my slow stockers on flow. What are way to coach them on sense of urgency besides for the normal not reading PIC labels, etc.? Of course my biggest coachings are attendance/talking but how do I get around the sense of urgency coachings? You cant coach them just on that, my ETL HR said you have to have something behind it too. Thanks!
 
i wanna say that one of the examples on the coaching scripts is on having a sense of urgency? I would take a look at those examples and see if they can help.
 
I can take a look but my HR says we cant judge sense of urgency, I honestly have no time to sit and observe when I have to do stock audits and all the other stuff. Dont get me wrong I send in a lot of coachings but some team members have no sense of urgency and I have no idea on how to get to a CCA point..
 
I can take a look but my HR says we cant judge sense of urgency, I honestly have no time to sit and observe when I have to do stock audits and all the other stuff.

I do performance discussions for work performance issues based on NOT meeting the predefined goal time for their work center. Work performance issues get alittle bit harder to document when it comes to departments that employ a wave process to complete. If I feel that someone in my wave process isn't working to the best of their ability I'll start assigning times for each of their aisles based upon what I feel that I could comfortably complete. If they continue to fail after that point the performance discussions and soon to follow corrective action follows and remember it only takes 3 performance discussions for ANY performance based issue to pursue a corrective action. Hope this helps! :senile:
 
Hey fenix do you do a minute a box or do you visually check the aisle and you and the tm agree on a goal time? (The only thing i hate about goal times is breaks/huddle/issue comes up/my lunch/etc.) (we just moved out unload up 30 minutes so it goes by so quickly.) But I think this is the only way.
 
Hey fenix do you do a minute a box or do you visually check the aisle and you and the tm agree on a goal time? (The only thing i hate about goal times is breaks/huddle/issue comes up/my lunch/etc.) (we just moved out unload up 30 minutes so it goes by so quickly.) But I think this is the only way.

1 minute per box is a very loose average. You'll quickly find out that in a department like grocery you can get it down to as quick as 30 seconds per box or so. If I see a team member that is consistently having issues keeping up I'll workout the first ten boxes I see on their aisle and see how many minutes it takes me to do it. At that point I'll ask if they have any questions and that they need to consistently meet the time that I just meet myself.
 
Hey fenix do you do a minute a box or do you visually check the aisle and you and the tm agree on a goal time? (The only thing i hate about goal times is breaks/huddle/issue comes up/my lunch/etc.) (we just moved out unload up 30 minutes so it goes by so quickly.) But I think this is the only way.

1 minute per box is a very loose average. You'll quickly find out that in a department like grocery you can get it down to as quick as 30 seconds per box or so. If I see a team member that is consistently having issues keeping up I'll workout the first ten boxes I see on their aisle and see how many minutes it takes me to do it. At that point I'll ask if they have any questions and that they need to consistently meet the time that I just meet myself.

That's 30 seconds including the time to FIFO? You have some very fast TM's!
 
Kinda disgusted at the Flow TLs here. Yup coach your team for doing quality work. Quanitity>Quality? Well when the zone goes to hell and nothing is to planogram, thats only going to make stocking take longer and longer.

Expect More. Pay Less. Target.
 
Kinda disgusted at the Flow TLs here. Yup coach your team for doing quality work. Quanitity>Quality? Well when the zone goes to hell and nothing is to planogram, thats only going to make stocking take longer and longer.

Expect More. Pay Less. Target.

lol imerzan

guess that's why when we reset market we get a couple of tubs of damaged/out of dates...
 
That's 30 seconds including the time to FIFO? You have some very fast TM's!

2-3 of our store's weekly morning huddles are freshness huddles in Dry Grocery to help compensate for any FIFO issues thus the flow process finishes earlier and more payroll can be given back to guest driven work centers. :buba:
 
Kinda disgusted at the Flow TLs here. Yup coach your team for doing quality work. Quanitity>Quality? Well when the zone goes to hell and nothing is to planogram, thats only going to make stocking take longer and longer.

Expect More. Pay Less. Target.

My team definitely has alot of issue in terms of FIFOing, thus the Freshness Huddles, but zone issues that are traceable back to my team via item search are documented and pursued. :curtsey:
 
That's 30 seconds including the time to FIFO? You have some very fast TM's!

2-3 of our store's weekly morning huddles are freshness huddles in Dry Grocery to help compensate for any FIFO issues thus the flow process finishes earlier and more payroll can be given back to guest driven work centers. :buba:

So in other words, you guys do a half-ass job and the other work centers pick up the slack? Don't even try that crap about hours going to guest driven work centers, you forget, we all work for the same company.
 
So in other words, you guys do a half-ass job and the other work centers pick up the slack? Don't even try that crap about hours going to guest driven work centers, you forget, we all work for the same company.

Not at all. I'm not going to say that my team doesn't have more then its fair share of opportunities but the store I work at requires my team to be done by 8:00AM-9:00AM (we're a 4am process) at the very latest so quite a few of them can transfer to other work centers (ie. signing, presentation, backroom, bakery, or price accuracy). There would be days that those departments would not be completing their tasks if we didn't provide the assist.
 
None of those are guest-driven work centers. Not only that, but those few hours you save does not provide enough for them to fix what you are screwing up. Do they not pull grey dots either? Instocks can handle it, right? Why not stop de-trashing backstock? It's quicker if we don't and the backroom will catch it. Your team sets every other team up for success. If they don't do their job, no one else has the hours to follow your flow team and FIFO every product. Here's what I always told people when I trained them:

"I expect you to FIFO properly because no one is coming behind to fix our mistakes. I don't expect a box a minute in food because it will balance out elsewhere. If it takes a minute to stock two toasters we'll talk."

We made our goal times and our FIFO was top notch. It can be both.
 
Oh c'mon, Flow has a lot of stuff to get done. Grocery resets twice a year anyway, Plano rotates the food back in when they backfill!

/devilsadvocate
 
How about how to coach an in stocks TM? One that doesn't seem to try to be consistent in scanning or thorough when scanning?
I am not an in stocks TL so I don't know what/where reports may be available.
Thanks :)
 
I just focus on the U grade team members. I give them RWT goals for an easier department. If they can't make those goals, that is enough for a performance discussion. You will find that once you start getting rid of the U grade team members, the IEs typically turn into Es. The EXs are happy because they no longer have to pick up the slack.
 
I have 2 team members that are excellent at FIFO they are rotated through the grocery aisles each week.I will admit that I do not have my team spend time rotating canned goods with 2016 freshness dates. The chip/cookies/baking/coffee/boxed dinners/medication aisles are all rotated daily. It does not take that much extra time and it is simply part of the job. In dairy/frozen we spend time fixing the haphazard stocking of that team all the time. I have a couple of mentally "slower" team members and I give them the same areas each shift. Because the become familiar with the areas they can work them quicker and without too much 1 on 1 supervision. I will pop into areas to help stock and set the pace everyday. I have 2 trainers. One we have with the team members on their first day. She is very personable and everyone feels comfortable with her. Their second shift we send them with the "sarge". He sees a goal time as the enemy that must be destroyed! I do coach on productivity. I don't use the word speed. Why are they slow? Are they talking? Do they waste time looking for the item instead of the label? Do they spend too much time breaking down boxes? Those are all items to coach on. Find out what areas they are really good in and put them there.We were also accused daily of overstocking the paper and plastics aisles. For 2 weeks I walked those areas item by item and they were fine. I came in the next day and we had paper stacked 2 and 3 high on the top shelves and plastic tubs stacked with 8 on the top shelf. Through a little bit of extra work we found that we had a team member that was trying to make sure he had no back stock on pulls. Why? Because 1 back room team member would yell at people that brought things back?
 
How about how to coach an in stocks TM? One that doesn't seem to try to be consistent in scanning or thorough when scanning?
I am not an in stocks TL so I don't know what/where reports may be available.
Thanks :)

The Instocks team lead should do the coaching but you can audit any aisle supposedly scanned. Use item search, book icon, instocks button. This will give you the last research date. If there isn't one it has been at least 15 days since the last research scan on that item. Give this info to the team lead and let them handle it. I'm not the instocks TL but I'm the one who sees it. I pass on the info. There is a report available that shows number of scans each TM has completed.
 
How about how to coach an in stocks TM? One that doesn't seem to try to be consistent in scanning or thorough when scanning?
I am not an in stocks TL so I don't know what/where reports may be available.
Thanks :)

The Instocks team lead should do the coaching but you can audit any aisle supposedly scanned. Use item search, book icon, instocks button. This will give you the last research date. If there isn't one it has been at least 15 days since the last research scan on that item. Give this info to the team lead and let them handle it. I'm not the instocks TL but I'm the one who sees it. I pass on the info. There is a report available that shows number of scans each TM has completed.
I forget about that handy bookmark icon!!! I am a little old school and prefer RF apps/NOP. :) thanks!

@tellmeaboutatime
I understand that backstock issue! My back room team/culture is the same way so I find overstock all the time and have to go put it in the back for backstock. I don't feel bad (at all) when I do that on closing nights!
 
My back room team/culture is the same way so I find overstock all the time and have to go put it in the back for backstock. I don't feel bad (at all) when I do that on closing nights!

Have you had that conversation with your Backroom TL?
 
At wally we don't push anything if there will be partial backstock.. Overstocking does happen ocassionally though with some individuals who try and cram it all in.... Sure I'll flex maybe ONE can over if I have a single extra but thats about it.. ;)
 
My back room team/culture is the same way so I find overstock all the time and have to go put it in the back for backstock. I don't feel bad (at all) when I do that on closing nights!

Have you had that conversation with your Backroom TL?

No, but I should. Not a conversation I look forward to as I find most of the logistics TLs at my store frightening. meh.
 
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